Gloria, Gloria

It's suppose to rain today. The wind is up today, gusts 40 mph. I don't mind any storm, as we need the rain. They keep finding bodies in barrels at Lake Mead because the water levels around here are so low.

I used to give tours of historic homes around here and one belonged to a family that once lived in a spot they flooded at Lake Mead. It was a little town and the story is told that one gentleman decided to stay and would not leave his home. He, of course, died in the flood and his home and body are still under the water there.

For how much longer, though? 

I remember a dam not too far from here. When I was around 18, we would try to get as close as we could to the Colorado River and watch the water flow over the spillway at that dam. It was loud, massive, powerful. 

Water stopped flowing over that spillway ages ago. 

It's sad on many levels. One, is the obvious, we aren't getting enough snow and rain. 

Many lakes I frequently visit are no longer there. One of the Lake Mary's were dry when I went recently. I cannot recall if it was upper or lower, but it just looked awful. Dead, trashy, dry.

I think the other main reason this is sad, are...these are places associated with our memories. 

I haven't heard from Gloria in many years but I remember we would frequent the Nevada side of Colorado River. We'd lounge in the water by the rocks. The current was too swift to swim, so we'd sunbathe and watch the boats and we would love the waves they would splash on us, the water on the Colorado is very cold, but the heat was very hot. 

We were down there one day it reached 128°. Temperatures like this were probably never recorded officially because if you knew how hot it really gets here, no one would ever visit. 

One day a fellow in a smaller  boat came close to us and asked us if we would like a ride and we could fish with him under the spillway. We did it. I would never do it nowadays, but we were foolish. Nothing bad happened, so it is a good memory. 

I miss Gloria. Last I heard she was living in Oklahoma with a rodeo cowboy hubby and had a few kids. 

She was very tall, thin, beautiful. Long black hair, high cheek bones. She tanned easily because she had a lot of Native American blood in her. I was jealous because that is just the way we are. Blond, fair skinned fat girls always want to be a Gloria. She was just amazing.

Those times we went together to the Colorado River I will never forget.