Donald was on the internet around 9:30 AM and decided to check the weather on the internet on weather.com; then went to National Weather Service and checked the warnings for the area. A tornado was sited at Damascus and headed our way, projected to come over us at 9:50 AM. We called Carma and Gerald and asked them to go to take shelter with us at the bathhouse. Then we called Dean and Geraldine to come. By this time it was raining cats and dogs! The sky was yellow. We hung out in the ‘boys’ bathroom. The campground hosts, a young couple, and a young man from the electric company were all over in the girl’s bathroom. He heard on his radio that Damascus had been hit; also a tornado had touched down on Prior Mountain which is south and west of us. It’s the mountain we came down to get to the Narrows. We stayed at the bathhouse for approximately an hour. The electricity went out. We listened carefully for a ‘train’ sound but we never saw a tornado. We did have a few small hail stones. The weather system looked ominous, though. Finally the rain subsided and the sky began to clear. We heard from several folks on their cell phones that the electric power station that served Greer’s Ferry had been hit and that electricity was out everywhere. We also heard that tornadoes had touched down in Greer’s Ferry which is just across the bridge from us, and several areas between Greer’s Ferry and Drasco. DunnGone has a generator so we could have stayed, but Carma and Gerald and Dean and Geraldine were going home to get their generators. We decided to go home. Kay drove the truck pulling the boat for the first time. Donald was behind driving DunnGone. As we drove from Greer’s Ferry on Arkansas Highway 92 toward Drasco, neither of us could believe the damage we saw—trees down and broken, houses gone with foundations only remaining, trash in trees and on fences, barns slumping over, roofs gone, trailers awry, and power lines down everywhere. We were amazed how much help was already on site, clearing the road, power crews working on the downed lines and poles, neighbors helping neighbors. We were pretty pooped when we got home. We just checked the mail and crashed.

On Thursday morning, we made ham and biscuits for them when they came in from checking their lines. Everybody fishing seems to go out before 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning. We usually aren’t even up! Hehehehehe! On Thursday, we left mid-morning to drive to Bradford to see Donald’s dad, then to Little Rock for some shopping, and finally to Benton to meet Ron and Kaden, Kay’s son and grandson, respectively. We went to Chili’s for a quick supper and then on to the school for Kaden’s band concert. His 6th grade band played 4 songs. They did a good job. Kaden is going to band camp this summer, I think the week that Karyn is getting married. Kaden is 12 years old now and almost as tall as Kay. We came back to the Narrows that night.

We came back to the Narrows in the truck, pulling the boat. The camp site had not been used all winter, so pine straw and pollen were everywhere. Kay used the electric blower and rake to make the site neat and tidy, but took time out to ponder.

Kay made taco soup for Carma, Gerald, Dean, and Geraldine for supper on Tuesday or Wednesday. Geraldine is Gerald’s twin sister. We didn’t fish today, but Donald drives Gerald’s truck pulling the boat while Gerald sits in the boat, and together they get the boat in and out of the lake with Donald backing the trailer in and Gerald backing the boat off the trailer; we both help processing the fish they catch. Kay acted as gopher running between Gerald cleaning fish and Carma and Donald cleaning up the filets after they had been skinned and deboned every day. We roasted weiners by the fire and also roasted marshmallows.

We awoke to a beautiful morning at Maumelle Park. After our first coffee, we took a walk and noticed a restored old truck with wooden camper shell. During the walk we remarked on how pretty and clean Maumelle Park was, but decided to move to Narrows Campground on Greers Ferry Lake. After a breakfast of eggs, ham, and biscuit (we finally got our breakfast), we readied DunnGone for the short journey to Narrows Campground on Greer’s Ferry Lake.

We departed Maumelle Park at 11:00 AM, with Kay headed to do some minor shopping and me headed to Narrows Campground. We arrived about the same time, set up in a site that was designed backwards, i.e. electrical on the right and picnic table and firepit on left, so we just pulled in frontways. By doing this we were level as well. We hooked up everything, set up the satellite dish, paid our fees, and headed home to Norfork for the night to meet some other obligations.

Kay and I slept late, had our coffee, and drove to the nearest Wal-Mart for some groceries and a Sunday paper. Our breakfast plans were to have eggs, ham, and biscuits. Upon returning to DunnGone, my sister, Carma, called to say she and her husband, Gerald, were on their way to meet us to attend Uncle Bill Brady’s memorial service. Uncle Bill was married to Aunt Lucena for 58 years, and passed away April 21. Kay and I scrapped plans for breakfast and got dressed for the memorial service. Carma and Gerald met us at the campground, and we drove to Bismarck, stopping at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. The wait was untenable, so no food! We arrived at Uncle Francis’ place for a brief visit with he and Aunt Elsie. Uncle Francis is Dad’s 89 year old brother; his wife, Elsie, is 85. They were doing surprising well given their ages. We talked them into following us to cousin Steve’s place and paid our respects to Aunt Lucena, Steve, and Jan. It was the first time I had seen my first cousins, Steve and Jan, in over 20 years.  The
. The memorial service for their dad was very nice, held on Steve’s farm. Uncle Bill was a good man and loved the outdoors. During the memorial service we saw several mallards fly over, and saw a bald eagle flying away in the distance! Uncle Bill would have approved of the service. Following the service, we adjourned to the pole barn for sandwiches and visiting. Though it was a sad occasion, it was good to visit with Aunt Lucena, Dad’s youngest sister at 80 years old, Aunt Elsie, and Uncle Francis. Out of 11 adult brothers and sisters, Uncle Francis, Dad, and Aunt Lucena are the only ones left!

We awoke Saturday to another nice day. Maumelle is so close to city activities, but seems so far away with the Maumelle River flowing into the Arkansas River adjacent to the campground. The campground hosts many fulltimers making their way from Florida, Texas, and Arizona, as well as native fulltiming Arkansans returning "home" for medical appointments, visits with family, etc.

Kay had another full day of social activities. Her bookclub graciously hosted a wedding shower for Karyn this afternoon in Jacksonville and Karyn made away with lots of loot.

Our resident transient oriole made a couple of visits this afternoon, otherwise the campground was pretty quiet.

Kay returned to DunnGone about 7:30 p.m. and we were surprised with a visit from Ron and Ginger Hicks. Seems like we go a long time without seeing them, then we get to see them twice in a week. We sure wish they would come to DunnHill more!

What a great night’s sleep! We are so blessed to be able to sleep well in DunnGone (the name of our motorhome, in case you forgot). After a couple of cups of great French pressed coffee, we walked the entire campground, and it is spectacular. DunnGone was not on a premium site, but all sites in the park are well maintained with lots of space in between.

During our walk, we observed the many different motor homes and RVs and, of course, many different towed (toads) vehicles. We’re in the market for a toad and we are inherently interested in who’s driving what behind their motor homes. We salvaged (or is it scavenged) more wood for the phantom fire. As we returned to the camp site, Kay heard a songbird with a beautiful tune. It was an oriole–our first sighting of the season. They are so colorful, passing through our area the last couple weeks in April.
Seems like cities never change. We did a shopping trip in the big city of Little Rock with stops at Camping World, Sam’s Club, and Subway. The help at Subway was so pitiful compared to what we have in Mountain Home; we had forgotten how incompetent some of the folks are in big cities (big to us). As we were eating the sandwiches at our site, we met the lady next door. Seems she plays guitar and another RVer friend of hers sings Southern Gospel. We urged them to conduct a jam session. Hmmm…wouldn’t this be neat around the phantom fire with roasted marshmallows, s’mores…oh yeah, momentarily forgot about the diet.
We re-leveled DunnGone, and Kay was off for the first of several social activities including getting her hair done and having dinner with "old" teaching friends. After getting a cut and color job on her hair, Kay picked up Pam and they went to Shotgun Dan’s in Sherwood to meet Betty Wallis and Lois Kirkpatrick. Lois had come in for a scholarship audition for one of her former students at OBU and stayed over so she could attend Karyn’s shower on Saturday. The ‘old girls’ as they called themselves had a quick reunion and visit. This group taught together over 25 years ago in the Jacksonville Schools. Kay returned home to DunnGone about 10 PM.

After returning in early February as Winter Texans, we experienced 1 tornado, 2 large snows, 2 ice storms, and 2 historic floods, all at or near our home base. With our US Army Corps of Engineers Upper White River Basin lakes at historic levels and several business items to take care of in central Arkansas, we decided to escape to the Little Rock area for a short RV trip. We packed up DunnGone and headed toward Little Rock for an extended ‘week’ of wedding shower, memorial service in Lake Hamilton, and Kaden’s band concert in Benton. We decided to take the motor home and stay at Maumelle Park as our ‘base of operations’ for these activities. Kay drove the Expedition and traveled down Arkansas Hwy. 5 and Donald took the RV down via US Hwy. 65. After an arduous 3-1/2 hour trip in the rain, we pulled into the Corps’ Maumelle Park. Except for cable and sewer hook-ups, it exceeds any commercial campground we’ve ever seen. It overlooks the Arkansas River in West Little Rock, but is absent urban noises and distractions. We parked with the "big boys" in the "B" section. Setting up was a breeze, including the satellite with our homemade PVC base, though Little Rock has HD stations available over the air and easily received by our antenna. The park was fairly full, especially along the river side of Sections A and B. We stayed in B25 with a view of the river out our front window. The RV sites are very large, each one almost has its own ‘yard’. There were a lot of ‘fulltimers’ at the park – mostly class A’s. Donald set up the satellite and got it working but we used the antennae because we got HD local channels from Little Rock. Kay wanted a fire sometime during our stay, so we rummaged firepits of vacant sites for firewood, collecting enough for a couple of nights. We walked the immediate campground to get a lay of the land. Thursday night there were at least two parties near us. One was apparently a reunion of several women from the LR area who all came out to the RV site of one of the women. There was much visiting and some drinking too. Another group seemed to be a group of Lesbos with several travel trailers and tents who had come to celebrate one person’s birthday. Kay attempted to reheat some chicken parmesan and spaghetti, but the microwave would not work despite several attempts. She heated it on the stove top, we ate, and settled in for the evening.

Sunday, February 3, 2009 (DAY 38) Departing Marshall, TX, at 6:30 AM, we arrived home, in Norfork, at 2 PM, stopping to dump the tanks at Quarry Park. It was a good drive, with controlled access, 4-lane highway all the way to Batesville, AR. We averaged an amazing 11.7 MPG, driving a relatively constant 60 MPH. We found things in Norfork much like we left them, with some residual snow in shaded areas and on the side of the road. The house was warm, thanks to my dear friend, Wayne Bodenhamer, and exactly like we left it with Christmas stocking stuffers still on the bar. The cars and truck started fine, with no mice damage.

Our trip to the RGV was good, as we met new friends and saw a different way of retirement. One more item checked off the bucket list. God has truly blessed us! And now, Alaska awaits…

Saturday, February 2, 2008 (DAY 37) Departure day! I didn’t sleep well in anticipation of the trip home and had difficulty getting up; however, Kay was up about 6:45 AM and ready to go. After a quick shower, we brought the slides in, unhooked the electrical "umbilical" cord, removed the leveling blocks, and were ready to go at 7:30 AM. We stopped in Victoria for gasoline, food, and sodas, and averaged 9.8 MPG. We drove all the way to Marshall, TX, for our next and last stop of the day where we filled DunnGone with gasoline and ourselves with a Subway sandwich; DunnGone averaged 10 MPG from Victoria to Marshall. It sure is nice for Kay to have a bathroom on board. We boondocked at Wal-Mart for the evening. Tomorrow, we plan to be home in time for the Super Bowl.