I have to start this post with the day we closed on our house. We signed the papers, dropped off a load of our stuff and then headed back to Chattanooga for one last night in our camper.
As we left Hollywood, we noticed a small plane in the median of Hwy 72 by the Texaco near our house. There were several police cars next to him. We wondered aloud if he had actually landed that little plane on the Highway?!? The next day Daniel found out that the man had been traveling from South Carolina to Texas when he "realized" he was low on gas and decided to land on the highway. He landed near the Texaco where he got out of his plane with a gas can to go "refuel."
As Daniel's Facebook status says:
A plane land on the highway near our house. Next to a Texaco. He was out of gas. He landed, pulled the plane into the grassy median, and supposedly got out nonchalantly with a 5 gallon gas can to walk over to the Texaco for fuel. He carries a 5 gallon gas can in a plane. You know what that tells me? This genius has done this before.
Bad Weather
Part II of this post is about tornadoes. I realize that these storms are not just limited to Alabama. I also realize that October is kind of a strange time for tornadoes and that a lot of areas were affected by these crazy storms recently. But tornadoes really freak me out.
Tuesday was moving day. The movers arrived promptly at 7:30am. They were finished by 11:30. The entire morning clouds were blowing ominously overhead and I kept expecting the bottom to fall out at any moment. As soon as the movers left, the rain started.
Shortly after that I headed back to Chattanooga to pick up Sophie and one last load of stuff from our camper. The wind was really strong and was blowing my car and trailer around quite a bit. At the camper, I hurriedly packed and loaded the rest of our stuff. It was sunny and humid. I got back in the Subaru and headed south on Hwy 72. It looked like I was driving into a wall of clouds. It started raining lightly and then harder. The wind picked up. Soon I couldn't see and the wind was really blowing the car around.
I decided to pull over and wait it out on the shoulder {along with several other cars}. My reasons for stopping included 1) I couldn't see the road; 2) I knew there were some upcoming water crossings and I didn't want to be blown into the water; and 3) a big orange barrel had blown over and was in the middle of the road, so it seemed like a good time to stop.
I tried calling Daniel and couldn't get through. I called my brother and he checked the internet to see of I should be worried. He told me the weather in Scottsboro was supposed to be "calm and sunny!!!"
Daniel called shortly after that to tell me the tornado sirens had gone off in Scottsboro and at TVA and that he had been in lockdown from the storm – he had texted me, but I never received his text. Shortly after Daniel's call, the weather passed and I decided it was safe to keep traveling. Not sure what I sat/rode through, but it was NOT FUN.
Then last night, we were starving after our moving day and went into town to get some dinner and small things like milk and a shower curtain. On the way there, the radio said we were under a tornado warning and to take cover. blah. blah. blah.
We went to Walmart where all of the employees all told us not to blow away when we left. Then we picked up pizza at Papa John's before heading home. At this point another warning came on the radio that said that there were several towns in the line of a possible tornado that was moving NorthEast and that you lived in the vicinity to take cover. I looked at Daniel and was like, "I have no idea where those towns are or where we are in relation to those towns!" The radio kept telling us places and Daniel finally perceived that the storm was already East of us {on the other side of the Tennessee River} and I started to feel safe again.
At least living in a house with a basement has much better options for taking cover than when we were in our camper!!!
