Storms, Rain, & Other Stuff At Millwood Landing Golf RV Resort

                                   Tuesday 5/21/2013

The next day as predicted we had a tornado warning out for Ashdown, so we went to our safe place, the cinder block Pool House for shelter. We got hard rain and only had to stay there for about 20 minutes before the warning past ended. About 2 hours later we got a severe thunderstorm warning alert. We were not going to go to the Pool House until we saw these clouds moving in.

The cloud wall moved from the last picture to this picture in a matter of seconds, so we headed back to our safe place.

Chairs had been brought into the men's and women's shower rooms for us to hang out, while the warnings past. The first time we came to the Pool House another couple showed up also. The second time we came up, the guy in the RV across the street from us came up, but he hung out in the men's room while we were in the women's room. I decided it would be safer in the shower, so I drug my chair in there. OK, it's not the best picture of me, but I wasn't planning on doing anything that day, and wasn't planning on a picture. Normally I don't put lousy pictures in, but I wanted to show you our safe place! Actually, I'll  blame Joe. He takes terrible pictures, he never waits until you smile, he just takes it. When things don't go the way I like it, I just blame Joe! OK you all need to lighten up a little, if you didn't take it as a joke!
               I know I mentioned in my previous blog that my class reunion coming up mid summer, was messing up our summer travels. I realize now I am glad it has. Our original plans was to go to another Ocean Canyon Campground for 3 weeks just south of Oklahoma City. We would have just arrived at that campground the day Moore, OK got hit by the EF4 tornado. After that 3 week stay, we were going to gone to yet another Ocean Canyon Campground NE of Oklahoma City, which is in the path of tornado alley. God knows what is best for us, and the class reunion schedule was set so we would change our plans and go another way! Thank you Lord for your Faithfulness!

The next day we went to Ashdown for a few grocery items.
 Ashdown, A great place to call home.
Ashdown sits between two rivers, one to the north, The Little River, and one to the south, the Red River.

There are train tracks all over the town of Ashdown.

This train had loads of rock. I thought maybe there was some kind of rock industry in the town, so I googled it and found out that Domtar which is a paper producing facility is the largest employer in town, providing 2/3 of all the jobs, and is the largest paper producing facility in the world. The 2nd largest industry is timber, which we kind of figured out, because we have seen many trucks carrying timber on our drive to and from our resort to Ashdown. The rocks must be coming from further north in the Ouachita Mountains.

On our walks around the resort I have seen several red birds. On another day, Joe was off to the store, when I saw this red bird a couple sites away. I would have put my zoom on the camera, but it was in the car with Joe. This was the best I could get. I think it is a Hepatic Tanager. I have never seen this bird before.

It had a bit of white and black or grey under it's wings. When I saw it earlier, it was with a mustard and olive female, which seemed to agree with my bird book. I am hoping to get a better picture before we leave.

On one of our trips to Ashdown, we spotted this church 6 miles south of our resort. We decided that this would be our church for the next 3 weeks.

On Sunday we attended the morning service. I like the message on the sign out front of the church.

Our sermon was very fitting for the Memorial Day weekend.
The Pastor talked how Jesus laid down his life so we could have salvation or freedom in death, where as soldiers laid down their lives so we can have freedom in this lifetime. Now that is true Bravery, Sacrifice & Love from both Jesus and our American Hero's.
 The special music was a song sang by one of the members in the church. The song's name is, "Thank you for giving to the Lord" I had never heard the song  before, and it caused a few tears. The song was thanking people who do things that change other peoples lives. The song implies that the giving is not always recognized by others during their life on this earth, but will be in Heaven. The song "Blessed" me so much that I wanted to share it with you. 
I just want to say to all the men and women who serve in our military, "Thank You For Giving To The Lord, you have changed so many people's lives"!

  

Can anyone guess what this picture is of?

How about this one?

Or this one?

Now this one is really strange! As I was going through my pictures to upload them for this blog, I came across these pictures, I wondered what there were. Then it dawned on me that Joe had been out a few nights before with the camera. I asked him what in the heck were these pictures of. He told me that they were pictures of the moon with clouds around it. He said the moon had a very neat look to it with the clouds, so he took some pictures. I had quite a good laugh at all the pictures, so I hope you get as much of a chuckle as I did. We all need to laugh just a bit more in life, so here's to a good healthy laugh for your health! I told you Joe is not very good with the camera!

OK he finally had one out of the whole bunch that at least you could tell it was a moon and clouds, and even a tree on the side. Good picture Joe!