Tornado in St. Louis, April 2011

Well, here we are in St. Louis and boy did we  experience weather. Yesterday evening we could tell severe storms were coming in.  So we turned on local St. Louis news weather radar tracking and discovered we were about 5 miles north of where the tornado tracking was indicating the tornado would touch down.   We  spent the hour watching as it approached our area.   

Barb sat huddled on the sofa keeping Bailey comforted and I sat in the front window trying to get a photo on the lightening strikes.  I just was not quick enough to get the lightening, but I did get the black cloud coming in the storms.

  We debated going to bath house but decided we were not in the immediate tracking of tornado.  We did have heavy rain, hail , winds, and a bit of a scare.  But we were safe.

  It did terrible devastating damage to many homes in area plus the airport which is shut down for at least 2-3 days.

Thanks to all of you for checking on us. We are safe......just waiting to see if new
storm coming in tonight will be as bad..............

Our Weather Adjustments in St. Louis

When we arrive here we were wearing sweatshirts since the temp along the whole route was in the 50's.  As soon as we stepped out of the rig at the rv park here in St. Charles, we started sweating.  We were back to 80+ degrees and high humidity.  Off came the sweats and on with the shorts.

However it is just like St. Louis.....that night the temp dropped to 40 degrees, with day temp in the 50's.  Then the storms came in...heavy wind, hail and rain.  Yesterday was sunny but cold, 50 degrees.   Today it is warmer, in the 60's - 70's with rain, thunderstorms, hail , high winds forecast for the next 4 days.

   

Every day is something different with the weather.  We are adjusting !!!

We are in St. Louis

We arrived in St. Louis yesterday afternoon just ahead of the storms.  As I have done in the past, we had the radar active on weather.com and watched where the rain and storms were.  Our goal was to stay ahead of the storms.  All breaks were quick.  Fortunately for us, the heavy thunderstorms were to the north and south of us; our path along I-70 was just between each storm. 

That night around 6:00 pm the storms did hit us.  We had heavy rain, lightening and hail.  But we were safe and sound parked at the campground.

 This will be our home for the next month.  We will be visiting Barb's mom as well as seeing friends we have not seen for a year or more.  Barb's mom is doing well and seems to be improving daily.  That is very good news.

I will keep you updated as to her progress and our activities here.

Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb

A Visit to the Wichita Zoo

We only had one day to stay in Wichita and visit with Susan, Peter, Nicolas, and Caroline.  Barb and I took Nicolas and Caroline to our motorhome for a bit for them to see it again.  I think as they have gotten older, the idea of traveling in a motorhome has become more interesting and they had many questions about it.  We also spent part of the time talking about other visits we have had with them.

We then returned to their home to get Susan and Peter and we all went to the zoo.  Caroline was the only one who had been there, so she took us on a guided tour.  The day was sunny and warm and great for walking around and taking photos.

We made it to Wichita

Since it was well over 300 miles from Dalhart to Wichita, the plan was to drive 250 miles, stay overnight in some small town and then drive the last 65 miles the next day.  But when we reached the 250 mile limit, we were not tired and just drove on.  So this was our record.......315 miles.



On Sunday we  drove over to the kids house and I got to experiment with my portrait photography skills.  The kids had a great time posing and getting into silly positions. 

Nicolas and Caroline having fun.  I do not know how she managed to hold him

 I think this one may make a good portrait.

Stalled in Dalhart, TX

Our plan to drive another 250 miles today was shot down by mother nature.  The further north we drove on Hwy 54 towards Wichita, the windier it got.  When I decided to check the weather on the phone, I discovered that the wind was at 30-40 mph where we were and that the further north we went , the stronger the wind gusts.  In fact, if we had driven to our day's destination, the wind there was to be 60 mph wind with gusts to 75. 

We pulled over on the side of the road in Dalhart, TX to figure out what to do.  We were at the point of finding a motel in town with a big parking lot and just checking in for the night.  And then luck was with us, as we drove to the motel, there right in front of us was a rv park.  We pulled in and got full hookups for $19/night.  Wow, were we thrilled. 

Love and hugs to all of you,
Linda and Barb

April 2011: We are On the Road Again

Good bye Arizona

We left Apache Junction about a week ago and are heading to St. Louis. Barb's mom was in the hospital several weeks ago with pneumonia in both of her lungs. Barb spent the 10 days in St. Louis with her mom while she was in the hospital; Mark came the day before she went home to Breeze Park. He stayed another week or so to be with her while she was recuperating. Fortunately, she is recuperating very well and seems to be getting better every day.

As a result, Barb and I decided that we wanted to be with Elsie for at least two months this summer. So we are heading east. Since our goal is to reach St. Louis rather than just travel at a leisurely pace, we are covering about 250 miles per day. That is a monumental distance for us.  We are currently in Santa Rosa, NM for a day of rest. Santa Rosa is experience severe weather of winds up to 50 mph and wind gusts of 70 mph.  We thought this would be a good day not to drive.

 Our plan is to go through Wichita where my daughter Susan and her family are living. We will spend a day with them and then head on. We should be in St. Louis by mid next week.

I again hope to keep this blog up to date with at least weekly updates of how Elsie is doing as well as updates as to what we are doing.

Thanks to all of you who have encouraged me to continue with this blog. We love that you are following our adventures of full time Rv'ing.

Linda and Barb