We left good ol' Caledonia around 10:30 am on Thursday, 6/26, after some last-minute packing and a big breakfast. Our first stop was shortly after Chicago. Destination: Walmart...our mission: sunglasses. Mission accomplished...though we have one pair to share between the two of us. Hmm.... Then, we got back on the road and pulled off at a nearby rest area to eat our packed lunch (thanks mom...it was delicious). After lunch, we had no more stops except for gas and for a "scenic overlook" (that we climbed to the top of without really seeing the point...Iowa = not too scenic).
However, Leanna's house was fun! On Friday, we got a tour of Leanna's life story as she grew up in Omaha, ate a big breakfast (again), took a nap, and then set off for the downtown art show. Here's where the "plan" flops...almost as soon as we got out of our car downtown, the tornado sirens went off. The funny thing is that VERY FEW people looked worried at all. We just calmly pulled out our cell phone, called Leanna's house, and received confirmation that we weren't in any danger. Nonetheless, we went straight to our restaurant for a pasta dinner. Soon later, the big storm hit. Just before, we went outside to see the big cloud that was pictured on the television. It was dark and ominous all right, with the sky green behind it (sure enough, we found out later that all kinds of powerlines were taken out by the wind. The waiter moved us away from the window table for dinner. WOW! The storm was awesome! All in all, it lasted only 15-20 min., but there were 80 mph winds, penny-sized hail, and torrential rain. Dinner and a show...lucky us!
When we left the restaurant, we got a first-hand look at all the damage. There were trees down everywhere- in the roads, on people's houses, in the park. We walked around for a while to avoid the roads until most of them were cleared. It was my first hail fight ever...and in the middle of June no less! Luckily,neither Paul nor Leanna's house was damaged (just some tree limbs down). We came back to Leanna's house and played board and card games by candlelight (since their power was out, for the first time in about 10 years). It was a lot of fun. Then, off to bed for another long day of driving! Today, we plan to stop at Denver...
Note: This post is from an e-mail sent on Saturday, 6/28.
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