Straight Line Winds

Wow!  What a frightening evening we had last night.  The weather here in Lafayette has been wonderful the last few days.  80's during the day.....cool nights.....and no humidity.  So, I guess we were lulled into a false since of security.  We knew storms were forecast for our area and the heat and humidity had rose during the day, but we had absolutely no warning.  We were both just kicking back in our easy chairs watching tv, when all of a sudden a big gust of wind came rolling by the trailer.  I mean it scared the "@#$%" outta me.  There was so much debris...tree limbs, leaves, dirt, and trash flying by......Billy and I jumped up and ran to the door.  I was afraid a tornado was coming......but just as fast as it came, it stopped.  We were lucky our awning was out, but unharmed.  The neighbors behind us were not so lucky.  Their awning was destroyed.  We picked up some trash and saw that a big old tree limb had fallen and just missed our fifth wheel and truck.  After the wind passed, the thunderstorm came through next.  It was not too bad.....although we did lose power for awhile.  We watch the news later and heard that straight line winds had hit the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds.  The state fair is going and it took out a stage and I think some bleachers right before a show was to start......I heard 4 people were dead with many injured.  My heart goes out to all those poor folks.  I know how lucky we all were here at the campground....it could have been so much worse. 

We are OK....BUT

Been without internet, so got some catching up to do.....Let's start with the morning we were leaving "Big Red Barn" in MO. Around 7am, a terrible storm blew through the rv park. The tornado sirens were going and the wind was blowing hard. We pulled in the slides and hoped for the best. There was really nothing else to do--no other shelter near by and nothing but flat ground around us....so we decided, like everyone else, to just stay put and hope for the best. We were very lucky and came through unharmed. Unfortunately, the photo above shows that not everyone was as lucky. I did not get to personally speak to the occupants of that motorhome, but I was told no one was injured. Thank goodness for that! I think the whole storm lasted about 45 minutes and it did not take us long to hitch up the trailer and get moving down the road. We were careful to keep track of the storm, which was moving east in front of us. We were headed to Hazlet State Park in IL.

We did ok and arrived at the park about an hour behind the storm. I don't think it was as strong when it hit there---didn't see much if any damage, just a lot of standing water. That is a photo of our site. It is a very nice park, we only had electric at the site, but water was nearby. We ended up staying here two nights, before heading to Elkhart. More later.......