Storm Chaser Wannabe

I always thought the storm chasers that intentionally went into a tornado were absolutely crazy. Now I know for a fact that yes they are. The reason I know this for a fact is because my family and I inadvertently became a storm chaser of sorts. Something I promise to never do again.

We went to my nieces wedding in Missouri this past weekend. As the time of the wedding approached we decided to just follow the rest of the family to the wedding chapel since we had no clue where it was and didn't have directions to get to it. I am standing there putting K. in her car seat when I hear the Weather Service announce on the radio that there is a tornado warning for Webster Co. and if you are in Marshfield to seek shelter immediately. I tell my husband I think that's where we are going, so he goes off to tell the others about it. The response was yes that's where we are going but by the time we get there it should be past us. So my husband packs us up and off we go.

Everything is fine even though we struggled to keep up with the speeding driver that my BIL is. (He was raised on the curvy two lane highways and thinks nothing of driving on them at 90 mph) Then as expected, it starts to rain and it just gets worse. About the time we can no longer see them in front of us, due to the rain, we decide to go back home and just drive back later on. Only we can't since we can't see where to turn around and we are completely lost on these back country highways. So we inch along and I start praying the only thing I can remember which was Hail Mary's over and over. Finally we see our BIL stopped up ahead waiting for us, but since our cell phone had no signal, we couldn't call him to beg him to stop and seek shelter. Instead BIL keeps on driving through this mess but at least he slowed down.

Obviously we did make it to the wedding chapel but we were one of only about twenty other people that did. The rest of the people attending actually had half a brain and didn't get out in it. So it was a very small, small wedding with lots of cake for everyone.

About mid way through the reception we heard that a tornado did touch down somewhere near my in laws house so we were curious to see if any damage had happened out there. From what we could tell it landed in primarily farm land. So, no one was injured, including us, the morons who drove out into the country during the tornado warning with out a map or any clue of getting home. I guess the old saying is true, God looks out for fools and children. He protected my children and the fools in this instance were my husband and myself.

So just in case your wondering if I really do want to be a storm chaser the answer is without a doubt..NO! I will let all those other people who enjoy doing keep their jobs and instead just appreciate them all the more.