On the Way North, Up Tornado Alley

April 9th (Monday)
Heading north again this morning from Junction to Padukah, Texas. Not much in this town but I had found an RV park owned by a J D Brooks, just a good ole Texan boy, with a long drawl, so booked in there. Very Plain Jane, but what the heck!  Not many spots but to get to the one I picked had to pass under some trees branches, Broke the stove/furnace vent and one bathroom vent. Damn!!  Patched with McGiver tape. What would we do without Duck tape??  We will see how it holds uo in the wind travelling tomorrow.  Weather forcast was for heavy thundershowers, Hail, and wind, with a possibility of tornado activity in the area!! Denice freaks out, so I call the owner and ask about shelter in the event. Advised to go to the court house with a ramp down underneath for protection, should the warning sirens sound. I unhook the jeep and we go and find the place, then return home and wait and watch TV updates. We only get heavy rain, light winds, no hail, and no tornado. Just a good nights sleep.
April 10th (Tuesday)
Leisure day, up the road for a couple hundred miles from Padukah tp Liberal, Kansas, crossed the Oklahoma panhandle as it is only about 35 miles across. Arrived in Liberal early and found a RV Park east on Highway 54 about 5 miles out of town. It is very nice and well  maintained but bare and flat. Reserved for 2 nights at $25/night
April 11th (Wednesday)
Went down highway 54, back through Oklahoma and  to Texhoma, that is right on the border of Oklahoma and Texas today. Denices Aunt is buried there since she passed away 6 years ago. We were at her funeral at that time, but have never had the chance to return so when we were this close decided we should place some flowers on the grave.  We placed flowers on both Uncle Bob"s and Aunt Leona's graves.

Then returned to Liberal and went to The Wizard of Oz and Dorthy's house. One of Denices long time wishes!! Rather ironic that the Wizard of Oz is all about tornados and yet there has never been one in Liberal, Kansas. Go figure!!


April 12th (Thursday)
We had planned on moving north today, but the wind was howling and not a nice day so we just decided to sit another one here.  Went to the Liberal Air Museum. Its the 5th largest in the USA.
April 13th (Friday)  Bad Luck Friday the 13th
Good weather this morning so on the road by about 8:30AM. Only travelled about 160 miles to a Good Sam park in Oakley, Kansas. Had thought of going farther, but as far as I can see the next couple of days may be at "Basic" RV Parks with few amenities, so we decided to stop here and make sure where the next stops might be. The next good park seems to be in Bismarck, North Dakota, with probably a couple of poor ones in between. Likely no WIFI for a couple of days!
April 14th (Saturday)
We have been following the weather pretty slose and just sort of dodging all the possible tornado areas along the route by stopping early or travelling beyond their projected paths. Today seemed a pretty good day with little weather events forcast, so we headed north again, but only planned on going to North Platte and then hold up over Sunday when high winds were forcast. 40 Moles after leaving Oakley we encountered "Pea Soup" fog, and it just went on and on for a hundred miles. Sometimes thick, sometimes not so bad. Finally just before North Platte it finally lifted, so we were glad to check in to a "Good Sam" Park there. Spent a quite afternoon as weather was nice. Sun shinning and warm.  4:30 PM there was threatening thunderstorms, but we decided to just go around the corner to "Applebee's for a bite of dinner. Well --- all hell broke loose!!  City tornado serens started blaring, the TV's switched to a local weather channel. Tornado sightings started being reported. Two touch downs just 5 miles south of the city at Malone Lake (they have an RV Park there and as we passed by we commented that maybe we should stop there) and one at the "Flying J", a half mile from us. Before leaving ELTORO we had put the slides back in, "Just in Case". Thank God we did. Rain and hail just pelted down for a hour or so. We were comfortable in the restaurant, enjoying our meal, but the manager and waitress kept coming around with updates about the tornadoes, and advised if the sirens indicated the need, that we would be moved to the restaurant coolers. We never had to, but it was close a couple of times. We stayed there much longer than we intended to, but seemed the safest spot. When we left we thanked the manager for his accomadation, but advised the entertainment was "Not So Hot" Finally we did return home, but were only there a short time until the sirens started to blow again.

Threatening Clouds

Parked in a Lake

TV's diagram of storm direction

 The "Fall Out Shelter" in the park are the bathrooms. They are in a sturdy separate cement block  building. We did stay in ELTORO with the TV showing the storm cells, but ready to evacuate quickly if needed. Denice has her emergency kit packed with her pills and our passport inside. She says that is the most important things to protect. A rather violent rain and hail storm did pass by with quarter sized stones. I made a run for it and drove the jeep under a tree. It was struck several times but seemed to suffer no damage. ELTORO was also struck a lot with some dimples to the curved sections on the top roof edges and at least one small hole in the bathroom vent cap. It only lasted about 10 minutes and then cleared quickly, but large severe looking clouds continued to show through out the evneing. We hope that is all for today!!
April 15th (Sunday)
In a word ----- boring ---- especially after yesterday

Strong winds so just sitting it out today