Movie Stars

Ok, so there were no movie cameras and no director to be found but Ben, the kids and I thought it would be fun to start the sequel to the movie Twister.  We headed out for Wisconsin as planned and heard there were some storms in lake country but didn't think too much about it.  We got to St. Cloud and stopped for dinner.  While there we heard a woman say the storm was supposed to hit St. Cloud in about 20 minutes.  We decided we better get our butts out of there and fast.  We hit rain just outside of St. Cloud and played chicken with the storm all the way to Cambridge.  

While in Cambridge we had to stop for a messy diaper and lost valuable time there.  I don't remember exactly what time it was but it was black and it shouldn't have been.  We hightailed it out of Cambridge and stayed ahead of the storm into Wisconsin.  However once inside Wisconsin, we head up a BIG hill and take a left.  Well that left took us directly into the storm.  The skies honestly looked like what you see on the movie Twister.  

There are three towns on the highway in Wisconsin along a 20 mile stretch before you get to our destination.  First there is Centuria.  When we drove into town, we heard the tornado sirens blaring but it is a very very small town and we know noone there.  We decided to keep going to the next town, Milltown.  When we got to Milltown, we heard sirens, again.  We stopped at a gas station and the clerk told us that we were welcome to head into the cooler because there was a funnel cloud spotted 7 miles away.  In that time we had been talking to my grandma and got directions to someone's house in that town.  We set out looking for the house and couldn't see the side of the road.  

It was at the point that I closed my eyes and just prayed that we would be safe.  When I opened my eyes, to our left was the lights beaming out of the fire hall garage doors with people looking out the windows.  Wow, what a relief.  We pulled into the lot, ripped the kids out of their car seats and ran inside through the pouring rain.  We were all scared, even Ben.  But then I realized there was no better place to be than where we were.  If something terrible were going to happen, what better place than with the firemen and first responders.  And the kids got cool little fireman hats.  

At the fire hall they had a large tv going with the weather reports.  There was a funnel cloud only a few miles away and the storm was moving at (get this) 73 mph.  No wonder we couldn't out run it once we turned up the hill.  I have never been so scared to be in a vehicle in my entire life.  We are so thankful that the fire station was there.  I don't know what we would have done as we couldn't see enough to find the house we were looking for.  

After about 30 minutes of watching the storm pass we were able to finish our trip and arrived at grandmas.  What a relief.  And in other good news, the kids did very well with the cats and dogs.  Reagan loved the dogs but fortunately he has nothing more than a little cough.  

Well that's all for now.  I felt a little under the weather today so I'm going to try and convince the kids it's cool just to relax and watch tv with mom.  Ben is at his first school board meeting!!!