Weather Warning

Determined to make it a better day, we headed for Vicksburg this morning to have a hot breakfast, take care of some business and visit the Vicksburg Battleground National Monument.

Two out of three ain’t bad.

After breakfast and business were taken care of, we soaked up all the 3G service we could. A quick check of the online radar revealed big bad storms heading our way. With our leaky slide exposed to the elements, we passed on soggy sightseeing and headed back to our rolling home to pull the thing in and prepare for the storm.

We beat the storm home and kept an eye to local TV and ear to the NOAA weather radio for updates. The storm intensified as it headed our way. When a tornado warning was issued for the parish just across the river, we took notice. Winds were reported in excess of 60 miles an hour. Healthy sized hail was part of the mix. Radar confirmed a tornado approaching the town directly across the river and toward us. When the TV weatherman named that easternmost Louisiana town in the twister’s path, he added “then it will move into remote areas of Mississippi” like it was dropping off the map or something.

Wait a minute! WE are IN this remote area of Mississippi!

I am quick to admit that my greatest fear about fulltiming is facing severe weather. We’ve hunkered down and ridden out a few storms already, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at my sense of calm. But, I tell you, when I hear that a tornado is (or even might be) heading toward this fiberglass box on wheels, we are outta here!

Our evacuation was swift. We crated the cats, pulled in the slides, stored the TV antenna, piled the family into the Jeep and headed down the hill. A few minutes later we parked outside the campground office and the rain began to pour. We went inside, explained the reports we had heard about the weather and asked if we could hang out in the sturdy brick building for awhile. And, oh yeah, could we bring our cats in, too?

Now, I’m not wild about the South. But, I do appreciate fine southern hospitality. These good people just couldn’t have been any nicer. They invited us and our animals inside to stay as long as we wanted. They turned on the weather radio, found the radar online and offered their local interpretation of the situation. Yep. It looked bad. They affirmed our decision to seek shelter, and were surprised other campers hadn’t done the same.

We spent the next hour or so perusing the Civil War artifacts on display in the park museum, which is housed in the same sturdy building. We chatted with the campground staff about the weather and our collective life stories. We got a very informative history of the area and a fantastic agenda for a day trip tomorrow. Outside lightning flashed, thunder crashed and it continued to pour. One of our hosts kept an eye to the radar and reported with relief that the worst was passing to the south of us. With that good news, we watched for a break in the rain. When we spotted one, we loaded our brood back in the Jeep and trundled back up the hill. Heavy rains continued to fall most of the afternoon, so we kept the big leaky slide pulled in. Paul tackled the laundry, which included some of my wet stuff from the closet. I opted to chill out and catch up on our blog posts. These last couple of days are definitely ones to remember!

Like I said earlier, we were determined to make this a better day than yesterday. And, are we going to let a little severe weather ruin our day? No way! We’ve concocted plans to grill a couple of fine Kansas City strips and a nice glass (or two) of wine.

It’ll be the perfect thing for a better day.