Summer Adventures

JUNE 27
My family was evacuated from the RV park today due to rising water
level. (The lake is VERY full. In fact, the parking lot at the marina
is completely underwater.) However, they could not drive the RV out
of the park because the road is in bad shape after all of the recent
rain. So, they gathered up their belongings and headed south (to
Houston), and left the RV sitting there to float away to a happy
place. Life at the "lakehouse" is never dull.

JUNE 30 The adventures continue...
Today my parents returned to the campground. My dad waded through
waist deep water (phone in pocket-oops) to get into the park so he could get the raft from
the motorhome. Then he rafted across to the marina to pick up my mom,
who (understandably) didn't want to wade through the waist deep water.
When I talked to them they were rafting back across the cove to clean
out the sewer line at the motorhome. (That I don't envy...) All in
all, this has turned into a very memorable summer for my family. I'm
pretty sure my parents think they're teenagers again, with all these
adventures in the creek and what not. Needless to say, I'm entirely
jealous. :)

JULY 1
When Jenny and I went to visit the lakehouse today, we had 3 options for getting into the park.... a hiking trail from a nearby neighborhood, a rubber raft from the marina side, or a "skif and rope" contraption across what is now chin-deep water at the park entrance. I'm almost sure my parents are living in lower Arkansas at this point, when these are our options for coming to visit. We did manage to get everyone safely into the park, including Granddad! Half of the park is underwater now, since the lake is 17' above normal, but so far all of the RVs are on high enough ground. Ours happens to be on the highest point in the park. In fact, Searge (USMC) has calculated that the lake is still 12' below its highest recorded level, and we are likely above that point... so there is no real chance of it floating away! My parents have become acquainted with all of the locals in the park. There's Dick (known as Dale), Darren (known as Searge), and Marlon (known as Nick), among others. Evidently all of the full-timers have 2 names. Who knew? Around 3:00 they called a community meeting to discuss emergency evacuation procedures... as I said before, life at the lakehouse is NEVER dull!

JULY 3 (Email update from mom...)
You are all welcome at the lake house on the 4th and I think that you'll be able to access it!! Who knows though. There were two more low places on our driveway (besides the one that's already flooded over) and now one of them is probably 6 inches under water and the other place has water on the road . . . Jenny will definitely have to come out to do a photo update . . . the circular road inside the park has water on it in one place. But we are high and dry. Beau ( the graphics guy with the brown bus has moved up by us where the "hunting" trailer was (his employees). They put the hunting trailer in with Kim's trailer next to us. Marlon (also known as Nick) . . . with the string of lights down by the water view . . . moved up this morning by the high side bathrooms. Anyway, Ben moved the rubber raft to the marina with our boat. So as long as the marina stays open you can get there. But Lauren knows how to hike in :)

Be sure to check out my web album on the previous post!