What’s Up Lately.
Episode 005.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks since I was here with my last update.
That update coincided with my husband’s birthday.
Smith Mountain Lake.
We decided to rent a boat and spend part of the day cruising around Smith Mountain Lake.
The lake is the largest man-made lake in the state of Virginia.
It has 500 miles of shoreline.
So while we did lots of exploring, we were only seeing a tiny portion of all there is to see.
We decided to anchor in a cove to see how cold the water was. If you know me, you know the cold and I do not get along AT ALL. Even the Atlantic down in Florida is often too cold for my liking. I jumped in once but quickly climbed back out. It wasn’t the cold, but the eerie feeling that some lake monster might be hiding in the depths ready to eat me.
The average depth of the lake is 55 ft with a maximum depth of 250 ft. I’m a Florida girl and lakes mean alligators.
My rational brain said it was much too cold for that, but the irrational part said there were still unknown large animals down there. I got in once more and swam out to my husband. The water was very cold, but I could have acclimated. The depth and unknown still freaked me out and so I climbed back aboard the boat and basked in the sunlight on the bow.
I think I could get used to the scary waters. It’ll just take some time.
Do you ever frequent lakes? What’s your take on them?
Soccer Tournament.
The following weekend, Miss Sunshine had a soccer tournament in Virginia Beach.
Virginia Beach is about a 5-hour drive from Roanoke. It’s the farthest that we typically travel for a tournament. However, we always stay oceanfront so it’s a fun time.
Miss Sunshine and her team won the championship. That was despite being down a few girls who couldn’t make it and then down a few more due to injuries sustained during the weekend.
Since it is such a long drive home and there was school the next day, the team didn’t stay for the medaling ceremony (that would have added many more hours to the day).
There were plans to get their medals at practice that Wednesday.
However, rain canceled practice.
Flash Floods.
On Thursday, Hurricane Michael made its way to Roanoke.
I’ve shown you all the dry creek in my yard before. Any time it rains heavily, the creek runs with the water draining down the mountain. If you look into the background of the photo, you will see the row of Evergreens that we planted a few years ago. There is a road behind them. That road is covered is flash flooding water. The road to my driveway was covered in flash flood water.
You may have seen photos on the news of Roanoke covered in flooded water.
This photo is early into the flooding. Shortly after this, I was pacing the floor. Mr. D has early release for Seniors. I didn’t know if his Mustang would make it on our street. At the time, I had no clue what the rest of the county looked like.
About 15 minutes after the early release Seniors left school, I received a call that they were immediately releasing the schools due to increased flooding.
Mr. D made it to our neighborhood entrance, but then could tell that he would not make it any farther. He turned around and called me to pick him up at a nearby office parking lot. I took out the Jeep. Leaving our neighborhood, rocks had been pushed across the road and a car had been pushed to the side as well. The jeep had no problem making it across the rocks.
I picked up Mr. D and then had to make my way to the high school to get Miss Sunshine and Mr. D’s girlfriend. Many of the roads that we would have normally taken were closed due to flooding. Even the one that Mr. D had made it through 20 minutes earlier had a car submerged to its headlights. We finally made it to the girls and slowly made our way back through traffic. What normally is 20ish minutes round trip was over an hour and a half.
When I left, I didn’t know if the flooding would continue to get worse. However, the rain slowed and had receded from many roads by the time we made it home.
It was a mentally taxing afternoon, to say the least.
GoFest.
The Roanoke Go Outside Festival was this weekend.
After all the craziness, I was ready to go walk around, listen to music and drink a few beers with my husband.
It was a good ending to the week.
How has your week been?
Let your light shine!
Amy
