Made It Through Tornado Alley

At Blaze-In-Saddle RV Park, Tucumcari, NM

My biggest fear of our trip was the driving over the past two days…right through the heart of Tornado Alley.  Late April through early June is VERY BAD in the traditional Tornado Alley…and frankly, it was nothing I was looking forward to doing.  I have driven through Oklahoma in a car a number of times in May or June…and one time a tornado was just to the north of us, although we did not know for sure it was a tornado until the next day.  The new talk is that Tornado Alley now includes all or parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa, Illinois and even Indiana.  Well, we drove through some of those states too. But when we left the Kansas City area, we pretty much drove the area indicated by the blue line in the above picture.

Our goal was to get to New Mexico by Tuesday night.  Monday I figured either Dodge City, or Kinsley, just shy of Dodge…both of which have Passport America parks.  I liked the park in Kinsley, so we pulled in there.  $19 cash for the night, full hookups, and a nice, quiet night’s sleep.  They anticipated some rain during the night, which never materialized, so I did pull the slide in before going to bed.  The drive to Kinsley was fairly easy, good weather, light traffic for the most part.  We got a pull-through site which, as you can see above, could have fit a 45 footer pulling a small car.

A nice feature of the park is this area to walk/run dogs, and it includes a creek on the other side of those trees which can be hiked.  I walked the dogs, did not do the creek…temps were a bit cool, but not cold enough to wear long pants.

Today (Tuesday) we left 4 Acres Park by 8 am, drove to the Flying J in Dodge City to fill up and feed the dogs.  So far…so good…but it did not remain that way.  About 15 minutes southwest of Dodge, it started to rain…then hail…then hard rain…then heavier hail (but small hail balls).  For the next 2-3 hours it was white knuckle driving for much of the time.  Traffic was again fairly light, but we only go 60 mph, while the trucks and cars want to go the speed limit of 65-70.  About every 8 miles there was a passing lane, which was good.  However, some of the cars were not willing to wait, and a few passed on a solid yellow line.  Anytime anyone passed, I always pulled to the right line and slowed up a bit…for the solid yellow line passers, well let’s just say I only had to eat one bar of soap today mom.

So tonight we are at the Blaze-In-Saddle RV Park in Tucumcari, New Mexico $14.60 for full hook-ups at another Passport America park.  The park use to be named, “Empty Saddle”, but they wisely decided to change the name since the former name meant “The Rider Died…The Horse has an Empty Saddle”.  It is past 7 pm Mountain Time, and one Horse Trailer / RV is here, and the park is over two-thirds full with RVs still pulling in.  The sky is blue, a slight wind is blowing, it is in the mid-70’s, and we are thankful to get through Tornado Alley.   The Weather Channel (Weather.com) has this headline: 

Damage in Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas From Reported Tornadoes as Severe Weather Hits Plains

And within the story the following line:  “A potential tornado caused damage in at least three states as a rash of severe storms lashed the Plains Tuesday, spawning as many as 19 tornadoes across several states.”  

Yep, we made it through just in time…

The Dogs…well they are thankful for the Dog Run…first time they have run off leash together for a long time.  They are also thankful for the time change since they will now be eating at 8 am and 8 pm instead of 9 am and 9 pm.  (Don’t tell them that it is still 12 hours from their 9 am feeding…they are just going to be happy to eat while the sun has just gone down.