Plague of locusts? Fire from the sky?

After all the waiting at the Winnebago factor (and that is not a complaint about Winnebago), I thought we had that waiting stuff behind us.

As we rolled west, the unfolding winter weather event made it apparent that we weren't going to get much further.  We pulled into a small campground where had stayed years ago.  Nothing fancy, but they do have a laundry and good cable TV - something we'll need while we're hunkered down.  I paid for two nights... probably won't be enough.

The Black Hills area is getting hammered with heavy wet snow and wind; blizzard conditions.  Hazardous travel conditions.  As you move east (where we are), conditions change to heavy rain and thunderstorms.  We think we are just west of the area where the weather weasels are calling for a possibility of tornadoes.  Kind of the least bad of some crappy conditions.

I enjoy a gentle rain on the roof, in a boat or an RV.  It wasn't gentle overnight - it pounded.  The wind howled.  Predictions are for more of the same today and tonight.  Yeah, we aren't going anywhere.

I laid in bed, listening to the pounding rain... thinking about the big elm tree that is alongside us... on our northwest side... with wind coming from the northwest.

Have you heard that an approaching tornado sounds like "a freight train"?  Yeah, me, too.  About 7:00 this morning, I heard a rumbling sound - is that a Harley with straight pipes?  No, it now sounds more like a street sweeper.  Getting closer, it sounds like a low flying helicopter; a big one.  No, wait - it sounds like a freight train!  I opened a shade - nice MCD Duo Shades in our Aspect, but I digress - the trees outside weren't swaying any more.  The sound got louder... yep, it IS a freight train.  I didn't see the tracks when we pulled in and set up - it was sprinkling and I was scurrying.  The tracks are about 50 yards from our site.  No wonder the sound kept getting closer and closer!

Joan checked the hourly forecast for today to see when might be the "best time" to make a run to the store... and let me know what supplies are getting low... "You are almost out of hot chocolate."  This is serious.

Checking the forecast along our route, it looks like we might be here for a couple more days.  "No Travel Advised" for a couple hundred miles of Interstate in western South Dakota.

This morning on the Today Show, Dillon Dreyer (meteorologist) talked about "tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma, Tropical Storm Ana along the east coast, and blizzard conditions in western South Dakota - I have never seen all three of these happening at the same time..."

She hasn't traveled with us.  ;-)

My view this morning...