Greer's Ferry, Arkansas

We have been meaning for some time to come over to Arkansas and visit our friends, Don & Vicki Leith. They are another RV couple and have been living out of their 45' motor home for the past three to four years. Last year they bought land on Greer's Ferry Lake and started building their new home. If you have read my past blogs you know that on May 4th of this year, just days before completely moving in, the house was hit by a tornado and nearly destroyed. Since that time they have been in the process of rebuilding. They are getting close but are still taking it one day at a time. Being RVer's they have built the house with their friends in mind and have two RV pads with full hookups. Currently their coach is parked on the one beside their house. We got the one in front of the house.

We left home late Wednesday morning heading east. By late, I mean after 11:00 am. In a car, at highway speeds it would have been about a five hour drive. In the coach, driving an average of 62 mph, it took us a little longer. We had interstate highway from Oklahoma City to Conway, Arkansas and then a good four lane highway from there up to Clinton. At Clinton we had to turn east again and had 22 miles of very narrow and winding mountain roads. Also, by this time it was dark. When it gets dark in the mountains it really gets dark. We finally made it in about 8:00 pm, got parked and hooked up and settled in for our visit. At that point it was too late to go out to eat since any restaurant in the area closed before that time of night. Vicki came to the rescue to fix us a great spaghetti dinner that we had in front of the fireplace in the living room of the house. Although the house is far from being finished they are able to use the kitchen and fireplace. We did have to furnish our own chairs to sit on.

During the day there were workman in and out of the house all day as Don kept tabs on their work. A major part of the house was covered in ceramic tile and it has just been learned that the floor under all this tile is damp from the storm last spring. The past two days the workman have been pulling up and hauling out all that time so the floor can dry out, be treated for mold and then new tile put back down. This has become a major job. The house next door was also hit by the tornado. That house had been damaged by a fire and the folks had gotten it rebuilt not long before the tornado. Most of what was standing had to be knocked down and they are not sure when or if the rebuilding will begin. Here is a picture of the neighbors house.

Jo and I have spent yesterday and today just relaxing, visiting with Don & Vicki and trying to stay out of the way of the workman. Yesterday Vicki had put on a roast to cook and we had that with all the trimmings last night. Tonight Jo had brats, potato salad, and all the fixings for the brats. Don cooked the brats on his grill. The weather is very crisp here but very clear. This is a picture of the sunset over the lake taken from Don & Vicki's deck. Tomorrow will be more leisure time and then watch the Oklahoma State/Texas game on TV. We'll head west on Sunday morning to return home. Our visit with the Leith's has been great and hopefully we won't wait so long before we get back over here.