Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Baby's First Tornado!

Well, since Ashley and I last had access to the web, a lot of things have happened and most of them had to do with weather. Except the Corn Palace. That just had to do with Corn.

The night before last, we camped in Badlands National Park, in South Dakota. If you have never been there, all I can say is that it is fierce and unforgiving and really, really beautiful. The badlands are like a moonscape in need of mood stabilizers. They need a decent shrink and some lithium, and maybe, just maybe they'll stop throwing fits. Unlike your average 4 year old, the badlands throw fits of the ancient and vengeful variety. Primarily, they involve lightning, rain, and lots and lots of wind.

From afar this is incredible. Anyone who knows me well knows how seriously I revere thunderstorms. Lately, they seem to mark special occasions even-- which I appreciate immensely. On the prairie you can see so far ahead of you, that you watch storms coming down from miles and miles away. You know they're coming for you and thats ok. The rain is pretty gentle, its just the wind that's wild.

The wind, of course, is how the Great Prairie Tent Battle of July 20th arose. It was us versus the wind. After a lengthy battle, we came out triumphant, with one blue tarp our only semi-casualty.

After romping in the Badlands, we went to Mount Rushmore.
Mount Rushmore is weird, but we did learn some things. Primarily, that most Americans who visit national monuments in the middle of nowhere akin to Mt. Rushmore are a.) fat and b.) don't generally look where they're walking. We ate ice cream in way-too-big portions (let's just call it 'American Sized') and got the hell out of there.

One question though-- why would the ice cream store at Mount Rush. be BASEBALL themed? Don't you think, Oh, I don't know... let's say Presidential, or Patriotic.. would go over just a wee bit better?

In all honesty, for me, the greatest part of the day yesterday was driving through Wyoming... there was lightning on the horizon for hours in the middle of the day, torrential sunshowers, and even a rainbow at one point.

The worst part of Wyoming? Crappy mexican food that gave Amanda food poisoning.
Naturally, this fact was discovered in the middle of, yes... A TORNADO.

Right after we decided to splurge and get a motel, there we were, smack dab in the middle of a tornado. It seemed like the second we put our bags down in the dingy, smoke tinged room, the wind started ripping through the entirety of the strip mall/motels/highway conglomeration at our feet. At the time of course, we just thought it was a really big fuckin' storm. Hail covered the motel parking lot and we lost all electricity as far as the eye could see. But yeah, apparently it was tornado. So, as a result, we're hanging out and taking it easy today. I think we could all use a rest.

(It's easier just to scroll using the arrows at the right)

No comments:

Post a Comment