This is not the post I had in mind for tonight but OH EM GEE! There I was, sailing along, happy as a clam, making great time and progress, well into my 5th state of the day and only about an hour away from the 6th, blissfully unaware of the impending doom, quite literally, right around the next corner. I had pulled off the highway to get some so-so sunset shots and was meandering back onto it when I made a sharp right turn and within seconds the sky was black. Huge, swirling, tornadoey clouds, lightning everywhere - the kind that lights up the whole sky and the cartoon bolt variety - and I do mean everywhere, in all directions, completely surrounding me. Well, me and everyone else unlucky enough to be on Interstate 64 in Nowheresville, Illinois. The weird thing was, it wasn't actually raining. Yet. Was sort of thinking maybe it was one of those freaky electrical storms (do they actually exist?), but even without the rain, it was scary enough to call it a night. Spied a Holiday Inn on the other side of the highway, but the exit was closed. Dumb construction. Twenty minutes down the road, the skies opened up and, well calling it rain is really not going to do it justice. Even sheets of rain isn't enough. I'm going to go with walls. Walls of rain. Solid walls. And hail. Hail, the size of black walnuts maybe, and just as heavy. A mile later, which at about 3 miles an hour took what seemed like a lifetime (or as long as it took to drive through West Virginia), was the next exit. I and every other vehicle heading west on that highway got off on that one little exit ramp. There was only one motel, and when I say it was sketchy, think of the worst 80's slasher movie you can...got it? Yeah, it was worse than that. I pulled into the parking lot anyway just so I could pry my white-knuckled and cramping fingers from the steering wheel, called a friend, and about as calmly as I could said, I. AM. FREAKING. OUT! Luckily and unlike me, he actually remained calm, got online, checked the radar looking for an exit strategy, there wasn't one. I was smack dab in the middle of a 50-mile radius stormageddon. Yay me! Plan B, wait it out for a bit, see if the rain slows enough to drive, and then HIGH TAIL it to the nearest less-sketchy hotel! Because apparently, here in the middle of the country, these end of the world storms are kind of common and when they blow in, people just pull off the roads and fill up the hotels like it's prom night or something. So, that's what I did - iPhone, Orbitz, GPS, and my calm friend got me to a NotquitetheBest Western, ten miles back east on that damn Interstate 64. Passed an overturned semi that was headed west, just shy of the exit I and the rest of the world had taken. Had to have been right behind me. That side of the highway was now closed.
I was trying to get to St. Louis, Missouri tonight. When I told calm friend that he said, "St. Louis, are you kidding me?!? That's a really rough town. I almost stopped there once but made a u-turn and got back on the highway and kept going. And, I was coming from New Orleans! You'll be much safer where you are, and so will your car." I called by bff, Karen, when I finally got to the NotquitetheBest Western. Told her the whole story, including the St. Louis being rough part and she said, "Huh, maybe the stormageddon was actually a good thing. Kept you from spending the night in St. Louis".
Huh. Maybe it did. And was. Kentucky was beautiful! Did I mention that? Really beautiful. Had my iPod on shuffle all day and this song came on when I was driving through Louisville, Rolling Stones "Wild Horses".
No kidding.
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