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. 

Bailey's Birthday and More

 

Today is Bailey's 3rd birthday so of course we had birthday cake for her!  Yes we are a bit crazy for our girls.  I'm sure you are all wondering about the cake and yes, it is a peanut butter cake with yogurt icing made from a cake mix for dogs.  I couldn't believe it myself but there they were in Mann's Best Friend pet store.  Red velvet, chocolate, carrot and peanut butter cake mixes.  They have a full doggy bakery so the paw cookies are from there as well.  Aren't the tiaras a nice touch?


Last night we were expecting to have severe storms here in Sulphur but watched OKC get hit instead.  We had absolutely no rain, wind or hail.  I was sorry to see that many folks in the city got pounded with hail.  While that was going on John and I and the girls were lying on our hammock under the stars enjoying a nice evening.  We watched a beautiful sunset and then the stars coming out while listening to the sweet sounds of our water fountain. 

Here are some pics of our little get away.  Today John put up a bunch more of the hurricane straps that we are continuing to add to the roof joints on our cover while I added some greenery to our new fountain and cleaned the front of the motorhome.  It's a continual job of cleaning dead bugs and bird poo from the windshield and front of the RV.  Our rose bushes are about ready to burst with color and I was hoping that would happen while we were here this weekend but not sure we will get the pleasure of seeing that.  They are full of buds ready to go. We definitely have the hummingbirds back.  They had emptied 2 of the 3 feeders since we were last here.  Well the sun has finally come out and we are going to take a walk on one of the trails in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area.  We saw that the herd of buffalo in the park have had little ones so we want to check them out.  Alas, we walked 1-2 miles around the area where the herd is kept but we never saw them.  Oh well, a good reason to take another walk around there on our next visit.

Our First Flat Tire

It's a quiet Sunday afternoon and we are still house and pet sitting for our friends so thought I would take time to share another story from our early RVing days with our fifth wheel. 

Tires rot from the inside out?  Really?  Nobody seems to tell first time RVers this type of information.  We kept our fifth wheel on our lot at Cedar Blue in Sulphur but did not have a cover over it.  Nor did we have covers on the tires.  So the sun and weather had their way with the the tires for some time.  These things cause the tires to rot from the inside out.  The silent killer so to speak as the tread looks great so you don't realize the tires are not in good shape.

We headed off for a trip to Carlsbad Caverns, Santa Fe and then home.  All went well until the day we were heading home from Santa Fe.  I was driving and shortly after getting onto Interstate 40 heading east to Oklahoma I heard what sounded like a shotgun blast.  Thankfully I didn't have any problem steering and pulled over immediately.  Lo and behold, we had blown a tire on the RV.  I had to admit, at that point I totally lost it and broke down in tears.  Of course John is cool as a cucumber.  He came prepared and out came a hydraulic jack.  Wow – where did he get that?  I pulled it together as I could see that John was working his way through this problem without any problem.  In about 15 minutes we had that tire changed!  Wow how awesome was that.  Of course now we are on the spare and have no other spare.  When we were finally headed down the road, the discussion went to where are we going to get another spare?  We at least realized that the RV had to have RV tires and we weren't going to find those just anywhere.  Add to the problem that it was Sunday and we realize we may not find anything open.  So the plan was to stop in Amarillo for the night if necessary.  I don’t think we drove more than 10 miles and there on the side of the road is a tire center for trucks and it is open.  We pulled off and, you guessed it, they had one RV tire in stock to fit our unit.  What a blessing. 

After getting the spare put on a wheel we were again headed toward home base – Sulphur, OK.    We traveled the majority of the way home without any further problems until five miles north of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma - BANG, there went another tire.  And again, in just a few minutes we had it changed.  Of course, now we are out of spare tires and have another 45 minutes of driving.  Decisions decisions – do we keep going or not?  Remember, it was Sunday and early evening.  Being so close to home base, we decided to take our chances and off we went.  We arrived safely and with no more blown tires. 

From that point forward we knew to carry an extra RV tire in the truck bed as well as the spare that was on a wheel.  Oh yes - and our big hydraulic jack! 

 

Our next big trip was to Disney World and we still had a couple of tires on the RV that had good tread and had not blown so we made the stupid decision to run them until they weren't good.  Wow how dumb was that.  Not only did we take a chance on hurting the RV but hurting others on the road.  What lead to the decision we made was that each time we blew a tire it was just a big bang, no steering problems and no damage so what could it hurt?  God was with us on that trip.  We had two good spares, one on a wheel and one in the truck bed.  We too two and half days to get to our destination and both evenings on the road about dinner time we blew a tire and just around the corner was a Walmart.  So we would change the tire and then have Walmart mount a new tire on a wheel.  When we arrived in Orlando we were out of spares but had all good rubber on the ground.  We did purchase two more spares before heading home but had no need for them, thank goodness. 

 

Now that we are in a large motorhome and cannot change those big hoggers ourselves, we have them checked out before we hit the road for wear and proper air pressure.  Oh yes - those big tires cost about $400 each and we have six of them so yes, we have a tire budget that is setup to buy new tires about every five years.

Helping Out Some Friends and Storms

Today I am writing about something a bit different but feel like sharing.  If you have been keeping up with our blogs you should remember that we had to put our RV into the shop for two weeks and go live with some friends.  Well while we were with this couple (Glenn and Priscilla Peer) Glenn was diagnosed with a very serious type of cancer.  So maybe it was God's design that we were there for them since John has had cancer.  We were able to give them some support since we understood what they were going through and we also provided them with a major distraction. 

Since that time they made the decision to go to MD Anderson for a second opinion and will be down there at least a week.  Well they have a large home with lots of plants, dogs and cats - oh yes and a bird.  So we moved back into their home with our girls on Tuesday and are taking care of the kingdom.  We have a bathtub for a few days and a real treat is they have a large hot tub in the back yard that is ready to go.  So we are loving on all the critters and enjoying their lovely home.

Please keep these dear folks in your prayers while they see the doctors.  We pray for some good news.

Last night lots of major storms rolled through the State and we stayed glued to the TV all night as they always seem to come through the Moore/SW Oklahoma city area where we were located and I truly hate wind.  Nothing like trying to round up 4 dogs and 2 cats plus ourselves into an interior closet if need be.  Yes, the closet is big enough for all of us and is buried in the middle of the house.  Tornadoes were hitting the ground in the Lawton area and lowerings were in Chickasha and headed toward the area where our RV is parked.  Then the sirens were sounded near there.  I looked at John and said well if we were home we would be headed for the tornado shelter at that point and yes I hear that about 12 others were there as well.  Where we are it just poured and poured, a short bit of small hail and wind occurred but the tornadoes, large hail and very high winds seemed to be north and south of us.  Thank goodness.  I think we had 2-3" of rain which we really needed for the continued long-term dought.  I had all our stuff in a pile near the hidey hole and kept the dogs in a confined area so they wouldn't be hard to round up but all was well and God protected us. 

I don't sit well during these storms so I did all our laundry which kept me up and down and hugging on Glenn and Priscillas' dogs and cats.  John felt sorry for them as they stay in the back area of the house but there is a TV back there so he turned it on for them and they really did seem to get some comfort from that. 

This morning it is very cool outside and once again winter seems to still be hanging on a bit.  Maybe by June we might see some consistently warm temperatures? 

I hope everybody has a great weekend.