The Sun Is Shining Once Again!

Well, the street David & I were on yesterday to take the photos you saw on my blog yesterday, is no longer open, it is under water. The river swelled and swelled and it finally popped! It popped over the roadway, but in its path were businesses. Major businesses as well as Mom and Pop shops are covered with water. A small flower shop was unloading as much of their inventory as they possibly could before more water took over their business. It is so sad to watch and be helpless.

Today we finally got TV again when the Direct TV guy left. We were hearing about how bad it is in Nashville, but we couldn’t get a grip on how big the disaster was until we finally got TV. A lot of my friends have been to Opryland Hotel, it is under water, the guest have had to be evacuated last night. I know the guests are upset, but think about the workers…when will they be able to return to work?

David and I took a drive this morning while going to the post office to get our mail and saw even more destruction in our county. It reminds me of El Nino from the ‘90’s in California…it is truly one of the worst disasters I’ve witnessed.

We have drinking water now, and hope we are able to continue with our fresh water. While David and I were out earlier, we had to get milk, so we dropped by the local WalMart…BAD IDEA! #1, couldn’t find a parking space (hey guys, it’s MONDAY, aren’t you at work?), #2, tons of people inside the store grabbing cases of water as quickly as the WalMart people could put them out. There were some people who had their carts loaded with bottled water 6 & 8 cases high! Not just a couple of people…LOTS OF PEOPLE! Later, a friend posted a photo of someone selling water from their car…talk about opportunity!

At any rate, the Cumberland River that flows through Clarksville will crest tonight and hopefully by tomorrow the receding of the water will begin by tomorrow. I hope it goes away quickly, our people need it to go away soon. Our hearts are with those who have lost loved ones, their homes, property and businesses.

I Think the Rains have Ceased!

Oh, what a weekend we have had! We are fine, but so many of our friends have a lot of damage! We have the Cumberland and Red Rivers flowing through Clarksville, they are out of their banks! The city of Clarksville has done a lot of work to enhance the river banks and it is really a very nice place. Parks and playgrounds for the children and only a couple of weeks ago they had their annual festival on the river banks. Can’t do it today!!!! There is so much damage, so many farms flooded, people’s gardens flooded and of course the homes that have damage that will cost so much to get repaired; not to mention all the work to move out furniture, tear out carpeting and all of the other mess that goes with this type of damage! Let’s hope the insurance doesn’t day it was an act of God!

Hopkinsville, KY

Little River, Hopkinsville, KY

The Cumberland River, Clarksville, TN

Street Lamp at River Walk, Clarksville, TN

We hurt for those with damage….my sister’s basement is flooded, David’s sister’s basement is flooded, our daughter, Shannon’s, basement is flooded! We have some friends who live in a mobile home in Erin, TN, who got flooded out and their car was swept away. They barely got out of the house with their lives, what a horrible experience!!!

We went to Hopkinsville, KY, this afternoon to have lunch with my sister and her husband and then went to see Tony, Jennie, Mason and our new granddaughter, Kennedy Page. She is only 2 ½ months old and the apple of her grandpa’s eye! While I was holding her, she went to sleep…I think I’ve got the touch;-)

Kennedy Page Jenkins and her Mimi

Mason, Kennedy Page Jenkins and her Grandpa

One more photo of a persons back yard behind their house in Clarksville, TN

I thank all of you for calling and emailing to check on us. We are okay, very resilient Californians, if I should say;-)

Rain, rain, rain…please go away!

Today, we checked in with the manager of the RV Park in which we are staying. Work doesn’t seem to be anything that either one of us aren’t capable of learning. The program that they use for their reservation system seems pretty easy; I think I will catch on pretty quickly. The managers seem very nice as well as the other work-campers that we will be working with.

Today about 4 AM, the rains came down and haven’t stopped! There is lots of flooding and chances for tornados! Not something we wanted to hear about. The managers have told us that there is a warning system that we will be able to hear…don’t know where we will go when we hear it, but at least we have it. Well, our daughter, Shannon lives pretty close so if we need to get out of here, we would go to her house. Robyn would want us out there, but it is too far.

We are missing the annual spaghetti feed and the Delta Marina RV Park in Rio Vista, CA, this weekend. This is the first time we’ve missed it in years. I talked with our friend, Wendy Gilman, and asked them to do a toast for David & I. Got to talk with Kathy & Loyde Tatton who had been at a car show in Antioch, CA, showing Loyde’s ’65 Mustang Shelby…he placed first in both vintage and new Shelby’s…CONGRATULATIONS, LOYDE!!!


So, unless we either get swept away by the rains or the tornado hits our motorhome, I’ll post again tomorrow. By the way, Ruby, David’s sister that we stayed with last weekend in New Johnsonville, TN, just called and her entire basement is flooded. This basement is completely finished; 2 beautiful bedrooms, kitchen, bath, family room and sun room….they are just sick. So, my California friends enjoy the sunshine and know that you certainly have it better than others!!! Robyn and Shane have a pond on their property which has filled up and spilled over their driveway…washed that sucker away and created a rushing creek.

Since I started posting this blog, I’ve just heard from my daughter, Jill, in Florence, AL, and they are in their closet right now…there is a funnel cloud going over the road right beside them. This weather SUCKS!!!

Getting Settled In

Looks like the two of us will survive being indoctrinated into the South, both culturally and environmentally. David is much better and I’m better except for my terrible cough which the doctor says will be with me for a while. At any rate, we are able to be around the children and that’s what is important.
After David’s visit to the doctor yesterday, we went to the post office to pick up our mail which has been accumulated since we left our apartment in Pleasant Hill….can you imagine???? I had stacks and stacks of mail to go through! Some can be right frightening! I had changed our vehicle insurance before I left California for Tennessee, this meant we had to cancel California insurance and they had to write a different policy for Tennessee residents. No problem, more money up front, but they would reimburse us what we had left on the CA plan. Well, I open several documents from the insurance company and they are cancelling our insurance since I had not returned the signed documents that had been sitting in our mailbox in TN!!! I called them immediately, and they were able to re-instate our insurance, but where were the monies they were going to return to us? They kept it, of course! Well, the good thing is I’m paid up until the fall;-)


Another little surprise in the mail was the unemployment issue. While we were at the bank I got a phone call from Elk Grove, CA, since we are getting our debit cards, I ignored it, if it doesn’t come up with a name or I don’t recognize the name and I don’t have time to take the call…it’s getting ignored. Funny, there was no message either. Well, while going through my stack of mail, I found a letter from unemployment that they had scheduled a telephone interview on that day at that time, but I just didn’t know it! I called them the next day, they were very nice about it, but told me that Siemens had protested my unemployment! The nice lady asked me if I was a contractor for Siemens and I said no, I had worked for them for almost 17 years! She agreed that there was something amiss and told me that Siemens advised them that my last day was March 31, 2010, but they had no record of me being employed with them. Stupid…how can you give my last day worked and in the same breath say you have no record of me??? She told me not to worry, they would take care of it and I will eventually begin receiving my unemployment checks. I’m looking for work…I really am…there just isn’t anything available here in my line of work;-(

The last week we spent some time with Jill in Alabama, some time with David’s sister, Ruby, in New Johnsonville, TN, some time with Robyn in Clarksville, TN and some time with my sister in Hopkinsville, KY…today we came to the RV Park in Clarksville. I’m really glad! I was tired of being a vagabond! We got set up this morning and I got my new wireless printer set up and now I’m good to go! Still need to find a spot for some things, but we can work that out through the weekend. Got Direct TV coming in on Monday to hook up the satellite dish so we can have some decent TV, got groceries, what more do you need?

I love spending time with my sister, she is so creative. She is now the Beautification Coordinator for the city of Hopkinsville, KY, and is doing a fantastic job in sprucing up the city! She took David & I for a walk downtown to see her accomplishments, she’s been very busy!

Spending the time at Robyn’s allowed Kiley and me to re-connect; not that there was much reconnecting to be done…she pretty much knew that her Mimi was coming home and has told everyone that, “my Mimi is in Clarksville and will stay in Clarksville forever”. She pretty much never let me out of her sight which was just fine with me. Hudson, on the other hand, took up with his Grand David. He loves John Deere and any kind of heavy equipment. He & David spent time going through books while Hudson identified every type of equipment on the market…yep, he’s only 2 years old! Oh, they also have started raising chickens, so we got to see the baby chicks...yep, we're in the country now!

I finally got to meet Tony’s wife (David’s son) Jennie and his precious new daughter, Kennedy Page. She is only 2 ½ months old now and is cute as a bug! She has so much dark hair and the most beautiful eyes!

We have yet to see Shannon (David’s daughter) and Daniel & Jacob yet. I think Shannon and Jacob will be stopping by the RV Park to see us this afternoon…if so, we’ve pretty much seen everyone on our final trip back home!

It’s spring in the southeast so we have thunderstorms & wind forecasted for tomorrow and worse storms for Sunday. We hate them, especially living in the motorhome, but, that’s life! We had some hail when we were at Robyn’s earlier in the week, but fortunately it was pea size and didn’t harm the solar panels on our roof…David cringes when they call for hail!

We Are Home!!!

Sorry, I’ve been really sick for the last few days and just had no strength to do anything. We pulled into New Johnsonville, TN, on Friday afternoon and I headed straight for the bed. I surely was not very good company at all. How rude can one be, pull this behemouth into their driveway, sick looking woman enters their home and heads straight for their spare bedroom! Thank goodness David sister, Ruby, is so gracious. She totally understood how sick I was and was there with chicken broth hoping to get me well quicker. I never got to know David’s mother very well, but I know she had to have instilled these loving qualities in Ruby. Saturday was a blur because I just couldn’t stay up, slept most of the day; well until the storms hit! We really had some rough storms here, but fortunately no damage at any of our families homes. Someone said that the south was welcoming us with its fireworks…well, those kind of fireworks I can do without! So, between being sick and our brother-in-law not having WiFi, this blog has been neglected.

Sunday I had more strength so we took a drive to Loretta Lynn’s property which is just a short way from Ruby’s in Hurricane Mills, TN. They said she was still performing there and goes out on the road a lot, but of course, we didn’t see her.

Today, we left Ruby’s for Robyn’s. David drove the motorhome and my car while I drove his Dodge Ram. We decided that the truck was too much on their property, what with our motorhome & the car that we left the truck with David’s ex-wife. Sounds funny, but we are just one big happy family! She was nice enough to let us park his truck at her house for the next couple of days…that’s just the way we are here in the south;-) Thanks, Valeria and Danny!

David is pretty sick now, he’s held off long enough to get me home, he just can’t go any further. I’m taking him to an urgent care facility tomorrow morning…the grandchildren want to play with him, but they can’t get around him right now.

We pulled into Robyn’s this afternoon while she was at school picking up Kiley. It was wonderful to see her call come down the driveway, knowing there was a little almost 6 year old girl wanting to see her Mimi. She piled out of that car so fast and was in my arms before I knew it! She made the statement, “my Mimi is in Clarksville now and will live forever in Clarksville”! Guess enough said. Our little Hudson is the cutest thing…2 years old and a John Deere man for sure. Give him something green, a little dirt and a shovel and he’s so happy!

Well, hopefully, tomorrow my David gets some medication so he will feel much better quicker!

Tuscumbia, Alabama is the Birthplace of Helen Keller

Oh I hate leaving my girls tomorrow when we head to David’s sister’s house in New Johnsonville, but when I really think about it, I’m not leaving them and going to California, I’m just 3 hours away from them! I can pop in whenever there is an important occasion, or just when I want to see my girls. This retirement thing isn’t too bad! Besides, we have to leave, a major storm is coming in on Saturday with possible tornados and we don’t want to be traveling during such wicked weather!

On the retirement thing, I do have one complaint that my friend, Marilyn, will understand. When I left, the company made arrangements to put my severance check into my direct deposit. This should have been on April 16th, but there was no sizable entry into my Wells Fargo account…wonder why? I tried to contact Siemens’ HR person, couldn’t so I sent an email inquiring where is the money! While we were traveling from OK to AL, I got a phone call from Federal Express in regards to my tracing inquiry. I told them that I had not authorized a trace on anything, and asked who the shipping party was…Siemens Medical from Germany. Figuring there was a mix up, I told the nice lady that I had just recently retired from Siemens and there must be a mistake and advised her to call the Concord Siemens main number and inquire with them. You guessed it; they Federal Expressed my severance check to an address that I had already moved from! Great follow-up work HR!!!! So, I have assurances from Siemens Payroll department that it will be in my Wells Fargo account by April 30th. I’m not too upset; just find it funny that if you don’t follow up with others, it ain’t gonna happen!!! We’ll see what April 30th brings.

Today David and I went to Tuscumbia, Alabama, to visit the birthplace of Helen Keller. It was such a sweet house and the docents were so sweet and knowledgeable. It still amazes me that she accomplished so much with so many handicaps; she could hear nor see. What an amazing lady!!

Her parents bedroom. The rocker is the one that she tossed her newborn sister from, due to a little jealousy.

This is the kitchen, it was built away from the house in case of fires. The door on the left was the actual kitchen and the door on the right was the cook's bedroom.

Part of the kitchen.

No southern cook worth her weight in salt would be without her cast iron cookware!

The actual well where Helen was able to understand that the feel of water was the word her teacher had just spelled into her hand.

I don't know what this bush is, but it was absolutely GORGEOUS!

As David was cleaning the rig outside this morning, he was checking in the engine compartment and the little birdies have found something to do with these darn “worms” that are coming from the oak trees out here. They’ve built a nest in the engine compartment of our rig!! Jill thinks it’s from the Carolina Wren. We so hate to disturb this nest, but we have to leave here tomorrow, and I don’t think it will last through the trip, nor do I think the mom can fly that fast!

My daughter and her husband both have a late evening working, so we are taking the granddaughters out for dinner…they get to pick the place. Caroline, who just got her license and her first car, will be our chauffeur for the evening.

Letting no moss grow under our feet/tires

We left Oklahoma City yesterday, Tuesday, at 8:30 in the morning to head east. We had planned to be at Jill’s house by Wednesday morning, but David got on a roll and we pulled into Jill’s about 8:30 last night.

It is so wonderful to be back in the south, I love California, but there is just something about being Southern born and being gone for such a long time that I can really appreciate returning. It is spring here and the flowers are blooming and everything is new again! Jill's yard is full of vibrant blooms!

Too, it seems that when we got into Amarillo last Friday, I either have a bug or allergies are really giving me a horrible time! I’m sneezing, coughing, aching and just generally miserable!

Jill gave me the name of an urgent care facility so David & I headed off to see a doctor this morning. After 2 injections and 4 prescriptions, I’m hoping to begin feeling decent by tomorrow! This stuff sucks!