RogersSpring 2015

Amarillo, TX:  We made it to Amarillo in onc piece.  We even had some fun with the Caddys in beautiful Amarillo weather.   We retired to our camp site along I40 and due to the exhaustion we ate and then went to sleep early.  All was fine, skies were clear, the worst was behind us....we thought.

We both woke at 5:30 am startled and in the middle of a hellacious thunder and lightning storm directly over head.  Though the sun rises early, it was pitch black except for lightning flashing in the skies all around us.  "OMG I thought we were over this."  It was an onslaught that didn' seem to let up.  A lightning would flash and we would count, "one thou.."  Kaboom!!  These suckers were close.  This was a worst storm than the OKC crossing.   The heavy wind and rain turned into hail as we laid bundled up in the dark wondering if the Lil Coconut would survive unscathed.  The rat-a-tat-tat on the roof played with our nerves.  "Jimminy Christmas, I hope they don't get any bigger or we're in trouble."  A moment later the entire 13,000 lb RV started to pitch from side to side.  We were now caught in a cyclone of some sort.  For some reason, we both started laughing, as if this was just a continuation of the previous day's drama.  It was laughing at us and seem to say, "so my little Hawaiian pineapples, you think could escape the weather of Tornado Alley."   It slowly stoped rocking, then more hail, wind and rain for another hour of so.  

I finally got out the iPad and saw that there was no tornado watch amd that it would soon pass.  As it did and the rain became a drizzle, I hopped outside with my camera.  I told Barbara that she should come out and see this.  She called it an image from the movie Independance Day when the huge alien spaceship hovered over the town.  Our very own aliens belted us with weather and demanded complete surrender.  I said screw you, this is our planet and we ain't budging.   We packed up and left Amarillo an hour later.  Enough is enough.  Moving on.  Besides we had to stop by Camping World in Albuquerque to buy a new $279 surge protector for the RV.  The lightning hit so close to the RV park that it reversed the polarity of the electrical ground and fried the surge protector.  Crazy, man, plum crazy!