Just How Close it Was – Blytheville Tornado & Wind Damage

This is a Shell Gas Station, next to a Hampton Inn, Blytheville Arkansas after a “tornado embedded in straight line winds” blew through shortly after 2 am Sunday morning.  And…HOW CLOSE WERE WE?????

As Maxwell Smart use to say, “Missed us by this much…”  (for the younger crowd, look up “Get Smart”)

This Satellite Shot from Google Maps shows it even better.  The ‘Blue’ rectangle represents the motorhome and tow car.  Just to the left of it you can see some trees, and I pulled forward away from the trees just a minute before it hit.  We were facing to the right.  The Shell Station, across I-55, faced the Interstate, and the picture of the station was taken from the frontage road that the arrowhead just covers up.  The two carts that we saw zooming across the parking lot (see previous post where that is talked about) were closer to the Walmart building that to us, but close to half the distance between us and the Walmart building.  The were zooming left to right, as was the wind.  Since it was 2 am, there were only a handful of cars in the parking lot…one of which was a security guard.  Yep, it was close…too close…but we made it through without a scratch (or dent).

Today we took it easy in the morning, went to visit Marcia’s cousin Sophie around 2, and we all went to dinner at a small restaurant nearby called “Bob & Wanda's Wagon Wheel Cafe” where every Monday they have 10 oz Prime Rib for $15.  He cooks up one rib, when it is gone, it is gone.  By the time we left, it was all gone.  And it was REAL GOOD!   4 1/2 stars on Yelp and also on Google…we passed by it many times, never even thought about eating there.  It will be on our radar from now on…and it is open 24 hours too!  Amazing little place, nice people, great food.

Tomorrow we head to Little Rock to have work done on the RV and on me.  Well, the RV will go in at DJ's Auto Repair, will have new front breaks, and the grease boot over the ball joints, which last year they said had signs of cracking (after 10 years, this is common).  We have to be there between 7:30-8:00 am on Wednesday, so we have decided to park at another Cracker Barrel nearby (less than 5 miles away.)  As for me, it is back to UAMS for a yearly check up.  Yes, I had one just 8 months ago…but we won’t be in the area again for over a year from now, so it best to get it done now.  Then we head out to Phoenix where they are having a ‘Celebration of Life’ service for Marcia’s longtime friend Joyce.  That takes place May 21st, so we have plenty of time to get there, and we will take advantage of the time to visit a few places we typically zoom past.