Just like the pioneers, our trek was anything but smooth going. 20 minutes out of Fort Wayne, our tire was punctured by some foreign object and it took us about two hours to attain a new tire. Then, there was road construction on I-80: we drove 14 miles in 45 minutes. Then we had no service and couldn't find accommodations for the night until we found a rest stop with free Wi-Fi. We stopped for the night just east of Des Moines, IA, when we usually would have made it to at least Grand Island, IA, six hours to the west. Which meant we had a lot to make up the next day. The drive was much easier, except for 17 miles east of Sydney, NE.
I-80 led us under an ominously dark sky, where rain began to pelt us. Within moments, the rain was so thick we couldn't see the front end of our van at some points. The wind threatened to push us off the road, and hail beat against us. My sister could feel it when she rested her hand on the window. On the road before us, the water swirled in mini whirl pools inches deep. The temperature fell from 96 to 72 in seconds.
Finally, we could see blue sky darting though the rain. Slowly, tentatively, we pursued the sunlight. Eventually, we broke through the storm and into the clear, sunny countryside.
Glancing back, we confirmed our fears: We had just driven through a tornado. Just a few miles away from I-80, a gigantic funnel reached from the plains to the heavens. Sure, driving through it was terrifying, but afterward I rejoiced for more than my life--I had been able to witness a TORNADO. I've always had a perverse desire to see a tornado in real life, and there I was, a survivor of a tornado attack.
Of course, I took pictures. They don't do the real thing justice, however.
At 7:17PM, my family safely reached my grandparents' home in Fort Collins, CO. It's good to be home.
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