Memorial Weekend

After a difficult week it is nice to get away for a few days. What was even more awesome was to find that Lake Arbuckle and the surrounding ponds and streams are full or almost full after a 2-year drought. It seemed that the Oklahoma City area was getting lots and lots of rain this year - somewhere around 17" a couple of weeks ago and the Sulphur area only had received about 7". Now two weeks later the city is up to 19" and Sulphur is at 13". Wow.

On Thursday morning we had lots of storms rolling though so we waited those out and then headed south to Cedar Blue. Driving through the Davis area we saw what looked like show drifts in the ditches which turned out to be piles of hail from storms on Wednesday and Thursday. Hail and very high winds had hit the area so we saw lots of tree limbs and leaves on the ground but not much other damage thank goodness. That afternoon we drove through the Chickasaw National Recreation Area and down to Lake Arbuckle and were pleasantly surprised to find water in Little Niagara, the lake had risen nearly 3 feet and all the ponds were full and overflowing. 

This photo of the lake shows far less 'beach' then what there was two weeks ago which is a good thing.

Here is water flowing over one of the dams in the park that has been bone dry.  After two years it was great to see and hear the water flowing.

John and Bailey are standing on top of Little Niagara and water is flowing.  It will take a while for the pond below to completely fill up but it's a start.






 This is the fishing dock in the pond near our RV lot.  Two weeks ago it was just about dried up and the dock was on dry ground.  Wow - now it is over full!







 Finally, the buffalo with their babies were in the viewing area in the park.  I have been trying to find them for our last two trips down and no luck.  There are four babies and many of the others were babies last year.





We ended the day with a beautiful sunset. 

I want to thank all our veterans and soldiers for their service to our country on this Memorial Weekend.  Thanks to you we have our freedom.  Our prayers continue to go out to those that were affected by the storm in Moore, Shawnee and other areas in Oklahoma. 

May 20th Tornado

May 20, 2013 will never be forgotten - just added to the memories of May 3, 1999.  Our prayers go out to all the people affected by this storm and especially to those that lost loved ones.

Our weather forecasters had been telling us for days that we had some days coming up that had the potential to be bad and I have learned to respect their warnings.  We lived for 16 years in Moore one block from Briarwood Elementary and the tornadoes just seemed to be getting closer and closer to our home.  They seemed to have been following a similar path over Moore for years and just kept moving a few blocks south each time.  After the May 3rd tornado we finally put a tornado shelter in our garage floor and used it many times.  In all those years we were fortunate in that we never took a hit. In January 2012 we sold our home to move into our RV and moved into an RV park that sits between Newcastle, Bridge Creek and Blanchard where these tornadoes seem to get started or start to get ramped up as they head into the Moore area.

On the morning of May 20th I was supposed to be volunteering at a hospital in Oklahoma City with Bailey doing pet therapy.  However, since we lived in an RV I was not prepared to be away from it as we still had another dog to think about and they were reporting that these storms could start ramping up about 2 pm.  Typically I would have been driving to the Newcastle area at about 3:30 pm.  Regardless of which route I took to get home I would have been driving down either I-35 through Moore or I-44 into Newcastle at the time the storm was coming through and it crossed both of those highways.  I made the decision to stay home and stay tuned to the weather.  Sometime after 2 pm they reported that a large hook was developing over Bridge Creek and within minutes they were reporting a tornado warning.  This was so close to our RV park it was eerie.  Even though I had all our to-go stuff in the car, this really seemed to come much faster than usual.  John was at work so I was on my own.  I grabbed the girls and headed for the tornado shelter in the park.  Our little battery operated radio worked great in there and the weather folks were giving us block by block details of where this tornado was.  They reported where it first touched town and it was about 4 miles due north of where we were so I knew we were in the clear and headed back to the RV. 

At that point I had no idea where it crossed I-44 from Newcastle but watched in horror with tears streaming down my face at this monster was heading into Moore.  Names of all the folks we know were going through my mind as this thing churned east over home after home after home as well as schools.  This was gut wrenching to watch when you know so many people and knew they were losing everything and hoping it wasn't their lives as well.  John's son's home was right behind Veterans Park which was destroyed  but with tornadoes you never know whether the homes close by are gone or not until you an either see the neighborhoods from the air or get through to them by phone or text.

As the storm passed and we started to see pictures of the two elementary schools the feeling is almost indescribable.  You feel some guilt in knowing that all of your things were spared.  We had no power for almost 4 hours and therefore no way of checking on our friends and family.  I couldn't even get through to John to let him know we were okay and hoped he could figure that out.  John actually was able to get home before the power came back on so when it did my first point of business was to get an email out to our friends and family out of state that we were fine.  John's son, Paul, got in touch with us and we found out that his family and home had been missed by about a block and they were in their shelter during this.  Now for the text messages to our friends with hope the replies back would not only come but would come with good news.

Unfortunately nearly 4,000 homes destroyed in all the Oklahoma storms we knew several folks who lost everything.  Two of the couples we know lost their homes but were fortunate in that their homes didn't come completely down so they were actually able to rescue several items and cars.  One of them actually was able to move into a small apartment in a double wide in the park we live in.  The owners of the park immediately made it known to shelters that they had three places for families that were displaced to move into.  The other couple was contacted by a friend that had a rental home for them at now cost.  Rental property is going to go very very fast with so many families without homes.  I doubt there are enough rentals to help them all and it will take at least a couple of years for homes to be rebuilt. 

With the bad storms in Texas and the many areas this past week that were destroyed in Oklahoma finding reputable contractors and supplies is going to be difficult and will take a lot of time.  For those that had insurance the costly things to replace are vehicles.  So many are upside down and do not have gap insurance, or they didn't have a loan and now will have to.  It has been amazing to watch how fast help has arrived though.  From donations of money and items to electricity getting fixed and so forth.  I just pray that the city will provide the funds to clear off the foundations so the families do not have to deal with that as well.  I also pray that folks will be attuned to the scammers. 

And finally, yes, our old home is completely gone.  It is sad to know that the home we built and lived in for 16 years no longer exists and I feel so sorry for the young couple that purchased it.  I just hope they were either at work or in the shelter when it was hit and that they have a place to go.

I was contacted by the organization that Bailey and I are certified through to go to work with our comfort dogs but unfortunately, Bailey is very small and doesn't tolerate the heat well so she was not able to help at this point as all their work was outside.  We did, however, go to the hospital and visit some of the hospitalized victims and their families and had good visits.  Bailey and I actually just sat on the floor in the hallway with one victim's husband and talked for a long time while Bailey lay between us and he was able to pet her.  I am hoping that maybe they will actually get into some of the areas that are inside where workers and victims are coming for assistance which would be a great place for Bailey to work. 

Please continue to pray for everybody involved including all the rescue workers, the insurance people that have showed up in mass and all the volunteers that are working so hard. 

Mother's Day Weekend

It's Mother's Day weekend and the weather is glorious.  We waited to head to Sulphur until Friday morning because of potential storms on Thursday evening.  No point in driving in those!  When we arrived I saw that our rose bushes had popped and were beautiful.  I love these because you just can't kill them.

We enjoyed a quiet Friday in the park walking the dogs, baking and reading.  We headed into town for our date night and had Chinese at a nice little restaurant.  The place is very clean and the food is always good and you definitely cannot beat the price - $7.55 for adults for all you can eat and less than $2 for a beverage.  Wow.  I got tired of watching the Sonic ads for the 25 flavors of shakes so we stopped at Sonic for dessert and I ordered a Peanut Butter and Hot Fudge shake - yum.

 

Once home we started a campfire and John turned on his Pandora and ran it through our outdoor entertainment center on the RV and we listened to slow jazz which was awesome while enjoying the fire.  As you can see the girls enjoyed the hammock with Dad as well.  They are definitely Daddy's girls when he is around.

Saturday is another great day and we have avoided projects for the most part.  We took the girls down to the lake (Arbuckle) and walked around the shoreline.  April (the puppy) decided to wade into the water a bit and all of a sudden did her bounding thing that she does only she bounded deeper into the water instead of the shore and there she was swimming for her life to get out.  It was absolutely hilarious but I think it scarred her to death.  She didn't wade again the rest of the walk.  But she loved the shore -- digging and running.  Bailey was on a mission smelling all the smells she could take in along the waterline.  She loves to wade but isn't much interested in swimming.

We headed into the Chickasaw National Recrecreation Area to see if the buffalo were out in the viewing area but alas no luck and I brought my camera.  I found out the walking trail around their area is 1.9 miles and it circles 87 acres which amazed me.  I had no idea there were that many acres inside that trail.  No wonder they can hide all the time.  Anyway, they have four babies this year so I would really like to get photos of them before they get too big. 


Saturday afternoon I was able to get the hummingbirds in flight while laying on the hammock reading under one of our feeders.  They don't seem to be bothered when we are laying right under them.  So far I have only seen a total of two of them (upper right picture) and we typically have 4-5.  They are amazing birds.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL YOU MOTHERS

 

RV Life in Tornado Alley

Now that I think winter is over, at least we haven't had temps in the 30's for over a week now, we are headed into storm season in Oklahoma.  The storms are ramping up now so all eyes are on the weather maps and sky.  I need to tell you that I truly hate wind. 

Both the place where we park our RV in Newcastle as well as at our lot in Sulphur have canopies that we park under which is great protection from hail, snow and ice.  It's also nice when it is raining.  But if the wind is approaching 60 mph we know we probably need to get out from under the canopy and of course if tornadoes are in the area we definitely need to get to some type of storm shelter.  Yes, we have a weather radio with an alarm that goes off.  Our RV's main radio also has a weather band on it.

So in preparation for these nasty storms I have a tornado to-go bag with a list on my phone of things that need to go in it.  We also have two carry cases for our girls as those are required in shelters.  I always try to have the bag ready to go in case we have to leave quickly and it includes things like bottled water, snacks, water for the dogs, medications, phone chargers, keys, computer, purse, battery operated fan, small lantern, etc. 

In the park in Newcastle we have a large tornado shelter.  It is a refer box off a semi that the owner used to drive and it's sunk into the side of a hill.  We did get into it a couple of times last year but not so far this year.  Our park is in a fairly deep gulley near two major highways and it is heavily treed.  So usually the wind in the park is far less than what is happening up on the hills around us and most of the tornadoes and bad storms follow one of the two highways and miss us.  But that doesn't mean we get lax in keeping our eye on the storms. 

In the park in Sulphur the shelters are way too small for the number of people that are typically in the park on the weekends.  In 15 years, however, we have only had to leave the RV one time and the rain was coming down so hard we had a horrible time driving to the shelter as we could hardly see the road and when we got near to it we realized there was no way we would find it if we got out of our vehicle so we just sat and prayed that all would pass over without a tornado.

Last night we had a major rain storm come over with predictions of high winds and hail.  So I put our to-go bag and dog carriers in the car and then I sat at the dining table with our weather station readout in front of me keeping a close eye on the wind.  Prayers were answered and all we got was a lot of badly needed rain but no hail or wind.  Tonight we had planned to drive to Sulphur for the weekend but it seems there may be more storms coming in so we plan to stay put for the evening and make the drive in the morning.

It would be so nice if we can get into June without having to head for the tornado shelter this year.  I know we can still get tornadoes in June but they are far less likely than in May.  I cannot wait until we can be someplace else in the country in April through June where tornadoes are not typical.