First of all, hauling a 17-foot Uhaul truck with a full car trailer is difficult. The last time I drove something like that it was a 15 passenger van, 5 to 12 kids, and a full canoe trailer. Needless to say, years of working at a desk and sitting through law school have made me soft. I was that asshole driving down the two-lane highway going 55 mph when everyone else (including several 18-wheelers) was going at least 65 to 85 mph. Ugh, it was a slog with high winds, mini-hills, and whatnot as I rolled through southeastern Colorado. The weather was kind of horrible (windy, rainy, lightening-y), but it was intermittent. By six o'clock the sun was shinning across the flat expanse of alfalfa fields and farms. I was about 20 miles or so outside of Campo, Colorado, and I could already see big thunderhead clouds over Oklahoma and Texas.
If I may be permitted an aside. The sun was at such a point on the horizon that it turned everything a warm reddish-orange color. It was so beautiful. The country is flat down there, very, very flat. So the sun set looks much like the sun setting on the ocean. It lit up these thunder clouds the same way it does mountains as dusk. Rather than alpenglow on the mountains, the sun set lit up these clouds, turning them pink, orange, and blue.
From years of watching skies in the mountains, I knew those were thunder clouds. I gave it no more thought than that. I did call up a good friend of mine who is from southern Colorado. He informed me that there was bad weather further south in Oklahoma and in the Texas panhandle. "Well, we will just see about that. I have to get down to Amarillo." This friend replied, "Well, just be careful." Okay, that was that. I kept going, singing Little Feats Willin' on repeat because I was driving a "big rig" after all.
La, la, la, la, la, la. Uh oh . . . the lightening was increasing, really increasing. No rain really, no wind either. Toodely toot toot, oh well. I am only 50 miles from Amarillo, and I am going.
THEN ......... ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. Hail! Lightening that actually blinds me. More hail, and it is banging on the cab of the Uhaul so loud that it is deafening. The road is flooded, and, in this flat hell I have stumbled into, there is no cover, no underpass or anywhere else to hide. Of course, the 18 wheelers are still flying by. I have switched from my repeated renditions of Willin' to saying "no more hail, no tornado, no more hail, please, please, please." Doodle is straight losing his shit (he is looking at me like, "What have you done? Make it stop!"). The hail backs off in time for me to see the little town of Stratford, Texas. Any other time, this would have been a drive-by town. On this night, however, I was excited to see buildings and other places to hide from what I knew was a tornado. I pulled into a truck stop, many other drivers and truckers had the same idea. I called my friend from southeastern Colorado and told him what just transpired. He informed me that there were tornados passing through my area. I informed him that I was "Scared Shitless!!!! If I had poop, I would have shit myself." Then a bunch of nervous giggles from me. My friend told me that I had to stay put in Stratford until the worst passed. What was the worst? Oh I will tell you! It was air raid sirens, the ceasing of hail and rain, and the beginning of winds so strong and miserable that they moved a loaded Uhaul. "Accccckkkkkkk!" I posted to facebook. The tornado, I later found out, went right over the town. Ugh. Well another phone call to my friend, he informed me (after I hid out in Stratford for an hour) that I had a small window of time to get down to Dumas, Texas. Dumas was a "booming metropolis" according to my friend. I drove like hell and got into town just at the "storm chasers" were pulling into Dumas and setting up their cameras to catch the tornado that was going to touch down "any minute."
Well it was 1 am at this point, Doodle and I got into our hotel room just before more hell actually rained down on the little town of Dumas.
One of my favorite things in the world is curling up in bed when it is storming outside. Too many years of sitting in a tent, or less, during snow storms, lightening storms, hail storms, etc. However, no Wyoming tempest could have prepared me for my first Texas storm. Naturally it was quiet, pristine, and beautiful as Eden the next morning in Dumas. But, that is for another post.
If you don't believe me. Check out this link to a report of the day's tornado events. http://www.tornadoeskick.com/2010/05/3673.
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