Tornado hits our camp site while in New Mexico!

I’m still not sure if the reason we were the very only people camped at a New Mexico State park last night was because of the Tornado which hit us. We survived without a scratch, just a lot of sand everywhere, thought we were going to lose the top of the van, but, Jerry’s quick actions saved her & us.
Well, we arrived, it was beautiful, warm sunny and not busy at all! Just one boat on the lake water skiing, that was it. We were all in heaven. This was classified as primitive camping, as there wasn’t any electric nor running water, which is fine with us, as we travel prepare. Jerry found us a flat part of the beach to camp on, it even had a nice cement picnic table. Duke and I explored the rocks and water and started taking pictures of flowers. Then we found a place to go for a run, so, we came back and changed for our run. I know it was clear and just after 6pm, as I promised to be back for 7:15pm. We went for our run, into the desert, enjoyed seeing a big river dam, bunnies, lizards, cool flowers. So, when we got back around 7:15, we said we’d be gone for a 5mins to just go take some quick pictures.. the sun was just starting to go down. I couldn’t figure out where all the flowers went.. (I figured it out in the morning, when they were all back.. desert flowers close at night.. this city person didn’t know that!).

So, we took our pictures, can came back an hour later, as I lost track of time, to a very different sky over the water, a cloud had formed so quickly, and I had never seen a cloud that thick and at the far end of the cloud it had what seemed like cloud drapes slowly lowering in whips.  I took a ton of pictures of that, as the drapes of clouds on the sides, made for a great frame for photos.. so, we sat down and ate the BBQ (which maybe I should have come back in 5mins like is said..) everything was soo good! I took pictures of Jerry during dinner, as the clouds were so unusual.   Then, the winds picked up, I’m glad it waited till we were finished eating, I wasn’t going to let that steak & asparagus go to waste!

First the water changed, from calm to white caps right away, didn’t know a reservoir of water could do that! Sand started being whipped around, tumble weeds starting flying by.. we got Duke in the van first, then the digital equipment.  That’s when Jerry saw the top of the Van starting to bend in the wind.. he quickly went inside, while I ran around in circles trying to grab plates from flying around.. he said the pipes in the van which push the top up were bending almost 5 inches to right, he was certain for a few moments there while struggling against the wind to pull it down, that we were going to lose the top of the van..  we were quickly safe in the van, with rain coming down hard, thunder and lightening somewhere where far off.  I don’t think from start to finish it lasted more then 20mins.

We had the most beautiful sunset afterward.  Later that evening a police car drove by to see if the crazies parked on the beach during a Tornado were alright.. well, that’s one way to make sure you have an entire State Park to yourself!

In the morning, we all slept in, and then Duke and I went for another run.

Tonight we are Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.  There are a number of HotSprings here, Jerry & I went to one right on the RIO Grand this evening.  We’re in a hotel because I needed a reliable high-speed wifi, as I’m doing a webinar tomorrow morning for two hours. A coaching session to folks, one in Sudbury Ontario and the other in Calgary Alberta, tomorrow’s session is on how to Leverage the Power of Facebook for their individual businesses…I’ll be remote but able to see their computer screens and help them set themselves up.. I use GoToMeeting for that, I won’t know till we get to Truth or Consequences how it’ll go.

We were on Hwy40, through New Mexico, it parallels historic Route 66.  We’ll turn south at Albuquerque, New Mexico to Hwy 25.  I’m going to do a separate Post on just Route 66, I found it so reflective of the movie Cars!

We stopped in Albuquerque for gas and to stretch Jerry & Duke’s legs.. I probably won’t be able to move, as that was the first double header run I had in a while! 

I’ll post more about the HotSprings and Route 66 later this evening.. (if it's too late..)

Sofie