A Little Too Much Excitement

Sometimes I find myself wishing for a little more excitement in my day to day life. It would be nice to have more to blog about than just "we're here, things are the same, here's some pictures!" But after what I went through yesterday, I don't need any more excitement for awhile now.

Yesterday was my Grandma's birthday, so I planned to travel with my parents up to her house to have a birthday dinner with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Mike had some things he needed to get done, so decided not to go. Sunday morning my parents and I headed out in their van and stopped by to pick up my sister, brother-in-law, and my two nieces to ride up all together. I was having a good time playing and reading books to Teagan when we started to notice that the sky was getting really dark. It wasn't too suprising since we knew we might hit some storms that day, but thought the worst would be later in the afternoon/evening.

We were talking about how dark it was and Nicole commented that it would make great napping weather. But it just seemed to be getting darker, so my mom suggested maybe we should try to turn on the radio to see about the weather. So my dad turned it on, but we couldn't really get anything in. I was starting to get just a little worried and as we passed by an exit, I had a passing thought that we really should have pulled off there. Next thing I know it starts raining. And then starts raining very hard and is very windy. By this time, we are really on edge and trying to figure out how to check the weather on somebody's phone. Unfortunately my sister, the only one with web access on her phone, left her phone at home, thinking it wouldn't matter since everyone else had phones.

Then out of nowhere we heard a loud CLUNK. It didn't register at first what had happened, but then we started hearing CLUNK CLUNK CLUNKCLUNKCLUNKCLUNK and Teagan started screaming. Somewhere in the middle of this we realized it was hail. We're really scared at this point and then the next thing I remember, Nicole, who is clear in the back, yells out that she's getting wet. I look back at the window, but no cracks, then I look up front and realize there isn't a driver's side window anymore and the windsheild is completely cracked. The wind was blowing so hard and it was so loud we thought there was a tornado. I quickly get on my phone to call Mike to ask him to look up online to see if there is a tornado in the area. He couldn't hear what I was saying and I was shouting with my voice shaking badly with fear. We ended up finally getting to an overpass, which was completly lined with cars on both sides, so we just had to park in the middle of the interstate. Mike has finally figured out what I was asking and realizes that there's no official report, but someone has reported that they think there is a tornado. So he's wanting us to get out of the car and up under the bridge. But with two babies and 5 adults, we have no idea how to manage this.

While I was on the phone with Mike, Nicole had called 911 and got disbatched to a police officer who was not the most compassionate guy out there. All he said was that we needed to get our car out of the middle of the interstate and that if we could get under the bridge to go for it. The whole time the wind was blowing so hard and I could see debris from the fields flying across the windshield. Plus, I'm getting soaked with water and we have golf-ball sized hail littering the floor of the van. Quick thinking mama Nicole threw a blanket over Teagan and hovered over Harper's carseat in the back.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, it seemed to be letting up. At this point, Nicole and Mom are really pushing Dad to pull forward to get off the road. This means we're going to get even more soaked, but we can't risk staying on the road and having someone bash into us from behind. Right after we pulled over a semi-truck came barrelling by at full speed. We still didn't know if it was over, or if there might by a tornado or more hail on the way, but we decided to make a run for the next exit. We ended up being farther north than we thought, so drove longer to get to an exit that actually had somewhere to pull off to without having to drive 10 miles to the nearest town. I was freezing in the car- we looked at the temperature on the van and it was only at 56 degrees even though just before the storm it had been in the 80's! My hands and legs were shaking so bad because of being cold and because of the adrenaline.

When we pulled off and got to the gas station, my Dad got out and had blood running down his legs and on his arm. He also had a huge welt under his chin where he had gotten pelted by hail. We met lots of new friends (most of them bikers on their way back from Sturgis) who were amazed to see the damage to the van and the glass all over. Then we headed to Kmart to get some new clothes for Dad and me and to get plastic and duct tape to patch the window. When I went to try on pants at Kmart, glass fell out of my shorts as I took them off. We got patched up with the help of some strangers in the parking lot. Nicole became Dad's personal nurse and got him all cleaned and fixed up with ice to put on his chin and finger.We rode the rest of the way to Grandma's house in shock and on edge, as the clouds ahead stayed ominously dark. Thankfully rain was all we encountered.

After a great afternoon at Grandma's, we headed back home. The whole way it was raining lightly and lightening all across the sky, but again, fairly mild weather compared to earlier. When we passed the spot we got hit, we were amazed to see the corn and bean fields just decimated. We also noticed a couple big farm houses with all the west side windows boarded up due to busted out windows, and saw a line of trees in the middle of a field knocked over.

Apparently, what I gather from news reports it that after it hit us, the storm continued straight east to Eldora, where it did some very serious damage and released hail even bigger than the golf ball sized chunks we were hit with. There were reports of 70 mph winds- and I believe it!!!

The good news is that Dad really only had minor injuries, and we all came out shaken, but safe and healthy. We were amazed at how God had worked things out for us. We could easily have had both babies up front, or Teagan's car seat could have been on my side and she would have gotten soaked and cut with glass. If Mike had come with us, Nicole and Brandon would have been in their small car with both girls in the back and Nicole would have had much more trouble getting them covered. We are praising God that he kept us safe through the storm. I am praying though that this is the last of my excitement of that sort for awhile!!

I have some pictures, but didn't get them loaded to our computer yet. In the meantime- you can check out Nicole's pictures here.