Sunday, September 7 – Saturday, September 13, 2008
Sunday, September 7
For some reason we were both awake early this morning…way before anyone else in the house was stirring. We went downstairs and checked our computers…read emails, online news, etc. At some point I decided to go back upstairs and go back to sleep.
When I got up again around 9:00 I found that everyone else was stirring…Carol was fixing another wonderful breakfast. We ate and then started the process of getting five people ready to go to church. Since the service didn’t begin until 11:30 we had plenty of time (we thought), but still managed to just barely make it on time.
We attended the Bandera Road Community Church with the kids and enjoyed a wonderful sermon…had a little problem with the music (too much like a very loud rock concert), but the message on marriage building and maintenance was worth the wait.
After church we went to Golden Corral for lunch and then back to the house to while away the afternoon. Carol and Randi took some time to go to Carol’s mother’s house to water the plants and Barbara and I left for a bit to go gas up the car and make a little side trip to a Dollar Tree store that we found along the way.
The evening was a quiet one…John and I watched TV and the girls played games until it was time for all of us to call it a day and go to bed. Just as I snapped this photo, Barbara rolled a Yahzee (5 3's) to take the lead. She had lost 3 straight games so she was hopeful her luck had turned!
Monday, September 8
We woke up about 4:30 this morning…don’t know why, but we were both wide awake, so we went downstairs to finish up last week’s journal and blog entry and get them on their way. In fact, we were actually glad that we were early birds today since otherwise we wouldn't have gotten to give Carol another good-bye. She has to leave around 5:30 to get to work on time. She is a nurse working in an office in downtown San Antonio, so she has at least a 30-minute commute on the best of days.
Randi got up just after Carol left. A typical teenage girl, she needs plenty of time to get ready before leaving for her school around 7:15. I told her I was going to go back to bed and get some more sleep,
gave her a goodbye hug, and went back upstairs to sleep until 8:00, while Barbara used her time to visit with Randi and get a few last minute pictures.
By that time, John was up and around, having already taken Randi to school. Today was one of the three days each week that he gets to work from the house, so he didn’t have to do a lot to get ready for his workday.
We packed the car, said our goodbyes, and left the house at 9:00 to begin our journey back to Lake Hawkins. There’s not much to say about driving 6 ½ hours except that it was relatively uneventful…just a couple of “necessary” stops and then back on the road.
When we got to Tyler, we decided that rather than going to Mineola and checking in with everyone, we’d just go on back to the lake and move Big V to a new site. We were going to have to move tomorrow anyway, and thought that we might as well get it over with this evening and not have to worry about it tomorrow…a wise decision as we found out later.
Barbara moved Big V around the park to our new site while I brought the last of the items up from the old one. It didn’t take long to get everything set up and in place for the next 8 days…soon we were ready to drive in to Mineola, go to the post office, and check in at Mother’s house and then at T.J.’s. By 7:30 we were back home in Big V and settled down for a relaxing evening.
Tuesday, September 9
We had vowed last night that we were going to sleep until 10:00 this morning, but around 4:30 I woke up to the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. The distance soon got closer, and at 5:00, after hearing rain drops starting to beat their tattoo on the roof, I got up. Anticipating wind along with the rain, I tried to close the awning, but it was too late…the awning was already too heavy to move. I made enough noise that Barbara was soon up and we watched the situation unfold into a major storm.
The new site slopes upward on the passenger side of Big V and downward on the driver side. It didn’t take long until we were watching little rivers come down from the road to form a lake on the concrete pad and then drain off in big rivers to the area below us. There was nothing we could do about the awning…just hope that it would act as it was supposed to and lower one end to drain all the water that was pouring onto it (and it did). In fact, the rain came down so hard and fast that the entire awning folded in the middle (running lengthwise) and the water gushed out of both ends. The bottom middle photo shows this.
We even had the idea that we could go outside and wash the car and Big V and then have a rainwater rinse, but when Barbara tested the waters (literally), she declared that it was just too cold and not worth the effort. We formulated a new plan…when the rain stops, we’ll get all the washing materials and equipment out of the bin and set them in a handy place; then, we’ll get our cycle rain suits out and put them on to go out and do the wash the next time it rains. Okay…so it’s a plan!
With a plan in place, we retired to our respective corners and whiled away the rest of a grey, rainy morning. Barbara used part of the time to take a few pictures of what was happening around our site.
By a little after 2:00 p.m. the rain tapered off and then quit. We decided around 3:00 to go out and take a look at the park to see how it had survived the storm. The beach was badly eroded, with long gashes in the sand where the water had come down out of the park and cut gullies. It was obvious that the lake level had risen, because we couldn’t see any space between the floors of boat houses and the top of the lake. These pictures show two boathouses after a rain in September when we THOUGHT the water level had risen, and the same boathouses today after a 6-inch rain. Sunday, September 7
For some reason we were both awake early this morning…way before anyone else in the house was stirring. We went downstairs and checked our computers…read emails, online news, etc. At some point I decided to go back upstairs and go back to sleep.
When I got up again around 9:00 I found that everyone else was stirring…Carol was fixing another wonderful breakfast. We ate and then started the process of getting five people ready to go to church. Since the service didn’t begin until 11:30 we had plenty of time (we thought), but still managed to just barely make it on time.
We attended the Bandera Road Community Church with the kids and enjoyed a wonderful sermon…had a little problem with the music (too much like a very loud rock concert), but the message on marriage building and maintenance was worth the wait.
After church we went to Golden Corral for lunch and then back to the house to while away the afternoon. Carol and Randi took some time to go to Carol’s mother’s house to water the plants and Barbara and I left for a bit to go gas up the car and make a little side trip to a Dollar Tree store that we found along the way.
The evening was a quiet one…John and I watched TV and the girls played games until it was time for all of us to call it a day and go to bed. Just as I snapped this photo, Barbara rolled a Yahzee (5 3's) to take the lead. She had lost 3 straight games so she was hopeful her luck had turned!
Monday, September 8
We woke up about 4:30 this morning…don’t know why, but we were both wide awake, so we went downstairs to finish up last week’s journal and blog entry and get them on their way. In fact, we were actually glad that we were early birds today since otherwise we wouldn't have gotten to give Carol another good-bye. She has to leave around 5:30 to get to work on time. She is a nurse working in an office in downtown San Antonio, so she has at least a 30-minute commute on the best of days.
Randi got up just after Carol left. A typical teenage girl, she needs plenty of time to get ready before leaving for her school around 7:15. I told her I was going to go back to bed and get some more sleep,
gave her a goodbye hug, and went back upstairs to sleep until 8:00, while Barbara used her time to visit with Randi and get a few last minute pictures.By that time, John was up and around, having already taken Randi to school. Today was one of the three days each week that he gets to work from the house, so he didn’t have to do a lot to get ready for his workday.
We packed the car, said our goodbyes, and left the house at 9:00 to begin our journey back to Lake Hawkins. There’s not much to say about driving 6 ½ hours except that it was relatively uneventful…just a couple of “necessary” stops and then back on the road.
When we got to Tyler, we decided that rather than going to Mineola and checking in with everyone, we’d just go on back to the lake and move Big V to a new site. We were going to have to move tomorrow anyway, and thought that we might as well get it over with this evening and not have to worry about it tomorrow…a wise decision as we found out later.
Barbara moved Big V around the park to our new site while I brought the last of the items up from the old one. It didn’t take long to get everything set up and in place for the next 8 days…soon we were ready to drive in to Mineola, go to the post office, and check in at Mother’s house and then at T.J.’s. By 7:30 we were back home in Big V and settled down for a relaxing evening.
Tuesday, September 9
We had vowed last night that we were going to sleep until 10:00 this morning, but around 4:30 I woke up to the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. The distance soon got closer, and at 5:00, after hearing rain drops starting to beat their tattoo on the roof, I got up. Anticipating wind along with the rain, I tried to close the awning, but it was too late…the awning was already too heavy to move. I made enough noise that Barbara was soon up and we watched the situation unfold into a major storm.
The new site slopes upward on the passenger side of Big V and downward on the driver side. It didn’t take long until we were watching little rivers come down from the road to form a lake on the concrete pad and then drain off in big rivers to the area below us. There was nothing we could do about the awning…just hope that it would act as it was supposed to and lower one end to drain all the water that was pouring onto it (and it did). In fact, the rain came down so hard and fast that the entire awning folded in the middle (running lengthwise) and the water gushed out of both ends. The bottom middle photo shows this.
We even had the idea that we could go outside and wash the car and Big V and then have a rainwater rinse, but when Barbara tested the waters (literally), she declared that it was just too cold and not worth the effort. We formulated a new plan…when the rain stops, we’ll get all the washing materials and equipment out of the bin and set them in a handy place; then, we’ll get our cycle rain suits out and put them on to go out and do the wash the next time it rains. Okay…so it’s a plan!With a plan in place, we retired to our respective corners and whiled away the rest of a grey, rainy morning. Barbara used part of the time to take a few pictures of what was happening around our site.
While we were down at the beach, we noticed a loud roaring noise and saw what we thought was smoke coming up intermittently over in the far corner of the earthen dam. I said I thought it was probably a diesel engine running a pump to help drain the lake. Later, we found out from John, the RV park manager, that what we really heard was the roar of the water as it drained into an underground spillway; what we thought was smoke was the spray flying back up because of the air and water mix that couldn’t move smoothly into the spillway. We later learned from John that the spillway wasn’t designed to drain that much water at one time; it normally just moved excess water created by the slow-feeding underground springs.We later drove to Hawkins to buy some things for tonight’s dinner, taking the road along the other side of the lake. As we passed the spot where the spillway runs under the road, we noticed the plumes of spray and water draining into Little Sandy Creek. It was then that we started wishing we had brought the camera with us, and decided that when we got back to Big V, we’d grab it and come back to take some pictures.
A little farther down the road we saw a boathouse with the water rising well above the threshold; again, another shot missed. Not only that, there was a crane standing beside the boathouse, surveying the area…guess we need a second camera just to keep in the car for these Kodak moments!
After buying a few groceries and returning to Big V, we went back out with the camera to get some of the shots we missed the first time around.
The center shot in this collage shows what appears to be a two-story boathouse. A closer look will show that the gray section at the bottom is really the reflection in the water. The water level is above the threshold of the doors!
The top photos show the beach area from the side of the lake across from the RV park, and the other shots are of the spill way and the head of Little Sandy Creek.After all the excitement of the day, we had a very quiet evening…fixed supper and just lounged around Big V proud that we had moved yesterday and not today!
Wednesday, September 10
Just a lazy time around our place…we whiled away the morning and then rode in to Mineola for lunch with the family. Cousin Angela prepared the meal today and we ate at her house…Angela, Ladd, T.J., Mother, Ernie, Billee, Barbara, and me…lots of talking and great food!
After lunch we went over to Mother’s house for a short visit and then returned to Big V for the afternoon and evening.
Thursday, September 11
It was another slow morning. I had been awake from 12:45 until 5:45…slept until after 9:00 when I finally dropped off (but it wasn’t wasted time…I finished my second book in two days).
Barbara fixed a great breakfast and then we went for a walk around the park…finally saddled up the motorcycle and rode to Mineola to get the mail and visit with Mother, Ernie, and Billee for a few minutes. Then, it was a quick stop at Wal-Mart for a few groceries before riding back to the lake.
After supper we just cooled our heels…Barbara took a short nap and then came out and worked at her computer…I worked on the journal and we both listened to this week’s Artesia Bulldogs football game. The ‘Dogs went to Albuquerque this week to face a tough Manzano High School team and had their hands full as they took their first loss of the season at the hands of the “big kids” by a score of 38 – 24. Oh, well, the upside of it is that they no longer have the pressure of having to achieve a perfect season.
Friday, September 12
With two major events fast upon us, (Hurricane Ike approaching with us in the center of its inland path and us leaving for a six-week trip to Virginia next Wednesday), we figured we’d better get in gear.
First on the “must do” list was to gather up all our dirty clothes and head for the laundromat in Hawkins. We were lucky to find only a couple of ladies in there, so there were enough machines to meet our needs. Once everything was out of the washers and in the driers, we left for a few minutes to take some pictures that we had been meaning to take since the first time we came to Hawkins.
There are few small towns in Texas that don’t have some kind of memorial for local or area veterans, and Hawkins is no exception. In their case, they have the Greater Hawkins Area Veterans Memorial Park, a beautiful setting that memorializes military and maritime veterans of the Hawkins area. The wall of honor has hundreds of names engraved on it, and each May the names of those veterans who have died in the past 12 months are added. The logos for each of the armed services and the Merchant Marines are also engraved on the wall.
In addition to the marble wall are three flagpoles for the United States Flag, the Texas Flag, and the MIA/POW Flag.
Notice in the collage that even this turtle seemed to be standing in reverent respect as it faced the lake and the gunship.
Set apart from the memorial wall is a small lake with an AH-1 armed attack helicopter mounted so it appears to be hovering above it. This particular helicopter was from the line of the world’s first armor and close support/attack helicopter group. The tours of duty for this helicopter included Vietnam (1970 – 1973) as a Cobra Gunship for both the 7th and 8th Armored Air Cavalries, in Alaska (1974 – 1978 for USAF Cold Weather Operations, in Germany (1979 – 1989) as a U.S. Army missile launcher, and in the U.S. (1995 – 1996) for the New Jersey Air National Guard. It was retired from active duty in 2002. In 2004, it was donated from the retired inventory at Fort Drum, New York, and donated to the Greater Hawkins Area Veterans Memorial Park.Located in a semi circle around the front of the lake are a series of metal plaques in the shape of the state of Texas. Each of the plaques is in remembrance of one of the major wars or conflicts in which the United States has been involved, beginning with the War for Independence. Each of the plaques also lists the name of a major donor to the park.
After walking around the park and taking the pictures we wanted, we made a brief stop at Sonic for breakfast and then went back to the laundromat to gather up the clothes. From there we traveled back to the lake to put everything away so we could get down to Lindale to get our hair cut (extremely important), and then go back to Mineola to visit with the family before heading back to the lake.Back at Big V, we started battening down the hatches in preparation for a visit from Hurricane Ike. We were situated square in the middle of the path of the storm,
which was predicted to be downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached Wood County, but could pack 40 – 50 mile per hour winds and drop 8 – 10 inches of rain. We wanted to be as ready as possible, so we parked the car and motorcycle as close to the front of Big V as we could and packed away all the outside stuff that could either be blown or washed away. We did learn a few things from the storm on Tuesday!Tonight…watched the news to try to get a handle on what might happen tomorrow.
Saturday, September 13
We were both up early this morning, but all there was to do was wait to see what might happen. We kept the TV on and shuffled through the channels to get the takes from different stations and networks. We had some intermittent sprinkles and a little more wind than usual, but at 9:30, it was nothing more than a lazy Saturday morning in a part of the state in which cloudy, breezy and rainy mornings are not so unusual; still, there is still that undercurrent of wondering where it was all heading.
Around noon, Barbara put on her rain gear and went out to check the conditions around the lake. When she got back, she said it was very windy with blowing rain down at the lakeside; but, where we were located, there was less wind and the rain was coming straight down. Along the way, she took these pictures to show what the lake looked like and how the land contours serve to give Big V, the Vibe, and the Voyager a higher degree of protection. Note in the center and upper right-hand pictures of the collage that the top of Big V is just barely visible over the top of the hill.
It started raining harder just a few minutes after 1:00; hard enough that we finally closed up the house and turned on the air conditioner. I decided that I would go to bed to read a while until the brunt of the storm hit. Just minutes after that grand decision, the power faltered several times and then went off. Since it wasn’t too bad outside, we decided to just let everything sit until we needed to fire up the generator.At 4:15 we decided to put on our rain suits and both go out for a walk. It was still raining, but not very hard, and the wind had died down quite a bit. As we got to the corner where we had parked when we first got to the park on August 1, Barbara yelled, “Look, look!” When I turned to where she was looking, I saw a huge pine tree that had blown down during one of the wind gusts. The tree had two trunks that were joined just above the point where it grew out of the ground, and it was stretched across the concrete pad and all the way across the road. Notice that the entire root system was pulled out of the soggy ground.
When we were looking for a site to be in this week, we looked first for a relatively clear area so we could have the best possible cell phone and broadband card. Another consideration was that we wanted to be where we would have the least chance of a tree falling on us. We do have trees beside the pad, but feel that they are well rooted in a good run-off zone, and we are away from where the wind whips up from the lake. Today we were very glad that we made the choice we did!Tonight…We just sat around and waited for the storm to get completely away from us. Electricity was finally restored right at 10:30...9 1/2 hours later!
“Patience is a virtue that carries a lot of wait.” – Church Signs
Soggy, but still standing…Jim & Barbara
