We managed to stay in our "permanent" site at Buffalo Park for five nights, then had to be evacuated again. The ranger had measured the water rising on Monday morning, and it rose 18" during the day. Jeff was working at the camp office that night - only our second day of work - and the ranger came by and said the water had risen another foot in the last 30 minutes, and they were going to close the park again.
So once more, we packed up all our belongings (which of course we had set up thinking we wouldn't be moving until Oct. 31) and moved back over to Paul Wolff park. The move was better this time in that Jeff hadn't had surgery on THAT day. Although since it had only been four days since his second surgery, he still couldn't lift much or do anything that requires a strain. The worst thing was that we had to pack and move in the dark.
We pulled into the site that looked best (at least in the dark), but discovered during the night and the next morning that it left a lot to be desired. All during the night, we heard acorns dropping from the oak trees above us. Some of them sounded like someone was lobbing baseballs at the roof. When daylight came, we found that the entire area was pretty swampy and covered with acorns so it was like walking on a pebbled beach. Luckily for us, someone left that morning from a really nice site which was also up the hill, so not as swampy. Everything squishes when you walk here because of soooo much rain.
We went back to Buffalo Park on Tuesday to retreive our screen tent, since we had decided it was too much to do in the dark. The water had risen much higher - still not on our site, but a maintenance shed which had been on the bank of the river was now an island.
On Tuesday night, when no rain was forecast during the night, we were awakened to the sound of things hitting the roof, and the wind was really blowing hard. All our awnings were out, and we were trying to decide if we needed to take the big awning in, when the rain begin to come down, and the wind lessened. The whole thing probably only lasted about five minutes, but morning light showed the damage. Lots of little branches littered our camp area, but down the hill, much worse met the eye. Several larger trees had lost big limbs and one poor RV'er had a huge tree crack at the base and fall on a passenger car and his tow vehicle crushing both and narrowly missing his fifth wheel. We were very grateful that none of the trees around our site decided to follow that example.
The rain continued to fall, the river continued to rise, and it was becoming very doubtful as to how quickly Buffalo Park would reopen. Thursday, about 3:15 p.m., we got a tornado warning. We packed up our necessities and prepared to take cover until I looked at the Doppler radar on the NOAA site and saw that the worst was to the south of us. It rained pretty hard, but no wind. That night saw some of the worst weather the Chicago area has had in a long, long time. Trees toppled, power lines down, roads flooded everywhere. On Friday morning, we drove into the VA for a follow-up visit on Jeff's eyes and saw masses of destruction from the storms - two major ones that came through about two hours apart. Friday, we had no rain until the evening and since then it has been sunshine and cool, non humid temps.
We drove by Buffalo Park on Saturday morning to get some pics of the flooding. Here you can see the day use area which is at the front of the park
 day use |
 used to be a coal catcher |
I think this is the top of one of the concrete picnic tables. One of the long time residents of this area was quoted on local TV saying this was the worst flooding on the Fox River in 50 years.
 water, water everywhere |
 camp office |
We couldn't get any campground pictures because the road to the campground is flooded. I took some videos of the south and north views and those of you with a fast enough connection to download video can get an idea of the flooding
On the upside, Jeff's eye doctor visit was good. His pressure was down, and his eyesight improves daily. They removed one stitch, but there are several more to go. He says that he can currently see at a distance about the same as he did before the first surgery without glasses. His close up vision is still not good, but both are supposed to get much better as he heals.
We drove into Chicago on Saturday and had a good visit with Adam. Unfortunately, Laura was visiting her folks in Michigan so we missed her. Hopefully as soon as Adam finishes his current show load-in, they will come visit us for a weekend wherever we happen to be.
