Today was a dash. A dash across Tornado Alley, with eyes to the sky. We left Oklahoma City early this morning with hopes of getting out in front of the approaching storms. Just yesterday they had experienced wicked thunderstorms, flash flooding and a couple near misses with tornados-and even more severe weather was predicted for today. If you’re not familiar with where Tornado Alley is located, just watch the Weather Channel or any of the cable news stations. They’re having one of the largest, and most destructive spells of severe weather in a long time. Oklahoma, with I-40 running across most of the state, is right smack dab in the middle. Our travels yesterday and today had us driving on I-40, running across most of the state of Oklahoma, and continuing over into northern Texas.
If anyone knows my lovely wife, you’ll know she’s very good at being prepared for just about anything. In the past 24 hours she also began explaining instructions she found on the internet, (as well as the Weather Channel) to Darby and I about what we would have to do if we should encounter a funnel cloud while driving. Notice that I said, what “we would HAVE to do,” not should do, or possibly do. The plan, as explained to us in detail, was that we would pull the truck over to the side of the road, abandon MY truck, and lie down flat in a low ditch. Now, if you know me, I’m not sure that would be very effective for yours truly. Sure, Darby and Theresa might be spared by their low profile, but unless I found a large Prairie Dog hole to scurry down, I’m not sure I could get very low in the ditch to make a difference. As a matter of fact, I might even cause a secondary problem by damming up any storm water runoff that was running down the ditch, causing a mini flash flood on the same roadway we needed to escape on! At one particular point this morning we were driving right toward some very dangerous looking clouds when Theresa turned to Darby and told her to get her sneakers on. I looked at Darby in the rearview mirror with a puzzled look and we both kinda just chuckled. Did she know something we didn’t know? About 20 minutes later, Darby summed up the entire morning. Some of the sky showed signs of clearing and I wanted to snap a good photo showing the vast grasslands of western Oklahoma before we left. I found a perfect spot to stop and had to to quickly slow down before I drove past it. Without missing a beat, Darby looked up from her phone and calmly asked, “Are we getting ready to run?” We all broke out in laughter, and although a bit stressful morning due to the weather conditions, it was a perfectly-timed question!
As we left Oklahoma and northeast Texas, we were fortunate to leave behind the dangerous weather as well. We decided to take a break and stop by a well-known attraction in Amarillo-the Cadillac Ranch. Actually, it’s more like a Cadillac art display. In the middle of a farm field ten old, Cadillacs stand in a row, all with their front ends buried, as if they all crash landed in a perfect line. The owner invites anyone to stop by and legally graffiti your name, message, etc. in spray paint on any of the cars. Darby decided she would like to give it go, so, after both her and Theresa removed their shoes and walked the 200-yard walk barefoot, through 3” of mud and large puddles from recent rains, Darby left her autograph in metallic gold paint, as Theresa, myself and several other, not so brave visitors, watched on. It was pretty cool.
We ended our travel day in beautiful Albuquerque, surrounded by rugged mountains of rocks that look like they could tumble down at any time, and capped our nervous-traveling, fun, weird day with a fantastic southwestern meal (and great service) at the Range Café in Bernalillo, NM.
I’ve said it before, weather happens, whether you want it to, or not………btw, as we look ahead to our travels next week that will bring us to Wyoming and South Dakota, we can’t help to chuckle just a bit after hearing that 1’-2’ of snow has just fallen in the areas we’re planning on exploring! Let the fun begin!
