The wind picked up and our trailer, which weights 18,000 pounds, started rocking back and forth. Our awning acted like a flag waving in the wind, even though it was tied down. Jim ran outside to deal with it, then came back in and told me that I would have to help him with it. Moi? I am absolutely terrified of storms. But I had no choice for fear that the awning would be ripped right out of the trailer. I stepped outside and the wind caught the door, slamming it into the side of the trailer. BAM! Jim was already wrestling with one arm of the awning. He told me to hold it down. Now, I'm certainly not a lightweight, but it took all my might to keep the awning down while Jim loosened the other arm so he could roll up the awning. Winds gusted over 60 mph. We could just watch the front roll in, looking up into the sky and seeing the line of clouds pile up one on top of the other. It looked like a movie. I wanted to take a picture of it, but by this time it started to rain.Here's a picture I took from inside the trailer with the camera pressed up against the window looking out across the farmer's field behind us. It's not the sharpest picture, but it shows the scary sky.
The front moved through fast. It felt like we were inside a ride at DisneyWorld with our trailer shaking back and forth, thunder rumbling in the background, and some lightening thrown in for good visual effects.
When it was all said and done, the whole sky lit up with this eerie red color. I don't know if it was dust in the atmosphere or what, but it had an unearthly like feel to it.
Why am I so afraid of storms? Why - I blame my mother, God rest her soul. SHE was afraid of storms, and instilled that in me, (and some of my siblings). If ever there was bad weather, meaning heavy rain, she would make us all troop down to the basement and sit in the southwest corner which was supposed to be the safest in case of a tornado.
Being the good mother that I am, I have passed this fear of storms down to my kids. They seemed to have outgrown it somewhat, but still are not fond of storms. Me? I'm chicken shit from the first drop of rain. Unless it's a nice gentle rain. That I can handle. But throw in wind, rain, and lightening - I'm a goner.
Most of the campgrounds we stay at do NOT have storm shelters. Once we were in West Memphis, Arkansas. A tornado had just passed through the week before, and the week we were there, a terrible storm came through. There were tornado warnings issued. I was a wreak. When I asked the owner about storm shelters, she replied, "Well, we have a culvert out in the field there..." Oookay, a culvert is something that goes UNDER a road. But they had this big cement thing in the middle of a field that we're supposed to run to for shelter, during a storm.
Jim is not fazed by storms. He always says that we'll be okay. He'll get the radar up on the computer and his famous last words are, "It's going to miss us." The worst storm we were ever in was in Mitchell, SD.It was about 2:00 a.m. and we were in bed sleeping. The heavy rain woke us up, along with the wind shaking our trailer.
In a tremulous voice, I asked Jim, "What do you think we should do?"
He replied, "I think we should get dressed."
OH MY GOD!!! This must REALLY be bad if we're getting dressed! We quickly dressed, Jim got the latest radar up on the computer, I tuned into the local radio station. They clocked the winds at 68 mph. Jim's biggest concern? He peeked out the window to see if our satellite dish was still standing! The radio DJ then said, "You should not be in a trailer during this storm." WHAT? At this point, I grabbed the bottle of holy water I keep just for these purposes, and started "blessing" each room in the trailer, plus Jim and me. Do you feel his pain? He's locked up in a trailer during a storm with a crazy woman. Then the radio DJ said, "Now the wind clocked at 72 mph!" Jim peeked out again and darn! The satellite dish didn't withstand that amount of wind.
We survived that storm and many more after that. I'm just afraid the same thing will happen to me that happened to Dorothy. And I don't have anything to match the ruby slippers.
You need to get that ensemble together.... just in case. Oh, and don't forget your computer as you follow that yellow brick road.... we will all want to hear about it!
ReplyDeleteI had a couple staying here once. He was a good bit older than his bride. She was Asian and didn't speak English. I referred to her as his mail-order bride, but I digress. Anyhow, after much effort he finally logged on to Wi-Fi (he disconnecter the range expander near his site and brought it to me, telling me I left my radio outside, again, I digress). There was a tornado watch out for MORGAN county, not MONTGOMERY county. He was apparently confused, because the two of them donned their overcoats and stood in the deep end of our empty pool waiting for the end of the world......and me without a camera!
Be safe!
I am so glad that you posted a comment on my blog so that I could then find yours! I love your style. We are very nearly the same age (I'll be 53 in August) and I'm also a trophy wife! But, my husband didn't even place 5th - poor fella. LOL! But, we've been married nearly 25 years (got married after 19 days) so he's pretty stuck with me now.
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