Our First Tornado Alert

River Plantation RV Resort
Sevierville, Tennessee
Back In #145

We love experiencing unique and different things but we could have done without Sunday's experience.  

Bill and I were relaxing from our day's adventure and noticed the sky turned black, not gray, but black.  Bill was watching TV but from the satellite and not on a local channel.  

My phone went crazy with an alarm going off.  I glanced at it and saw the word tornado and we both put on our shoes and headed to the clubhouse.  I saw people running to the bathhouse which was next to our rig.  We walked over to the clubhouse and there were already people in the laundry. 

At least in the clubhouse you had a TV to watch with the forecasting.  All channels were tracking the storm.  It went up to 100 % chance of hail and they were calling for golf ball size hail (almost 2 inch).  The wind blew but nothing too bad.  There was some rain and no hail at this point.  After awhile the storm passed so we went back home.  Around midnight we had a second round of weather and the lightning, thunder and rain were pretty bad.  

The next morning as we watched the news, we found out that an EF3 tornado touched down in Speedwell. Winds were clocked at 150 mph which was more severe than what hit Boston.   I looked on the map and Speedwell appeared to be less than 10 miles from us.  There were many homes and businesses destroyed but no fatalities.   

Thanks to all of you who called and wanted to know if we were OK.  

This morning we left Raccoon Valley RV Park and traveled a whole 43 miles.  We heard that I 40 was closed eastbound due to some tractor trailer accident.  No problem, we had already decided to take Highway 441 through Knoxville.  

Is it just me, or do you wonder how south and north can be in the same direction?  

This is a nice park, but they really need to trim the trees.    

It didn't take long for the dancing to start.  This was before lunch. 

Carole and Paul wanted to go to the Coleman outlet store and Pat and Larry needed some supplies for the rally so all six of us climbed into the truck.  

Pat has a birthday today and wanted to go out to eat.  Seven couples went to the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge.  It's a huge restaurant and we didn't have to wait long for a table.  

Nancy and Dale Calvert

Vickie and Jim Fischer

Rich and Helen La Scola

Larry and Pat Sessoms

The food was excellent, but way too much.  The dinners came with corn clam chowder, salad, corn fritters, rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes and an entree and dessert.  Bill and I both ordered Southern Fried Chicken.  It was excellent, but not as good as in Mount Airy. 

The Mid-Atlantic Montana Rally officially starts tomorrow but over half have already arrived.  

It looks like we will be very busy this next week.  

Turtle Safely.......