June 12, 2013 continued…

At about midnight we headed west on I90 and I settled down to take a snooze. I told Sparky to wake me in an hour and I’d do another weather check.

I had dozed off on the couch behind the drivers seat when I felt Sparky’s hand shaking my foot. I jumped up to the sight and sounds of heavy rain. I asked him why he hadn’t woken me sooner. He said he was driving and it was calm and then it was down pouring. I saw the concrete maintenance building and wished we could get off the road but there was no access.

We slowed to about 25mph behind a tractor trailer while other trucks zoomed by us at full speed in the passing lane. The wipers were at full speed and you could barely see. Then the entire sky lit up with fingers of lightening that stretched as far as we could see on both sides.

The truck in front of us came to a stop right in our lane and while no one was passing us at this point I felt like a sitting duck at a stop on the highway with no visibility. Sparky could see headlights behind us but couldn’t tell how far back they were or how fast they were coming so he was hesitant to pull into the pass lane.

Sparky made a run for it while I rushed to the back to get the kids up and moved to the front of Flyer. I scooped up my heaviest sleeper, Legoboy, and told him it was an emergency and I needed him to move to the front and put his seat belt on. Carboy, who unfortunately in most cases, but good in this case is wired for alert, was up in a flash and I helped him from his bunk. Sister Bear was already half way down the hall by now with Legoboy and Carboy not far behind with me trailing. I stopped to raise the rear shade to try to give Sparky more visibility.

I am so thankful that we installed those two seat belts before we left. Sister Bear helped me pop one up through the couch and took her place there while the boys sat quietly in the chairs.

I joined Sparky in the cab just as the sky lit up again with a magnificent show of electricity. The boys couldn’t didn’t see it but Sister Bear said she wished she had her camera.

The kids rode in silence as I investigated the weather and our options. By now we were moving along the highway again and the rain had let us some. The NOAA map showed we had just passed through the vertical “red” section of the storm, the worst of it. We were now in green with sections of yellow ahead. Hundred of miles of storm ahead and below with Lake Erie above.

Then another big break! Nope, not a good one this time either. Wipers failed! No kidding. They came to a stop near the center of the windshield. The rain was steady with low visibility, we decided to pull into a rest stop just ahead. We cruised into the RV section of the lot and found electrical hook ups for Flyer. Finally, a big break in our favor. We jumped out in the rain and plugged Flyer in. Probably not the smartest thing to do, so kids, don’t try this at home…

We settled in for the night to wait out the storm.