(Not so) Fun Times -- getting home and settled

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Today, we awoke to even more rain. It's been raining for a number of days, causing flash flooding and lakes to rise.

We had been watching the numbers on Lake Leon, where we used to live. It came very close to being as high as it was in May, almost 4.5' above full, when we first evacuated. I feel sorry for those RV park residents, but luckily their homes are on wheels. I hope they got to higher ground. 

Here's a few shots of the Trinity River in Kaufman County, near Forney, that I took yesterday. 

Before you fuss about taking pics while driving, know that we were going about 5mph as everyone was slowing to look at the water! It's at least 5-6 feet above where it normally is.

While I was prepping the rig on the inside, Tony ran and fueled the truck at Bucees ($1.99 diesel!). 

We did some more prep work inside, then the rain let up some, so did some outside prep work in the rain, while I ran over to Braums to get us lunch.

After lunch we hitched up and headed out about 1:45. Luckily according to the radar, the rain was moving east and we'd get some dry roads once we got out of DFW -- we thought.

The wet roads made for some slow going in places, but not too bad, until we got to Eastland County! Right as we got to the county line, traffic slowed down as there had just been a multicar pileup on the eastbound side. It had just happened, as there were no emergency vehicles on the scene yet. One car looked pretty mangled, but there were a number of people standing around so we hope they were ok. 

We made it up Ranger Hill with no issues, but then again encounterd slow traffic and accident aftermath. We did not get to Cisco until 5:30pm! A longer drive than it should have been.

Once we got back to our park we discovered our Welder neighbors had left, so there was no one left in the park. We had a bit of a challenge getting back into the same spot -- so our power cord would reach -- some of the gravel had shifted and there was a rut where our tires needed to go. We had to get out the shovel and level it somewhat.

Next, we had issues getting the jaws on the hitch to unlatch again, mainly because the site isn't very level, and it was dark by now, so it was difficult to see. 

After that, Tony had to hook up the water, which was difficult as well in the dark, and cold muddy water had filled the depression where the valve is below grade. 

Oh did I mention it was misting, and 40 degrees? Fun times! I guess this was to prepare us for our winter trip coming up soon!

Once we had leveled, it was time to put out the slides-- except something had caused the rear cabinets to open and stuff fell into the path of the slides. I had to clean up the avalanche before we could get fully deployed, but we got it done. Tony warmed dinner while I rearranged the jigsaw puzzle which is our stuff in travel mode: a recliner, an office chair, a small table, a printer, a cat tree, a file cabinet, a foot stool, cat litterbox, and chair mat.... Have to get back to their appropriate spots or we can't function. ;)

After they we just collapsed. It was a fun getaway, but it's good to be back in our "home park."