"A Weekend To Remember"

Well the weather has slowly been getting back to normal here. The month of May brought us 19.4 inches of rain we read. We all spent the month watching the lake level rise. It crested at 697 feet above sea level. That is 32 feet above the flood gate doors, 2 feet higher then they have ever had here. Last week they finally had to open all 17 of the gates to lower the lake level. They were trying to hold it back as long as possible to not complicate the problems the Mississippi was having. So along with all the gates they are generating almost a constant 5 generators. All this adds up to 55,000 cubic feet of water per "second" going into the river. This they report is the same as 18 generators running down river. Needless to say it is very high and very fast. So our trout fishing has coming to a stop for now. I am sure the trout are still there, but that is a very dangerous river, especially to someone like me with only a year of having a boat on the river. I am confident at 6 generators, but certainly not at 18! I will post a couple pictures of the dam and the river.

This weekend we joined in on a fund raiser for the July 4th fireworks show they have here every year. Kathy is going to be able to go watch them, but I am unable to get time off. The marina had a "poker run" around the area, it was a lot of fun for us, trying to locate all five locations you had to go to. The maps are really kind of useless, due to the extra 40 feet of water on the lake. The usual markers showing how far you are away from the dam are under water, and on our map of the lake, the peninsulas are now islands or are gone. So it was a real challenge for us, but we had fun and they raised close to $4000 toward the fireworks display. The pictures show several of the stops, and how we got our chips for pulling our poker hands at the end.

Then today, we went out and found a cove to sit in, just soak up some sun and even got in the lake for a very brief "Coooooooool" down! Then at the end of both days, Kath brought us back in to have an ice cold beer in the slip, before going home. Just a great time, the entire weekend.

So till the next time take care
Bob and Kathy