Cliff Downing, one of the regatta organizers, will be racing against his fourteen-year-old son, Chris. Chris is captain of a twenty-two foot McGregor sailboat and is hopeful of a good finish. There was a registration party Friday night at Dockside Bar & Grill at Eufaula Cove Marina, complete with live band.
Entrants finished the first leg of the race today, sailing from Eufaula Cove Marina to Evergreen Marina. Tomorrow morning, around ten am, they will take off from Dam Site South, headed back toward Eufaula Cove and expecting to cross the finish line sometime after one o'clock.
Check back Sunday evening for updates but the complete newsweek video of regatta, archeology, graduation, etc. may not be done until Monday. Next week, our photos and videos will feature a thrilling rock climb on our lake's northern shore, just above the dam and a kid's rodeo playday at the Eufaula Rodeo Arena.
The meteorological definition of summer, as opposed to the astronomical definition, is the entire months of June, July and August, but the Eufaula Redheaded Centipede's definition appears to be even earlier!
We're always happy to see the first redheaded centipedes of the season, even if we're not always so happy about the locale. One year, it was the kitchen sink! I'd been a bit lazy and hadn't washed the dinner dishes from night before. The redhead decided to take a dip - bad decision - and the next morning, before coffee, I plunged my bare hands into the dishwater to finish my chore. Our nearest neighbors are a quarter mile away, but they were probably awakened by my blood-curtling scream (most unmanly!) as I pulled out a ten-inch redhead that had drowned and got caught up in the dish rag.
Well, that cured me of leaving dishes overnight!
This year, we found our first redhead trapped on our screened porch, seemingly frustrated at not being able to find a way out. After photos and video, we (gingerly) trapped him in a bucket and released him into the woods near the banks of Lake Eufaula.
Check out this week's Eufaula Lakeshore video for carnival & storm coverage, centipede close-ups and a story about phone line vandalism.
At about five-twenty yesterday evening, a large tornado was reported on the ground in the area of Crowder and moving toward Quinton, however an hour later, driving from Enterprise, through Quinton, Featherston, Blocker, Bristow Point and Crowder there was no evidence of storm damage and no one we talked to had heard of any.
Eufaula Unscathed
At the Eufaula marina, last night, restaurants were serving customers and everything seemed normal. The Eufaula Carnival was full of kids enjoying rides and parents enjoying the cool evening breeze. Longtown had no damage, but there was widespread power outtage overnight that started around seven pm. Most of Longtown had electricity by six this morning, but some areas were without power until 10:30am Sunday. Unfortunately, other areas were less fortunate.
The area of Haywood, just south of McAlester, reported houses damaged by a tornado. There were reports of damage to homes and power lines in the rural areas outside Clayton in Pushmataha County. People are reportedly trapped in their storm cellars in Pittsburg County near Yanush. And houses were reported damaged and of course, extreme damage was reported in Picher, in northeast Oklahoma, with the loss of seven lives.
