On the Road 8 x 30; 24 x 7

11-23-2004 Fishin', Food and Floods

I cleaned up the dishes and put on Ian Tyson (a genuine Canadian Cowboy folk singer and balladeer.) He always makes me think of my dear friend, Marilynn, in Austin and the great times we shared at Kerrville Folk Festival so I called her around 10:30 a.m. It was great to hear her voice. She gave me the lowdown on the David Lindley/John Hiatt dual concert she attended recently. I felt bad she had to go by herself but she said it was heaven.

She also told me a tornado hit Bastrop yesterday and a lady at crossroads Animal Hospital where Marilynn works lost her barn roof. And the new RV Park along the Colorado River on Hwy 71 in Bastrop completely flooded. All of the RVs are under water with no way out. When Bob and I saw where they built that place we knew it spelled trouble. San Antonio, Houston, Austin and Dallas/Ft. Worth are all flooding. I signed off and told Marilynn I would see her soon as we're heading to Texas.

I showered and got my fishing rod out to join Bob for a few hours. We just walked around the lake and fished from the bank. I caught one lousy three-inch blue gill and missed two strikes. The sun peaked out and we saw blue skies for about 15 minutes, then the clouds returned. I met Bob on the other side of the lake. He caught two nice bass on the fly rod by the dam; one was around three pounds.

Three mountain bikers came zooming by on the paved lake trail practicing for Saturday's "Big Dog Trail Run" to be held here. A Class A motor home pulled in and stopped in the same pull-thru site we stopped in yesterday to check out the place. They drove on down the circle so I assumed they would be camped by us but I couldn't see what site they chose from my vantage point around the bend in the lake. That would make five of us here. But when we got back to our site they were no where to be seen. Who knows?!

Bob cleaned up and we headed to town for lunch around 2:30. We tried to find Zach's at I-20 and Hwy 33 but never saw it. Admittedly it was hard to see anything in such a driving rain and thunderstorm that blew in as soon as we got out to the highway. There were tornado warnings a few counties south of here. We kept on going to Monjuni's Italian downtown. We parked by the front and ducked under a shared umbrella to the front door. A sign on the door said: Closed today only for repairs." So we ran in the heavy rain and lightening back to the truck, waiting for the traffic to clear that had backed up from the passing train.

We took Georgia Street (Hwy 33) back to where we started. We found the Dallas Morning News at the Shell station. A big bolt of lightening and clap of thunder hit just as I stepped out of the truck to get the paper. I jumped five feet. We went a block or so down to Log Cabin Mesquite Grill and rain through the rain under our shared umbrella to the front door. The sign said "Mon-Fri, closed 2-4." So we ran back to the truck, yes in the rain. We drove straight to a recently opened Chili's that we passed earlier trying to avoid a chain when there are so many local eateries. If only they were open!

We sat in Chili's parking lot, which was a flowing stream it was raining so hard, waiting for it to slack off. Finally we just made a dash for it under our umbrella which mostly just dumped sheets of water down our sleeves. Safely inside we ordered lunch at last. I had Chicken Pita and Bob had Lettuce Wraps with Enchilada Soup. The rain had slackened by the time we finished.

We decided to go north on Hwy 167 to Vienna (Veye enna, according to Blue Hogg) looking for Deep South Antiques (not open) and another one we never did find. We took 3072 east back to Hwy 33 and our RV Park. That was an alternate route that we could have used on our move from Hampton but we were unsure of the road with The Beauty on the back. Turns out we could have used it and cut off some mileage. But you hate to take chances with 30-plus foot of trailer and 11,000 pounds.

Back home we read the paper and saw flooding in Bastrop on the front page. It is still raining hard here. We watched NCIS. On the screen they flashed tornado and thunderstorm warnings for all surrounding counties. At 8:00 we turned the TV off to read. Bob says "What's that noise?" It sounds like a motor running outside or a train. We open the door to investigate. Now it is really loud. We get flashlights and walk down to the lake. Water is coming over the embankment from the catch-pond behind the lake. I'm talking tons of water; a huge waterfall is cascading into the lake about 50 yards from our front door. We walk to the other side after slithering down the bank from our campsite.

It is pitch black out and the water is foamy white. We're looking at the water rise and looking at the trailer sitting about ten or twelve feet up on the bank above the lake level. I'm thinking no sleep tonight. Bob scares the hell out of me by walking up the steep bank alongside where the waterfall is flowing over the top. We scurry back to our campsite and walk down the road to see if the hunters are sitting out. Lo and behold a huge 5th wheel had pulled in across the road from us since we came home earlier. We never heard them with the noisy rain.

Nobody was out in the cluster of three RVs down by the hunters. I was hoping to ask them if they had been here before and whether they had ever seen the water coming over the top like that. We went down the bank to the lake to look at the stationary dock we had been fishing off of today. Water is almost covering it completely. We guessed the lake had come up six inches already. No sleep tonight.

Back home I called the RV Park phone number and got a recording saying after 8:00 p.m. to call the Sheriff's office in an emergency. I saved the number just in case we have a real live emergency here. I really just wanted to ask someone who was familiar with the park whether it was normal for this waterfall thing to be happening. The dam is on the opposite end of the lake, and the dam is well below our campsite. So I kept telling myself it was highly unlikely the water level could rise to our campsite.

Okay, we had a fire in Iowa and now flooding in Louisiana. What's next? An earthquake in California? Bob is calmly reading. I may never be calm again. It's funny but things like this hardly got my attention when we lived in a brick and mortar. Somehow I feel so much more vulnerable out here.