Adventurous Leila

We stayed at the dispersed campground called Turkey Bayou for a week. I loved our spot, we were right on the water equipped with a picnic table and fire ring. It was perfect for solar and there was even a tether ball game. Many of the spots were wooded so we had lots of area to play and build forts since there were only a few other people camping.

As soon as we arrived Landon and I changed into our suits and went for a little swim to cool off. We blew up the paddle board and the Kayak so we could explore all around. After exploring we stayed in the middle of the lake where Landon had a blast doing cannonballs off the paddle board. We had some fun in the sun on an amazing hot summer day, perfect for paddle boarding and swimming in the refreshing water.

The following morning another RV pulled in and they had two kids, a 17 year old boy and 8 year old girl. Of course I befriended them so we hung out the rest of the time we were there, playing tetherball, building forts, making houses out of magnet tiles, fishing and chitchatting.

We heard that right down the road was a hike called the Mini Grand Canyon and since we are originally from Arizona, of course we had to check it out. On the way there my dad stopped at a bait shop to get some bug spray where he was informed its a very long and strenuous hike. The store clerk made my mom nervous as she said most people start the hike first thing in the morning to get done before the sun goes down and it was already late into the afternoon. We decided we would still try and if it was too hard or getting late we could always turn around and not finish it. After arriving we started down the rocky trail and started the “long” hike. The trail was absolutely gorgeous, it had beautiful greenery, blooming flowers and moss patches everywhere. It even smelled good, like freshly rained on pine. The hike climbed up and down lots of slippery rocks and some fallen trees but to us it was a fairly easy hike. It only took us about two hours to complete and Landon even walked the whole 3.4 mile trail.

During our stay there was an awful storm, the sky was going crazy turning dark black and green as it produced tornadoes that touched down just passed where we were staying. The thunder raddled the RV and the sky was flashing like nothing we’ve ever seen before. We were starting to get really nervous watching the clouds form into very odd shapes. When watching outside our kitchen window we realized there were waterspouts coming off the lake just feet from the RV. At this point we wouldn’t be able to leave as the only way out was into the storm. We pulled in the slide and my mom had Landon and I get under his bed placing the couch cushions all around us. She sat on the floor next to us praying while my dad tried to comfort Blue as he was completely terrified. After about an hour the storm had passed and we were able to sleep peacefully. It was one of the most terrifying experiences and in the morning we learned that a total of 7 tornadoes touched down in our area that night. We are very blessed that we were safe.

After the crazy storm it was time to pack up and move onto our next destination where thankfully there would be no more storms on the forecast.