Well That Was Fun

Last night got somewhat crazy. The Silver Hawks played two and a half innings, and then the players were pulled off the field because of some lightning in the distance.

We had known that there were some heavy storms in the area, but most of it missed north. Apparently, they were still developing over the plains, and the lightning (with some of the darkest skies I've seen in a while) soon gave way to heavy rain. We weren't 15 minutes into the rain delay when the GM of Clinton came out to the field with a microphone and as nicely as possible told everyone to get out of the ballpark and get home because there are tornados in the area.

I scambled to pack up my equipment, get a very short story put up on the website and sent out to the media, and load the bus. I thought we might hang out in Clinton for a while, waiting out the heavy stuff which was definitely located between Clinton and Cedar Rapids. I thought wrong.

We loaded the bus, and headed off into the storm for the trip to Cedar Rapids, driving right through the heart of the storm. We put a movie in on the bus, to distract everyone from the fact that there was rain, wind, hail, and the potential of tornados. As we were trying to determine what movie to watch, I believe it was Jordan Meaker who jokingly said "I have the movie Twister." That was both funny and not cool -- all at the same time.

Roughly 15 minutes into the trip, my mom called my cell phone, not knowing that we were on the road. Her words were "I was just watching the weather channel, and they are saying there are 80 mph winds between Clinton and Cedar Rapids. You guys won't be going anywhere for a while." Then, I probably said the dumbest thing I could have said at that point, when I responded "Mom, you don't have to tell me that. We're driving through it." I'd like to take this time to apologize to my mom for making her worry for the next two hours until I called her from Cedar Rapids to tell her we arrived safely.

Ultimately, the trip involved a lot of rain, more lightning than I've seen in a long time, and a bunch of wind. I don't think there was any hail on us, but the first 45 minutes to an hour were somewhat rough. Most everyone just let themselves get lost in the movie, and tried not to worry about everything that was going on around them.

Anyhow, we made it, safe and sound, to lovely Cedar Rapids.