Friday, on my way to a tournament in wonderful Troy, Illinois, about 20 north east of St. Louis, I and two teammates raced through funnel cloud producing thunderstorm fronts. First though, Sausage King Andy and I went golfing at Cinder Ridge golf course, about 90 minutes outside of Chicago. Golfing first allowed us to miss traffic in the afternoon and not arrive in Troy too early……there’s nothing to do here.
Anyway, after golf I called my buddy Sam from Springfield to see if he might be able to hook up on my way there or the way back. He mentioned that he was going to have a barbecue for his daughter’s birthday, but the tornadoes might cause them to change plans. The Tornadoes?? Yep, storms were supposed to be moving through. Aw crap. Shouldn’t be a problem for us though I’m sure.
Wrong. After listening to a Police album, I decided to turn on local radio and see what was going on with the weather. The radio folks were talking to a reporter who was in the basement of the state capitol with reporters, politicians and everyone else in the building as they wait for the tornado warning to pass. Yikes.
“If you along I-72 or I-55 between mile markers 80 and 108, you should take cover immediately.”
Shit, where am I?? Mile marker 115. The weather is fine though. Hmmm, better tell the other car I’m driving with about the impending bad weather.
Sure enough, as we approach 108, it’s starts raining and raining hard. Now there were reports of quarter sized hail and larger in various areas along the I-55 corridor. Shit!!
After torrential rain and very hazardous conditions, we decide to pull off at a McDonalds and let the weather system pass.
As it turns out, it’s coming in waves with about 20 minutes between waves. When the rain stopped, we hopped in our cars and hoped we could make it the 20 miles or so past the storms. Unfortunately, the front did something funky and another wave hit about ten miles into the journey. It was another torrential downpour and people were stopped left and right on the highway. We could drive about 40-45 mph, but no faster really. It was pretty hazardous. So we pulled off again and this time decided we’d wait a significant amount of time and have dinner at this bar, Fieldhouse Pizza and Beer.
Though they tout their pizza, I had the walleye fish special and it was really good! The pizza was like cardboard with some sauce and cheese on it. Sausage King Andy and JC got the pizza and were very unhappy with it.
The rain stopped again and again we hit the road. And again, the rains came and came hard. This time we decided to plug through as we didn’t hear about any hail (the real issue with driving).
Finally we arrived in Troy though and after a quick shower, hit the bar across the road for a much needed beer. Tomorrow, the softball tournament.
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2 comments:
Sounds as scary as the time I had to drive down to Indy at night with snow coming down at full force. I had slowed down to about the same 40-45mph as you; however, I drove across a patch of black ice I couldn't see on the I-65, 360'd across two interstate lanes and ended up backwards in a ditch (but on all four 4WD tires). Isn't that crazy that no car hit me, busy as the interstate was at the time? I was unbelievably fortunate, and I still remember that incident vividly. Luckily, my truck came out of the snowy ditch easily and I made it down to Indy without a problem.
Wow! I've had my fair share of survival moments too with nature. I'm the one who was chased by a black bear and survived by climbing a tree, having a helicopter get save me, while he ate my shoe. Then I swam away from my first car, as it drown, it was declared a total loss. Now, I'm overcoming being hit head on by a car that crossed over into my lane a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, his side passenger hit my front end. I could go on. I'm like a cat with nine lives. I'm glad you are okay Joe.
Check out my new blog, it's a motivational one. I'm giving back because of my survival. http://michellecoach.blogspot.com
Michelle
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