Granny's Birthday

Took Granny to Petit Jean State Park on her birthday yesterday--was a BEAUTIFUL day. Seems like a lot of other people thought so too, and they were all at the park hiking and quite a few were also camping out. The Arkansas River was a little high with all the rains we've been having, but didn't look that bad.

Cedar Falls was gorgeous--LOTS of water falling. Most people don't get to see it this heavy. Here are pictures comparing normal summer time flow (taken 2 summers ago) and the one with fewer trees in the way is the picture we just took. (click on the pictures for larger view)

After driving through the park, we decided to take the scenic route home---about 2 1/2 hours detour down Hwy 7 thru Hot Springs. Saw a lot of swollen rivers and still some flooding going on, ate at Ryans in Hot Springs, and then back home via I-30 where we saw some of the tornado damage from the road near Benton/Bryant.

It was a good day--up to 70 degrees in Hot Springs, and the azaeleas, dogwood, redbuds and a lot of other flowering plants were showing off.

Storms

Whoooo! What a storm last night! The dang Noah Alert Radio went off no less than 8 times! Sirens going off....and there was NO wind. That was the worst part. Why wasn't there any wind? It was totally calm--except for the incredibly wicked lightning followed by the CRACK...KABOOM!...and light rain. This went on for a good 45min....turned the computer off due to the lightning, but was watching the satelite TV (until it went out because of interference with the signal)...it's always SOMEthing, isn't it?

Well, no problems at our house and all the continuing flash flooding isn't too much trouble for us as we are on a hill, but there were several mini-tornado touchdowns as I understand it. Bryant, to the south of Little Rock had damage--cars flipped, transformers blown, followed by nasty fire; one at N Little Rock airport (not the major airport)--some planes destroyed....reports keep coming in. The thunder continued all night and still some this morning (4/4).

I had taken off work today--something about trying to have a fun 3-day weekend for Granny's 87th birthday. I guess we will just go to the mall--can't work in the yard even though it's warm because it is STILL raining and quite a wet mess in all the surrounding areas.

Oh NO!!!! Not the Hancock's Fabric store!!! (damage to Hancocks on Cantrell Rd...from KARK 4 website) --- they WERE going to have a sale this weekend! I'm devastated.....