Beaver Dam

Last Sunday Me, Cadyn, Camryn, Mom and Dad took a little road trip up to Beaver Dam. Since we have had a ton of rain in the last month the lake has risen to record levels. The Corps of Engineers had to open the gates on the dam last week to a record 9ft. The gates have only been open on the dam 7 times since it was built in the 1960's and 4 of those times have been this year. We were hoping to see the gates open when we got there but by the time we arrived Sunday afternoon they were already closed. There is a picnic and play/swim area next to the highway right before you go over the dam and you could see where the water had completely covered it up and was even with the highway before they opened the gates. We drove on down to the camping area and you can see from the picture below that there were still some spots under water but I am sure it was much worse the few previous days.

This picture was taken from the visitors outlook

This is the White River below Beaver Dam that the water empties into when they open the gates. Usually it is a small stream but you can see it was a pretty wide from all the water!

This is some of the campsites that were under water. See the picnic table!

Poor little Camryn couldn't take it any longer. He passed out and missed most of the road trip!

My Dad has a cousin that lives on the river below Beaver Dam so we decided we would go by and check on them and see if they had any flooding. Well, when we pulled up we saw carpet laying all over the yard and clothes and shoes laying out to dry. They were woke up about 10pm Friday night by their neighbors yelling to them that they needed to get out of their house because the river was rising. When they came downstairs the water was already up to their knees on the bottom floor of the house and before it was all said and done they had 5ft of water in the house. Needless to say the whole downstairs of the house has to be gutted and rebuilt. Dad's cousin joked that she had needed new appliances in the kitchen and she had been meaning to clean out the closets for a a while now so this just gave her the little push she needed to get it all done! Material things can be replaced and I think they were just thankful that was all they had to deal with!

We have a pretty busy weekend ahead of us! I am walking in the Komen Race tomorrow morning and Cadyn has Soccer and Baseball tomorrow so we will be running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I am sure I will have lots to post later on about our crazy weekend!

One more thing regarding my participation in the Komen Race. Cadyn has been very curious this week about this race. He has asked me a lot of questions but still doesn't quite get what I am doing. Last night we were talking about our Saturday plans and he said "and Mom you are going to be in a dog race?". I corrected him and said no sweetie it is the Komen race and I will be walking in it with Aunt BB, Michelle and a bunch of other people. He seemed to get it and that was that! Well, Cadyn's teacher and I were emailing back and forth today about some stuff and just when I thought we were done I got one last email from her with the subject "I forgot!!!". Then she said to have fun at the dog races this weekend! I immediately started cracking up and sent her back and said "oh, is that what Cadyn told you?" I told her it was the Komen Race I was going to and for some reason he thinks it is a dog race. She sent back and said he told her that I was going to Memphis to the dog races! By now I have laughed uncontrollably for 20 minutes straight! This was too funny! I told her this was definately a story to share and she said she was writing it in her kindergarten stories she has kept over the years. Kids come up with the darndest stories!

Have a great weekend!