We left Searcy last night around 5:30pm and hit the open road to begin our 26 day road trip. On this first day we were enroute to Crossville, Tennessee, for an overnight stay then on to Blacksburg, Virginia, for a visit with some old friends. I expected to arrive at our hotel around midnight, maybe a little later. It is about 430 miles from Searcy to Crossville, so I figured that we would arrive no later than 1am. Boy, was I wrong!!! Unbeknownst to me, we were in store for some horrific thunderstorms! Since I wasn't listening to weather radio or watching TV, I missed this important bulletin from the National Weather Service:
URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
EFFECTIVE THIS THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY MORNING FROM 920 PM UNTIL 100 AM EDT.
TORNADOES...HAIL TO 1.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.
THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS APPROXIMATELY EAST AND WEST OF A LINE FROM 75 MILES NORTH NORTHWEST OF CROSSVILLE TENNESSEE TO 60 MILES SOUTHWEST OF CROSSVILLE TENNESSEE.
* AT 850 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH.
This radar picture shows our situation a little better... Granted, this photo is from way before we hit Nashville, but it was coming for us! Our location for the worst of the storm is almost exactly in the center Tennessee on the following picture.
As we approached the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee, the bottom fell out. The lightning was AMAZING, but the wind was terrifying! Our car was blowing all over the road, and the spray from the 18 wheelers just made us more blind than the rain itself. I was scared to death!
We pulled off at a Hampton Inn just West of Nashville, and could tell by the cars that were parked in the flower beds and everywhere else that there were no rooms to be had. Apparently all of the other travelers on the road decided to stop, too.
Since staying in this area was obviously not an option, I did what any smart woman would do; I called my mom! She looked at the weather radar out of Nashville and came to the conclusion that if the girls and I could stand to wait it out in the car just a bit that the storm would blow right on through. We chose to do that, and within twenty minutes we were down to a light rain. We continued our journey to Crossville and arrived, a little worn and frazzled, around 3am. The kids were all hyped up to be out of the car, so getting them settled was a chore, but we finally bedded down and slept a few hours. Thanks to David's diamond status we scored a late checkout, so we all slept till noon. We missed the free breakfast, but really didn't care. I had the food suitcase (more on that to come later, I promise) so everyone was cheaply and quickly fed.
We left the hotel singing Willie Nelson tunes, and very happy to be on the road again! This map shows our total trip itinerary. Hopefully we'll avoid more bad weather!
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I am so glad you guys came to visit! i had sucha great time and miss you guys already!!!