We left Salt Lake City Thursday heading back to Tennessee to take care of some personal business before going to the new job in Elkhart, Indiana. We knew we'd probably drive into bad weather and thought we might need to hunker down somewhere in between for a day. While in Nebraska we saw a couple of guys who were obviously in the same line of work as Todd so we pulled up and enjoyed a conversation with them. They said too "sometimes you just have to stop, it's not worth it (tippin' a trailer)". They were so nice and we think we'll see at least one of them again. We saw a turned over tractor trailer earlier in Wyoming.
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| Salt Lake City |
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| Strange back yard ornament in Salt Lake City! |
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| Elk Mountain, Wyoming |
The weather was getting worse and worse with very strong wind. In Iowa, stopping for fuel and a bathroom break, Todd noticed the roof of the trailer was catching air and was bubbled up. "On no! I think we should find a campground (and a storm shelter I was thinking), we didn't think we'd get too far today", I said. T said he was going to get the ladder out to evaluate the situation. "NO, you'll get blown off the roof!" We pulled in behind the gas station where the crazy man took a look. "The glue that holds the top liner to the wood is giving out" (or something like that) he said. What wood, I silently wondered, but right now who cares? He checked the weather from his phone, said the wind will be dying down in a couple of hours, calm overnight and picking back up in the morning. We'll be heading into it instead of crosswinds soon. "I think we should drive all night, stay ahead of it". "Oh crap! We started this day tired!" We had listened to the weather on the radio before and there was a good chance of tornadoes. Hmm, drive tired all night or sleep in a tornado magnet after we'd been warned. Looks like driving all night. The worst part is my eyesight is bad so T doesn't trust me to drive though I think I can keep it between the lines on the interstate but nooooo, Todd has to do it all himself.
He sang with the radio, had the windows down some for the cool air and kept going. We figured we could make it to TN around 8:00am, before the storms get there.
I figured he'd give up and find a campground around 12 or 1 in the morning... nope. "Go to sleep", he says. "Na, I don't want to leave you alone." "I'm fine." "OK, I'll try to take a lil naaaa... zzzz." There were about three little naps. Todd was completely determined to make it and couldn't be talked out of it. The last hour or two were the worst. He told me he almost couldn't go anymore but pulling off now would defeat the purpose of getting to town before the storms. This is when the ability to babble works in our favor, ha! Keep talking!
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| Sunrise in Kentucky |
We called a campground about thirty minutes out and rolled in about 8:30am, Goodlettesville, TN. Todd slept a lot Sunday and I got about four more hours in. Monday we got some things including laundry done. The storms weren't too bad at all here luckily. Thoughts and prayers go out to the ones who weren't so lucky.
4/29/14
T said he can't do anything to secure the roof better in the time we have but we think it'll be fine for the short 7½ hour drive to Indiana. We watched it carefully on the way down here and thankfully it stayed the same, bad, but the same. With all the rain we did get we don't see any inside the camper, again, thankfully!
T's Mom took us out to dinner and T's brother came too. It was really nice. I sure do like them!
Our internet connection here is sketchy at best. Not sure how long we'll need to be here, hopefully just a couple more days.
Oh yeah, the title... I've always said, since the first trip, "it's like invisible monkeys are having a big ol' party in the trailer while we're driving". Sometimes things aren't near where we left them.
Today, April 30th, is a beautiful day!
