West Coast Tour: Microburst, Anyone?

Do you know what a microburst is? According to Google it is: “A sudden, powerful, localized air current, esp. a downdraft.” Have you ever been stuck in one? Well, let me tell you I have never been in a scarier storm then being stuck in the middle of a microburst.

Here’s what happened: Ben and I were stuck in our pattern of camping one night in a place and moving on the next day and it had ended us up in Wyoming at Devil’s Tower. We were going to just stop by and see it but it was getting later in the day and decided to camp out in the park’s campground. We were walking around trying to find the site we wanted to set up in and we read a sign that said to be careful where you set your tent up because the large old trees that were there where known to fall over. The only thing was that the “large old trees” were everywhere and one could not set up anywhere and not be in a place that a tree could potentially land on if it were to fall over. So we picked a spot and I made sure to look up and not be directly under any leaning tree. As we began to set up, you could see that a storm was coming and that we should get set up quickly so that we wouldn’t have to do it in the rain. We were able to get our tent set up and all of our stuff in the tent just as the rain started to come. I am not sure on all the details of what happened next. I do know that it started to lightning and thunder very loud and I headed for the van. Then all of a sudden it started hailing and getting windy. The next thing I know, it’s very windy and Ben is still outside trying to make sure that our tent would be okay. Suddenly leaves and branches are going all over and the hail and rain is going through the air sideways. I see Ben start running for the van and he hopes in just as I see one of those “large old tree” fall over right in front of us. And then our pop-up tent gets ripped from the ground and is heading across the campground and then there goes our new tent, it crumpled then rolled into a ball and started to get blown away. I think at this time I was probably screaming and I assumed the very well known tornado drill position you learn all your life growing up in Minnesota. Our van was being rocked like crazy and a big branch came crashing down on the back of the van and Ben started up the engine and through it into reverse and we jumped over the branch and went zooming backwards till we were in the clear. This all took place in about 5-10 minutes. Then everything cleared up and the sun came out.

Crazy!

Our van plastered with leaves.


The tree that fell over. The pile of branches in the forground was where our van was.

Well we survived the microburst but our poor little pop-up tent was a crumpled mess of metal and canvas and our new tent that we had only used four times was also a mess. It turned out that because we had put a tarp inside of our tent, when our tent went rolling, everything got rolled up into the tarp, which kept all of our stuff dry. The tent itself, however, had a very bent pole. Bummer. Ben did the best he could, and worked at straitening our pole back out and we were able to get it functioning for the night. But this did end up sending us on a 6 hour detour to Montana to get our tent replaced. Thank the Lord we had gotten it at REI and had a lifetime warranty on it.



Despite our crazy storm in at Devils Tower, the rest of our time there was awesome. It is such a strange sight to see this big old tower looming up over you. And it’s just there, nothing around it and it is beautiful! We spent the rest of our evening hiking around the Tower and watching the sunset reflecting upon it.

West Coast Tour: South Dakota

When Ben and I left Minnesota we had about 10 days before we would meet up with the rest of our team. And the first place we headed towards was South Dakota. I had never been to South Dakota…can’t say that I really ever had the desire to. But it was on our way to the west and I had heard that the west side of this state was pretty. I was pleasantly surprised once I got there. South Dakota is beautiful once you get into it a ways and it is true that the west side, the Badlands and the Black Hills are very pretty. We pulled into the Badlands and spent one night there and the next day we hiked around and were amazed at how cool the Badlands are.

The next night we headed into the Black Hills where we stopped to see Mt. Rushmore and then stopped in a little park called Windy Cave. We spent the next day touring one of the largest expanding caves in the States and went on a search for wild buffalo…but never did find them.

By this time in our trip I was trying to get used to living out of a van, which is not always the easiest of things. And we were getting into a not so great pattern of setting up a tent each day and then packing up again in the morning and then driving to a new location. We had not planned our trip at all and wanted to see everything along the way, however, we were on the way to exhaustion because of all of our moving, setting up and tearing down. Even so, it was still fun to be out on an adventure and seeing some of the amazing creations that God had made.

West Coast Tour: Beginnings

So I haven’t written in awhile but instead of dwelling on that fact I will just get into it. Ben and I have been doing a West Coast Tour this summer and it has been quite the adventure I must say. There is too much to tell all at one time, so I figure I will give a synopsis of our summer in shorter blog posts. This is the first of let say a few. : )

Beginnings:

We had spent the spring down south doing our regular tour of Gatherings and work. It was a very busy spring but we ended up back in Minneapolis for the month of May. It was also busy with work and visiting people. While we were out traveling our team was trying to decide if we would spend the summer on the west coast since the National Gathering was going to be in Washington. I felt like the Lord spoke to me and told me that Ben and I were to go west and to not worry about money. Ha! Easier said than done! So we worked a lot and very hard while we had the opportunity to and saved. We sold our little truck and bought a mini-van and on June 10th we packed it up and hit the road, just the two of us heading due west.

Traveling Companions:

Traveling companions are always nice to have…for awhile at least! While we were in Minneapolis our RV was parked at my parent’s house. A few days before we set out on our adventure I would walk outside at night to go to the RV and I would see a little cat go running across the yard and into the woods. I started putting food out for it, but it would only come around at night after dark. Finally, one day the cat came out during the day and stayed around. She was very dirty and kinda ragged. Ben and I had compassion on her and brought her in, gave her a bath, gave her a cat box to see if she would use it, then put her in the car the next day with us and headed west. It is interesting traveling with a cat. She is very loving and does okay in the car…however we were soon to discover that she does not play well with others…animals that is. She may be cute and somewhat cuddly with humans but once she is around other animals she turns into a killer. She has had three fights to date and we have had her for two months. And there’s no backing down for this cat…she is crazy! We haven’t really named our cat…it changes all of the time. Here are some of the options: Meow, Kitty-witty, Meowzerton, Kitty-meow, Stinky, Stinkerton, Skunkie, Missy Moo, Lola and Zuie. It is kind of like a choose your own adventure…but it’s with a name.