Journal

July 3rd, 2004

Wasn't it Murphy's Law that said, "If anything can go wrong, it will"? Part II

head down that, and in Akron, Ohio, I get on Interstate 71 South.

     So I travel without a hitch to Columbus, Ohio where I go onto Interstate 70 West, so I stop outside of Columbus to gas up… continue down I-70 West into Indiana.. and here is where things start getting weird…Well about 50 miles East of Indianapolis all of a sudden, no clouds or anything dark in the sky… it’s like a swimming pool was dumped on the car…so, I can’t roll up the windows fast enough.. It was 90 degrees outside... sheesh….well... every car on the road in front of me pulls over to the shoulder... FAST… the visibility is practically zero... and everyone hits their 4-ways… so... this happens a few more times... where everyone gets a break from driving for about 5-7 minutes in a stretch… then we come into Indianapolis.. It’s clear there... no weather…

     So, I get to the other side of Indianapolis, and not 20 miles I get another drenching... but this time it is combined with quarter sized hail... I’m thinking... lovely…. Well there’s no where to hide here so I pull off to the shoulder again. Just like everyone else, because visibility is practically nil… wait it out... thankfully no damage to the car…

     So I get closer to the Illinois border heading West on I- 70.. .the sky has this weird tinge to it... I’m looking around…. And I look back ahead... and I watch this funnel come out of the cloud… I’m thinking... yikes... now would be a good time to pull over again LOL... So I pull over and watch this tornado... it wasn’t a very big one... but I’m not about to drive through it… probably an F- 2 or something of that nature… it’s about a mile up the highway… I’m watching it cross over I-70 and continue north… (If it seemed to be getting larger... me and my car would have gone across country LOL)…so I watch it until it dissipates... wasn’t very long... maybe 10 minutes... it wasn’t moving very fast…and I start heading West on I-70 again  I get to St. Louis from there without any real issues... another drenching or two... but I figured the hail and tornados were done… right?

     So, I go through St. Louis... and into Missouri... I stop about 30 miles East of Columbia, in New Folsom, Missouri. It’s pouring, the weather is nasty but you can see... kind of… I’m sunburned and not feeling well….So I pull in at a Days Inn... I’m seriously considering turning around and heading back to New Jersey, something wanted me to... I figure, it couldn’t get worse... Could it?