Sunday, June 16, 2013

Tornado watch in Elm Creek, NE

Sunday  6/16 (Day 292)

Before we left Wyoming, Harris took a picture of our next door neighbor's hobby. He is a contractor by trade, and loves to work on this little log cabin when he's camping. He's been working on it for three camping trips and it's made out of one piece of wood. It has a stone fireplace inside with a miniature rifle that will go above it. He made a table and chair to go inside as well. It's a real work of art.




Oops! Out of sequence....a great sunset shot of the park in Wyoming.


Harris found this robin's nest in the morning....three little birds, all waiting to be fed. It is Father's day...and it reminded him of our own chicks when they were little!









We made one stop on our way through Nebraska...Chimney Rock, where emigrants on the Oregon trail often stopped to camp by the river and regroup. This landmark told them they were one-third of the way west.







The visitor's center had a small museum inside. One display had this poster, and items for kids to put into a wagon. It weighed the items and told you if you over your limit, and asked you to compare your load with this list.




Boy, this daily routine would kill us!



Coming through western Nebraska, we saw many, many coal trains heading east. We were also struck by how many trees we saw as well. But then we remembered that Nebraska started Arbor Day in 1872. They've had a lot of years to plant these trees!



The sky got darker and darker as we headed east...at one point the whole sky was black...all around us in every direction.


We finally reached our little resting spot at Elm Creek, called Sunny Meadows. It isn't sunny, and there are no meadows. It's just a small RV park off the interstate. As we were settling in, Harris's phone suddenly chirped with a severe weather warning...tornado warning...take cover...then the sirens started. We asked someone where we should go. We were told, "the women's bathroom" and so we headed that way. About 10 people joined us (with 3 dogs) and we watched the rain and hail pour down. We waited until the sky cleared up somewhat, and then dodged the huge raindrops as best we could as we ran back to Howie. No tornado, thank you God. There is still plenty of lightning and thunder and rain going on, but we think the tornado danger has moved on. It sure seems like every time we cross Nebraska we run into this pattern somewhere!



At around 9PM the tornado watch was called off and the sun made its appearance if only to take a bow before sinking for another night's rest (Notice the rain drops in the foreground).




Total miles driven today = 312

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