The Storm part II

The Storm - part 2 the buildup

Monday morning the kids came to play!!🥰

A car screeched to a stop, suitcases were thrown at us while we were hugging the kids and we managed to get car seats before the freed parents drove away singing.

After setting up their bedrooms and shelves we went hiking. Terri and I, the 3 grandkids, and the killer chihuahuas were ready to hit the trails. There are excellent hiking trails at Shelby Forest. Probably 25 miles of total trails which are broken up into several smaller loops. Lizzy is a hiking champ. Although her legs are only about 4" long, she can hike for miles. Paco with his 4.01" legs hasn't had as much experience and also has the genetic urge to mark every tree on the way. But despite his dehydration he also does an excellent job. Its more of a challenge to keep them from running circles around us leaving us hogtied in the middle of the trail.

The 3 grandkids in Memphis (Names withheld on purpose not because I forgot) have been on a few hikes with us, enough to have learned to wear socks with their shoes and no flip flops. I said they have learned it, not that they do it! Well, we taught them about the trail markers and set the eldest out as the leader. Zoom off he went!! I yelled a quick reminder "whatever you go down you have to come back up...."

The bluffs are an excellent place for hiking. A lot of old growth mixed in with backwater bayous depending on the level of the Mississippi River. The bluffs are mainly clay with a loose coating of decayed leaves and sand, quite slippery when wet. Tree roots are the main stairways up and down the 200 foot hills, although these have been augmented with treated lumber from various Boy Scout Eagle projects. The land is quite broken, carved out by the Mississippi spring floods. You can see the trail on the opposite hill about 50 yards for a good jumper, but for the rest of us its down 200 feet, wind around some ravines for a 1/4 mile and then up 200 feet.

We took a new direction this time, because Terri didn't want to hike out of the campground again. She told the eldest not to let Grandpa talk you into a shortcut..😠

We planned to only hike 3 or 4 miles because the 5 yr old might get worn out...(yea right) he was a champ. We had a wonderful hike and got to spend great time goofing around with the kids. The weather had been nice but it was getting thicker out. You know, still, muggy and warmer than normal. But nice enough to have a campfire and S'Mores.

Well, eventually we watched TV with its continuous Special Weather alert bar growing to 1/2 of the screen. No way you will escape this monster we were warned. The kids started talking about past storms and where they had to hide when the sirens went off. There are no basements in this part of the country. Basically there is no freeze line so the building practice is to scrape the ground and poor a slab. No basement = no tornado shelter. Stairways if you have one are a safe place, but for most it is in the bathtub with a mattress covering you....

We could tell the kids were a little nervous so we reassured them that it was 2 days away and we would talk with their dad tomorrow to see what he thinks. Well that calmed the kids and off to bed they went.

If you didn't know, Andy has a degree in meteorology. Excellent at forecasting and I use him for 10 to 30 day forecasts often so we don't drive the trailer in high winds.

Tuesday - Deaths Eve.

The weather people weren't even pretending anymore. They had taken over the studios and cut the Network feed. Nonstop predictions of rain and wind projections merged with multiple colored doppler radar images of what their 65 gajillion dollar exclusive tracking system was forecasting.

I had to go get the air suspension put in my truck. My sister Janis Nichols came out to play with the kids which also meant there was a car in case of an emergency. After all, Terri could not call me.... While I was gone and Janis kept the kids occupied, Terri started to get everything ready for that nights shrimp boil.

Terri and her sister Joyce had scored some humongous shrimp while we were in Gulf Shores. Somehow they backed the car up to the docks and got these huge shrimp straight from the boat. Anyways, we were having a big shrimp boil that night. Tony, Julia and her nephew, as well as, Andy and Lisette were coming out. Also Janis would be there.

To be continued......