The day before yesterday (May 29, 07) we drove from somewhere out West of Omaha, NE to Denver, CO on interstate 80. We knew that there would be rain with a chance of some thunderstorms. It was a nice day for driving for the first 2/3 of our trip, even hot and muggy until we got close to North Platte in South Western NE. We stopped by a couple of Weather and Information Rest Areas. The staff were asking the motorists about the weather from East and West of there. That seemed curious, I had hoped that they would be the information givers for our travels. At two of the Rest Areas they told us that their equimpment was not working. I was looking at the menacing sky and wondering what to do out on the road if we saw a tornado. I looked at an older couple that were dressed in their black cycle leathers and driving his and her Harley Davidsons, wondering if their leathers would shrink when they got wet. I was thinking of finding an overpass and trying to wedge the Suburban up underneath the overpass as high as possible for shelter. We were listening to the radio and every 10 minutes or so we heard weather alerts, but there were no tornadoes yet, just tornado watches for SW Nebraska and NE Colorado; pretty much the course of our planned travels for the afternoon.
As we entered NE Colorado a new alert was broadcast on the radio sighting two new tornados that had formed in the area South of where we were driving. The rain was coming in bands and the wind was laying down all the prarie grass pretty much horizontal. Grace had chosen this as the time to practice driving, heh! The car was a little hard to keep on the road with the heavy gusts & poor visibility. Linda kept reminding me that maybe I should drive during these life and death situations. I felt a little woozy from all the weaving and correcting at the helm.
Later that evening in our room in Denver we saw on the evening news that they were recieving a hail storm beating during our approach. The hail was as big as grapes in some areas, other areas were blanketed with 4" of the freezing stuff. Even the mountain dwellers of Denver were caught off guard. People were walking and slipping around in shorts and flip-flops trying to get to shelter during the sudden storm.
