on the way home

the tree that snapped

Yesterday, Ray and I made a trip to Target in a town about 45 minutes from here. The weather was bright and sunny and I wondered when it would rain again since it has been so hot but no usual afternoon thunderstorms to cool things off. Well, on the drive back home we noticed it looking rainy and misty up ahead, but it was more like a blinding torrential rain that made it so hard to see, we pulled over at a gas station to wait for the storm to pass. Several other cars did the same thing and we noticed that electricity was out at the station. The wind was whipping like crazy as we gazed from under the shelter of the gas station overhang and Ray kept pointing out how one of the trees nearby was bending really low from the force of the wind and the next thing you know, the tree was down, snapped apart from the force!
We were only a few miles from where the April tornado had passed through and I am sure many of the residents of the area were anxious about this fast moving and powerful thunderstorm.
When the storm passed through we got back on 431 to come upon a roadblock probably due to a fallen tree or something, so we followed a line of cars down a narrow country road figuring that those drivers knew how to get back on the main road. Apparently Aprils storms had been down this road before us because both sides of this road had uprooted and broken trees. A little surreal for sure.

the detour