Day.
2 PM and it looked to be 8 PM instead. One of many that we would encounter on our journey. Some were of torrential rains (INDIANA Rains, we call them-windshield wipers can't keep up), some were of dry lightening and thunder, some with 80 MPH winds that we were fortunate to be able to continue thru the other side where the sun was shining, and some were just high winds with threatening clouds. Fortunately, we lucked out, and didn't get caught in any of the tornados. They were mainly 'behind' us. We kept a close ear to the CB Weather Station as we found that it had the closest updates to where we were traveling at the time.And HUMIDITY. Oh my. I had forgotten how HUMID it can be and NOT be raining! Of all things we encountered, we'd have to say that the humidity was the hardest on us. When we left, my wedding ring was a bit loose..after a coupla weeks 'back East of the Mississippi', it was almost too tight and after the
2nd day of being in the Rockies, it was loose once again. Our most troublesome days, healthwise, were those that had the storms, where the H and L pressures were dancing overhead.And RAIN. Actually beginning to think we needed to start looking for Noah's Ark over the vast fields of water. Some places the river banks were over a mile beyond their boundaries on both sides. Some of the corn plants were already turning yellow from too much water, and in other places, they were lying flat on the ground.
One farmer had to have experienced high winds or a tornado as his irrigation system was blown around: from just lying on its side to where the wheels were up in the air and parts of the pipe were strewn quite a ways from where it should have been. I felt for him just trying to get it all set back up and working once again. There were many 'half-trees' just beyond this area with the other half either totally torn off or half way still attached to the trunks.
Cloud formations were another chapter in and of themselves.
After we left Duluth MN, we encountered one of those storms. Torrential rains, the highest winds so far, and cloud to ground lightening. We kept on driving, sure and steady and passed many cars and trucks sitting UNDER the overpasses. When we got on the south side we looked into our rearview mirrors and saw an amazing site:
There was a horizontal layer of clouds that looked like a LONG FRENCH Loaf of bread! Change the coloring of it from shades of bread brown to shades of dark blue to black with some white, almost like a braid of hair. And it was rolling and as far as we could see from left to right. Sure were glad it wasn't a vertical cloud as it would have been a tornado.
And then the sunsets: some were gorgeous with all the colors of the rainbow and some were just black as ink and then there were all those in-between. If you ever want to know if 2 colors can go together in your quilt: just watch a few sunsets in different parts of North America. Canada, included.
Butterfly (Nuff for today.)