Truman lake

My father and I spent a night at the lake. We camped at the State park- our favorite campsite has been converted to an electrical one (with most of the park)- Its occupied, with neighboring ones, by RVs, Christmas lights, satellite dishes and pink flamingos.

Several of the remaining basic campsites are closed to flooding- We camped on a tiny spot at the top of turkey ridge.

the lake was about 20ft high- the parking lots and boat ramps are flooded, but a high water ramp and ferry run by the marina allowed us to put our little boat in the water. It sounded a bit funny, but with a new tank of gas and a few hours on the water- it worked.

I put my tiny kayak in the water- My parents gave it to me last week as a graduation gift and it was the first time Ive had it in the water. A tiny 9' sit-on-top. I paddled across to the island marina(used to be on land), around it, over the parking lots and back to the docks. Fished a bit- two small bass. We went out to the dam and set a few jug lines.

The sun set and I took some photos of the flooded parking lot- had some awesome clouds. Had us a fire- I followed an armadillo and some spiders- one very large one, perched on a tree ate a roach. I shown my flashlight on 'em and tried to take a macro- it was okay

Sunday I woke to some growling or screaming in our camp. I recognised the horrific sound as a racoon's fight. Peeked out of my tent; saw nothing. The horizon was just beginning to show evidence of a sunrise, and the fingernail moon was high and bright.

I woke again and my tent seemed like a light box.

my father and I drove down to the marina. Five doe, two fawns and a young buck later- we were on the water. The three lines we'd left on the boat had no fish- the bait was still alive. Soon we drove towards the dam. The sky was blue and the sun saw no clouds, but there was a powerful wind that ripped across the lake.

Our 14-footer was no match for the white-caps on the lake. We bounced from wave to wave- water splashed into the boat. We made it, surprisingly, to the jug lines that we'd set. No fish.

We crawled across the waves back to the marina and continued around the Park's peninsula. The flooded lake has swallowed parking lots, beaches, dumpsters, woodlands and even the bases of a few buildings.

I took my kayak around the cove for a few more hours- three lines in the entire time and still no fish. My father had one tug at him, but the line was snagged in fight.

We visited the parks glade and the dam before we split for home.

I hiked onto the glade alone and found a handful of unusual blooms. I recognised the catchfly and leadplant in the woods, but found some new ones, too. A large bean-lookin plant with pink/yellow snapdragon type flowers, a purple "scullcap" that resembles a germander and wild bergamont (horsemint) .

I flipped some rocks and followed the googles of scorpions that I stirred until they posed for photographs. One was comfy on top of a rock for one exposure- two others were more obedient for the Canon A620 point-n-shoot. Click on the photos for close-ups of their pleasant little faces!

After my photo shoot with the arachnids, I headed back. I found some spiderwort going to seed and the unripe fruits of a large prickly-pear cactus.

Surprised I found no blkwidows or tarantulas- this glade is a great spot for both.

At the dam we spotted a pair of my favorite creatures in the world ! Two male scissor-tail flycatchers flicked and flitted about each other in the sky. A family through hunks of bread down to the mob of carp and catfish in the water. A few long gar patrolled the edge of the crowd . A huge koi fish fed with the carp and the smaller, darker catfish swam underneath them all-

Kinda cool!