Myrtle Beach and Lightning

Well we have enjoyed the last few days of wonderful sunshine, reading on the beach, playing cards and going to dinner with our neighbors, who have been coming here longer than we have, and just having a wonderful relaxed time. Today (Wednesday) started off with me going to Curves and Jim and I going to the grocery store. By the time we got back to the motorhome it was starting to cloud up. We walked the dogs real quick and decided to read indoors until the clouds passed over. Next thing we knew a terrific thunderstorm came through with thundering and lightning. I was laying on the couch reading when I heard what sounded like a machine gun going off. I looked out the window and my neighbor had a ball of fire and then lots of smoke coming from their motorhome and then everyone's power went off. I realized it got hit by lightning and Jim thought we did too. He called our neighbor Jack to see if he was alright and he said he was but he got all kinds of sparks and smoke in the motorhome. Jim told him what I saw happen to the top of his motorhome and he said he was still in the process of making sure he wasn't on fire inside. Meanwhile Jim started checking all of the systems in our motorhome and one by one everything started working except the air conditioning. By this time we had quite a crowd of folks out in the street that saw the hit and came over to see what happened. Jim discovered the circuit board outside to our air conditioner got fried. You know Jim - he went right into action to get things fixed. He called the company that makes the circuit boards and they are going to overnight deliver us a new circuit board tomorrow. Meanwhile Jim discovered the thermostat inside the motorhome was blown and called Camper's World and they have the part so he left right away before they closed to get that. Our neighbor Jack called his insurance company and they are sending someone over tomorrow - nothing in their motorhome works. Jack thinks all the wiring in his motorhome to include his computer is fried. He thinks he'll be getting a new motorhome because he won't trust the wiring system after this. After the rain stopped, I looked up at the top of Jack's motorhome where I saw the ball of fire and saw that his CB antenna was totally burnt up. Jim thinks the sparks Jack saw inside was probably his CB wires burning. So to say the least, we have had an exciting afternoon today. Thankfully no one was hurt but at least 3 of our motorhomes took some kind of hit with Jack getting it the worst. I feel so bad for them - they just got in yesterday from PA and their kids are coming in this weekend. They may have to leave for home tomorrow or at least get a motel room for the week the kids are here and then go home. They were so looking forward to a month at the beach. Hopefully tomorrow we can get back to relaxing on the beach! Until later........