A few highlights from the trip:
- We were trying to drive back into Arkansas on Sunday. In the early evening, we started seeing a lot of weird lightning to the north and the south, flashing not to the ground but across the clouds. Then, I started to notice that while the sun had not quite gone down yet (there was a patch of blue in the sky), there was an enormous cloud dead ahead that was pitch black.
We stopped for gas. The wind was the strongest that I have ever felt. My 6-year-old son thought it was hilarious: He had to run in place just to stay in the same place; if he stopped moving, the wind blew him practically off his feet.
Anyway, something didn't feel right. I quickly turned on the radio, and the first station I found had an announcer saying things like, "There has been a tornado that has touched down in west Memphis," and "someone has seen softball-sized hail," and "whatever you do, get out of your vehicle."
Needless to say, I didn't much feel like continuing to drive straight into the pitch-black cloud. So we turned around and backtracked some 25 miles to Jackson, Tennessee, where we spent the night. There were weather sirens going off.
Don't get me wrong: I don't think we were ever in any danger. I never saw an actual tornado, and where we were, all we got was some fierce rain for a while. But here's an article from the local newspaper on the damage done in Tennessee that night. - Interesting corporate mottos that I saw on the road:
-- On an 18-wheeler heading west: [Acme] Caskets: Dedicated to the Dignity of Life. Life?
-- On a billboard for a regional bank: "[Acme] Bank: Where Banking Comes Together. Together with what?
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