Another Cold Front

As with the cold front that swept through the area last Sunday, there was another one forecast for Wednesday late in the day.  It will be interesting to see how this ends up once the storm has made its way off the east coast, but the storm last night was one of the worst we have ever experienced.  

As we travelled East on our way here a week ago we noticed with increasing regularity the number of tornado shelter signs put out by businesses and municipalities alike.  We have never had to take shelter in one before and didn’t know if we would ever need to do so.  We typically plan our travel days to avoid any kind of bad weather, and other than staying overnight at a destination prone to tornadoes, would not likely come across the need to access a shelter.

Last night was different.  I am always amazed at how quickly cold fronts can produce heavy storms with gusty winds and lots of rain.  The forecast for yesterday was for there to be bad weather starting around six last night and lasting until eleven.  I mentioned before I use the app Windy for information on the location of high winds and bad weather.  Throughout the day yesterday I looked at the radar layer they have and nothing was showing up.  Then all of a sudden discrete cells started showing up on the radar down as far as the gulf coast.  These look almost like popcorn going off at first ahead of the cold fronts.  Within an hour the rest of the line formed and became visible as it stretched all the way north into Canada.

As it turns out the most severe outbreak looks like it was down in Arkansas, but I suspect this series of storms will be in a class of their own by the time it is done.  As I write this on Thursday morning the line is still moving east and has begun to slope back in to central Texas for possibly more storms down that way.

Last night, everyone in the campground seemed to be watching various news feeds showing the progress of the storm as it moved east and keeping an eye out for the tornado watches and warnings.  We got our first watch just before dinner and by the time dinner was done the line had progressed with a possible tornado about twenty miles from here.  Newmar has a customer package provided when you come here for service and it contains a list of all the storm shelters in town.  Top of the list is their own facility.  So it was reassuring if anything came of it we could just access the facility for shelter.

Just before eight the storm siren went off in town and we decided it best to head to the Service Center.  We arrived at the same time as another customer who decided to go, and we ended up with about fifteen other customers who made the same decision.  To say whatever went by was intense was an understatement.  I don’t know what it was but it was incredible.  From the Service Center you can see across the street to the campground and for some time the rain was so heavy you could not see the RV’s across the road.  The winds, rain and lightening did not last long after that initial fifteen minutes or so, but it continued storming and raining until about ten.

I can only imagine what it must be like to be in a home or shelter and have an actual tornado go over you.  For those that have lived through one it must be terrifying, and I can appreciate how important the shelters are.

Now that this cold front has gone through, the temperatures will go back down to near freezing for a couple of days before slowly making their way up again.

Thank you for reading.

Effingham To Nappanee, IN

This was our last leg of back to back travel for the few days we will be spending in Nappanee and we were again on the road at 0800.  The weather systems that have been coming up out of the southwest US and the Gulf of Mexico have been relentless this winter.  We have been on the West side of them but this morning we departed in the warm rain that is the precursor to some more serious weather that is expected later this coming weekend.

This last leg was to get ourselves set up for our visit to the factory and service center for Newmar.  When we bought our coach last May we identified a few items to the dealer that they remedied before we drove off the lot.  There were a few items they were not comfortable completing for some reason that still puzzles me, but as a result we decided to include a stop at the manufacturer on our return to Canada this year to have those things resolved.  There are not a lot but we have booked four days to have them taken care of.  There have been a few additional items added to the list since we took delivery, but overall, the list is small and it should not take them more than a few days to accomplish everything.

The drive was nice and quiet for a Saturday morning and we had one stop planned at a rest area in Plainfield, Indiana.  If you are driving or towing an RV I would not recommend a stop at the rest area.  The area for cars looked reasonable enough, but the back area used by larger vehicles was absolutely filthy and disgusting.  We stayed about fifteen minutes and were back on the road.  We have seen about twenty rest areas of various sizes in the different states on this trip overall and have never seen anything like this.  The only thing missing for this to be a scene out of Walking Dead would be zombies coming out of the bush.  Scratch that one.

The rest of the drive was uneventful and we arrived at the Newmar Service Centre just after 1400.  There are 62 sites available for customers who are using the facility for service, and about two thirds were occupied.  In addition, any customers who order a coach and pick it up at the factory will stay here while they undergo their orientation.  Each site is fully serviced and the area is secure.  I will do a post specifically on the service visit at some point, and am looking forward to seeing the service facility and what is in town and the surrounding area.

Service Centre upstairs lounge

Service Center bays

We are hunkered down and ready for a sharp cold front that will be bring possible heavy thunderstorms and the threat of tornado’s late Sunday and early Monday.  Later in the week there is the potential for more storms as the transition to spring ramps up the tornado and thunderstorm threat. 

Thank for stopping by to read.

Conway To Effingham, IL

The stay in Conway was really nice and peaceful and when we come back down through this part of the country we will definitely stop on either the eastbound or westbound side.  Today was a planned 300 mile leg and was going to be a bit more busy as it routed around St. Louis before ending up at our planned Harvest Host location in Effingham.

When we travelled down last November we stayed right downtown at the Draft Kings Casino and while the visit there was a great way to see the downtown touristy things it was a bit stressful getting into and out of the area.  There are three major Interstate Highways that cross in St. Louis so the logistics of getting all those roads to interconnect smoothly was a challenge.  St. Louis is the hub of the spokes connecting Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, Memphis, Tulsa and Kansas City.  For us coming up on I 44 from the West, the easiest transition was to take the main ring road (270) around clockwise to come out north of St. Louis on to I 70 to Indianapolis.  It is possible to go straight through the city on the original Interstate system but that is old infrastructure, narrower lanes and more turns, and what I did last fall so figured I would avoid that.  All in all it was not a problem on the ring road, the route was easy and you would not even realize St. Louis was there.

Mississippi River flowing quite fast

Bypass channel around this section of shallow river water

As we transitioned to Illinois the landscape was flatter than the approach to the Mississippi on the West side and we were back in to farming country.  All along this stretch of the interstate it seems like it was all farms separated by bush lots.  The road here looks like it was recently paved and is in excellent condition.  As we were driving along we had Deja-vu as we spotted a large cross in the distance.  Sure enough it is a larger version of the cross I wrote about that we passed in Groom, Texas.  Apparently the cross in Texas inspired the builders of the cross in Effingham to build a replica - only bigger.  Take that Texas.

198 Foot tall Cross and exhibits

We arrived in Effingham mid afternoon and checked in with the Harvest Host for parking.  We chose the Mid America Motorworks Museum as our stop over.  It is a car museum for Corvette and Volkswagen enthusiasts that has been set up as an adjunct to the main business of suppling parts for those vehicles.  The museum is free to the public but they do ask for donations and was quite well attended while we were there.  I think a lot of owners of these vehicles use them as a parts supplier as there was a steady stream of courier vehicles and delivery trucks picking up and dropping off parts.

Actual 1910 gas station moved on site.

Corvette heaven

A lot of the history of the corvette development program

Black Beetle

Patty practicing her elbows up

As we were approaching town I was expecting to see an increase in pig farms for some reason, but it was just cows in the pasture and crops.  It occurred to me the Chamber of Commerce could do a better job at attracting pig farmers to the area.  If Uranus, Missouri can attract a large Fudge Factory you would think Effingham would be able to attract pig farmers.  With the various government cutbacks taking place in Washington they could even approach the National Pork Producers Council to set up shop in Effingham, or have all the restaurants in town only serve pork products, using the slogans “Everyone Loves Effingham”.  Okay, I’m tired.

Thank you for stopping by to read.