Well, that beautiful storm came and went, thank goodness. I saw it coming (see photo) about 100 miles up route 70 and saw that it was about a ten mile storm, although i was hoping it wasn't headed our way, but it was.
I decided not to try for Moab, 50 miles up the road, because we lost an hour due to the time zone change, and i wanted to try to beat the storm. We pulled into this camp at Green River at 6:30 and i had the camp fully set up and Erde fed by 7:10, a record for me (no dinner for me tonight, though) just as a light rain started to fall. Lightning, about once a minute, was lighting up the entire sky and inside our cozy yellow tent i felt i was inside a light bulb. When the heavy winds and heavier rains started to come just as i sent my last posting, the thunder was five seconds away from the lightning. Minutes later it was eight, then 12, then 26, so i knew the storm was moving away. Nevertheless, i tossed all the metal, dog bowls, lamps, my easy chair, my belt, dog tags, etc., from the tent, and was about to pull up the metal stakes for the tent and replace them with plastic ones, but did not. I pulled Erde close to me to minimize our footprint until i was sure the storm had passed. I then poked my head out the tent and saw a few clouds, but mostly stars. Our tent was pitched to the left of the Defender so you can see how vulnerable we were. No big deal, just one if the hazards of tenting on these road trips.
Of course, while i was preparing for the worst, the other campers here, all RVers, were snuggly resting in the dens, probably munching on canapés, downing Ramos Gin Fizzes, and watching All in the Family reruns.
I do not like electric storms. I would rather sleep among bears than encounter an electrical storm. In 2000, when Sonntag and i were returning from Alaska, we camped at Birds Hill Provincial Park in Winnipeg and had just set up the camp when an electric storm hit. There was no time difference between the lightning and thunder as the storm was directly over us with a very low cloud cover. I could tell when the lightning was coming, about 15 seconds apart, because the tent pokes were crackling and Sonntag's hair was standing up. Once, i thought the storm was leaving when the thunder was seconds behind the lightning, but then it returned and hovered over us. Finally, it left, and when i emerged from the tent, i instinctively did some atavistic dance celebrating the danger that had just passed. The few RVers in the camp kindly stopped in the morning to see if we survived tee night. When i got hone, i read a book called All About Lightning to prepare myself for the next one, which just came, 14 years later.
Since I will not have much time for postings on these last few days of the trip, i will post the day's photos and summarize the day, and then when i get home, i will transfer the notes from my journal to the placeholder posting for the day.
The storm, 100 miles up the road on interstate 70
Our tent was set up to the left of the Defender. My hope was that any lightning would strike the tree or the Defender first.
Ed and Erde, On The Road
P.S. Sorry for any errors in this message or posting. The iPad spellcheck is not known for its attention to detail.
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