It’s day three and here we are, safely ensconced in our hotel room in Hays, Kansas. It’s been a hell of a day. Started off pretty nice up in the Rockies, had a wonderful lunch time visit with a new old friend (Jan, it was lovely to meet you and put a face to all of the correspondence and commenting we’ve been up to for quite awhile now), and then… then… well… thunderstorms. Severe thunderstorms with lightning, pea sized hail coming down so hard it piled up an inch or two high on the highway, rain pounding down with it, cars driving so slow all with hazard lights on, and Kev and I just saying to each other… press on, if we can get ahead of it we are good to go. We pressed on… and we did. Scary moments for sure… not the least of which was when the emergency alert came over the radio that there was a tornado warning for our area. Both Kev and I started scanning like mad and planning where we would park and run if we had to try and get away from one. Like I said… some scary and nerve racking moments.
Then… well… we thought we were in the clear… literally. We made it through that storm and were heading full speed ahead toward what was supposed to be our stop for the night when I checked the weather up ahead. Low and behold there was another group of severe thunderstorms heading straight for Salina. They were bigger and looked much worse than what we’d driven through… so we made the decision. Turn around and head back to Hays, which was about 20 miles behind us, instead of motoring on to Salina, 78 miles ahead. We were done for the day. There was no way we wanted to be heading into all the lightning we say in that direction not being able to see anything else because it was now dark outside. I decided to forgo the reservation we had, forgo the money we’d lose, to keep our nerves better intact. Good decision. Oh, and the photos… I didn’t take any at all during the worst of it. None. I was too busy obsessing about what was going on around us to pick up my camera. I did take a 13 second video with my phone. I’ll try to post that as well.
Tomorrow we read there is the possibility of more severe thunderstorms ahead. Pretty much all the way to Champaign. And, we have further to drive than originally planned. I’m hoping for a more mellow drive… fingers crossed. Lets just get there already! LOL
Wow! Glad you made it through safe and sound…hope today goes better. Thinking of you.
Tamra, it was wonderful to meet you and Kevan! You guys are great! Glad you made it through the storms in one piece!
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” ~ Anais Nin~