Tag: tornado

2022 Trip 4 – Six + Weeks In St. Joseph, Missouri – Part 2

This is the rest of our six week trip to our house in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Week 4

Week four started off with a bang. We went to taco Tuesday with the Culver’s at San Jose Steakhouse and Mexican Food for the taco specials. After having our fill of tacos, we all headed to our respected abodes as bad weather was forecast for the evening. And the forecast just kept getting worse.

As bad as all of that looks, we were most concerned with the tornado warning that came with our phones making the emergency alert sound. A tornado warning means rotation has been seen on radar, but no tornados have been seen on the ground by an eyewitness. So one could be in the clouds and not on the ground, or one could actually be on the ground and not spotted yet. I had to calm Cindy and keep her from rushing into our tornado shelter with the dog, which is nothing more than our downstairs half bath in the center of our house.

Here we are in the “tornado shelter.” I’m standing to the left with the grey black and white striped PJs, the dog is obviously in the middle quite confused, and Cindy is seated on the toilet seat with the pink and roses PJs.

I finally got Cindy calmed down when I explained there had not been a tornado in St. Joseph in over 12 years and if there really was a tornado anywhere near us, the sirens would be sounding. With no sirens, we were obviously safe. Famous last words. Within a minute, the sirens went off.

Unbeknownst to us, a tornado was in fact on the ground about 5 miles away from us and it took the roof off of a department store at the mall and damaged one house. So Cindy, the dog and I all crowded into the “tornado shelter” to wait until the siren stopped. I checked the local radar for our area and it looked pretty bad.

Then we got the worse news. This is an actual screen shot from my phone that I have not altered in any way.

Yes, we had been hit by that funny shaped storm, the worse kind. Then, as we cowered in our bathroom, there was an explosion so loud it shook our house. For a split second, we both believed we were being hit by a tornado. Instead, our neighbor’s house two houses away from us had been hit by lightening. The blast knocked out our internet and we had to have the equipment replaced the next day. But we were lucky. The neighbor that was struck lost a lot more electronic equipment. Here is the house that was hit by the tornado.

So that was a pretty exciting evening.

Later in the week, we had the Culvers over for some wine tasting, charcuterie, and cheese eating. Part of the cheese selection was a Missouri special cheese called Provel. Provel is a combination of American cheese, swiss, and provolone. It has a unique flavor that is hard to describe, but you can taste parts of each type of cheese. I liked it and Cindy did not.

At the end of the week, I installed a B Hyve smart sprinkler control at our house so we can control the sprinklers from wherever we are. It went pretty well.

Week 5

The week started with a visit to the house of Scott’s parents, Nancy and Denby. They live just north of Kansas City very close to the Kansas City airport. Nancy made a delicious lunch of grilled cheese with ham sandwiches. We had a great time hanging out with them. The next day we went shopping for outdoor furniture with the Culvers. Here is what we bought. Two metal chairs, a metal table, and the fake green ball plant in the picture on the left.

Now we finally had some porch furniture. On Thursday, we went to Prysten’s Wine Bar with the Culvers. Usually, Thursday night is trivia night, where Cindy can win us wine. Due to lack of interest, they changed it to Bingo night and were packed. We played a few games and didn’t win anything, kissing our money goodbye, so to say.

On Friday night, we went to the historic Missouri Theatre with the Culvers to see the band Kansas. I was afraid seeing the band Kansas in Missouri may cause a rift in the time space continuum. Luckily, it did not.

Even though the band members have aged quite a bit, they still put on an outstanding show.

The lead guitarist had an eye patch. The rumor was he had lost his eye at the battle of Gettysburg, but that may not be completely true. Either way, he still played a mean guitar.

On Saturday, we went wine and whiskey tasting with the Culvers at the Riverwood Winery, located just outside of Weston, Missouri.

The wines were okay, but the whiskey was really good.

Week 6

This was our final week and our drive home. We relaxed a bit in front of the fire.

We did some cleaning and got ready to button up the house for a visit in a few weeks by our friends the Burdicks, who were going to stay at the house for a few days on a trip they were taking though the area. We left for home on a Tuesday with the goal of making it home by Wednesday night. The weather was supposed to be warm on the way home, but once again, we were in for a surprise. The drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico was very cold, which made my decision to wear shorts a cold one. Luckily, the heater in the truck works great. In Albuquerque, Thea once again got her own bed and this time I got a picture.

This darn dog lives better than most humans do.

The drive through New Mexico was a very cold one, 21 degrees with a wind chill of 12 degrees. That is so cold it freezes the windshield wiper cleaner fluid at gas stations.

Once again, I was in shorts and very cold. It did warm up by the time we got to California, so the shorts worked at the end of the trip. We made it home safely Wednesday night and all was good.

Our next trips are a three day trip to Temecula to do some wine tasting with our friends the Webers, and a four day trip to Carmel/Monterey Bay for our 30 year anniversary.

Trip 8 – St. Joseph, Missouri for the Closing on the new House

This was our two week trip to Missouri for the closing on our new house. We drove my truck out there so we could take some stuff with us. Check out this full bed.

So I know what you’re thinking. Why the tarp when you have the tonneau cover? While the tonneau seals very well, it is not perfect. In heavy rain, a few drops of water get through here and there. The tarp is to protect the “goods” in the event of heavy rain, which is always a possibility in the Midwest. And we did encounter rain and all of our stuff stayed dry.

It is normally a two to three day drive from Santa Clarita to St. Joseph, but we needed to travel all the way to St. Louis so we could use some tickets we had previously purchased for the St. Louis Gateway Arch. And away we gooooooo.

Day 1

This was our first travel day. We stopped for lunch in Kingman, Arizona and decided to give the local Arby’s a try. The last two times I have tried an Arby’s it has not gone well. The food is usually not too good and I’ve had mistakes in my orders. This was bound to go better. Or NOT. We both ordered the Classic Beef and Cheddar sandwiches, which is a bun, roast beef and melted cheddar cheese. This is what we got.

Notice the lack of melted cheese? Strike three. I will not be eating at an Arby’s anytime in the near future.

We finished the first day’s drive late into the night in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And this stop, as well as the day 2 stop, were very unique for one of our trips. We decided to not make hotel reservations, because we wanted to drive as far as we could and we were not sure where those stops would be. For a serial planner, this was difficult, but we made it work.

Day 2

This was our second travel day and it contained a glorious lunch stop at……………

That’s right, my favorite restaurant, The Big Texan. This stop made the day and a half drive worth it. After a delicious steak lunch, I was ready to drive another day and a half. We ended up making it all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We ended up with Cindy’s version of the perfect hotel.

That’s right, not only was a Starbuck’s visible from our room, it was also within walking distance.

Day 3

This was our final travel day to get to St. Louis, Missouri. After walking to the Starbucks for coffee, we were off to our first stop at McAlister’s Deli for lunch. This is Cindy’s favorite deli. So much so, Scott C renamed it McCindy’s. As we continued on, we saw several road signs for a roadside attraction named “Uranus.” How could we not stop at that.

This was every bad cliché you can possible make using the word “Uranus.” And so worth the stop. I believe everyone should visit Uranus!

We arrived in St. Louis in the evening. Our hotel was in the downtown area so we walked to dinner. Downtown St. Louis is beautiful and safe, unlike the cesspool downtown Los Angeles has become. He are a few pictures of downtown St. Louis at night, including the arch.

Our hotel was housed in an old bank building. The snack shop was inside the old vault.

After dinner and some snacks, we went to bed to rest up for our next day’s visit to the Arch and our ride up to the top of it.

Day 4

We got up and were able to walk to the Arch. It is located within Gateway Arch National Park. Here are a few pictures of the downtown area during the day.

And here are a few pictures of the arch.

Before riding the elevator to the top of the arch, we checked out the arch museum.

It had displays about the arch and the area and is worth checking out. Then it was the moment of truth. We got ourselves into the line and waited for the elevator door to our elevator to open.

Even though the door looked like an elevator door, you actually ride up to the top in a small pod that kind of rocks back and forth to keep it upright as you travel up a curved arch. It was very unsettling, but exciting at the same time.

Once you get to the top, there is an area that has small windows you can look out to sightsee.

On the way out, we found a display that showed the “pods.” We were glad we didn’t see them until after we had already been to the top of the arch. They were much smaller than we had anticipated. Here are a few pictures.

And here are a few pictures from outside of the arch.

We really enjoyed our time at the arch and highly recommend a visit.

We loaded up and headed off to Scott and Heather’s house, a mere four and a half hour drive away. According to Google Maps, we were going to drive on west the 70 for the majority of our trip. But this was one of our trips, so it couldn’t possible be that easy. And it wasn’t. Less than an hour into our trip, the 70 was closed because of a major crash. This really isn’t an issue for Google Maps, as it suggested some country roads north to the 36, then west on the 36 to our destination. While this added thirty minutes to our trip, it was better than fighting the traffic trying to get around the freeway closure in front of us.

We drove through the country side and it was really beautiful and relaxing. Also a little intimidating as you drove through unpopulated areas for long periods at a time. We finally joined the 36 and headed west, unfortunately, toward some really nasty looking weather. The weather continued to deteriorate, and we were driving toward some jet black clouds that looked like the end of the world. So we stopped at a gas station, fueled up, and got some drinks and snacks for the scary ride ahead. And then it got even better. As we were leaving the gas station, we heard the clerk say to the man behind us, “Smart man to get your beer now, before the tornados hit.” What the heck?!? I decided to look up the tornado warnings in the area and here is what I found.

So what did I learn? Most of the state was under a tornado watch. A tornado watch is issued when conditions are favorable for the development of tornadoes in and close to the watch area. Uh-oh. Now we were driving in the northern part of the state, between the two light green areas, toward the red area. So we were in a tornado watch, between flood warning (light green) areas, driving toward a tornado warning, which means a tornado had been seen on radar or by a person on the ground. Truly a new experience for us.

Since we could still see 360 degrees around us, I wanted to continue forward and we could take refuge if needed. I mean, really, what are the chances a tornado is going to hit us in a moving car? And if it did, clearly it was our time to meet our maker. Cindy wanted to turn around, but to where? The entire state was under a tornado watch. So we continued on, much to Cindy’s dismay. I reassured her not to worry because if there was a tornado near us, our phones would warn us and we would probably see it. This did not help. Then both of our phones emitted the emergency alert sound, followed by the warning a tornado had been sighted near us and to take cover IMMEDIATELY! This really didn’t help, because now we were in a red area.

As we looked for somewhere to take cover, we approached a small municipal airport that had a Life Flight station and a man standing in the parking lot filming the weather. We pulled in and spoke to the man, explaining this was new to us and we had no idea what to do. He was a local and was quite knowledgably about tornados. We learned a lot. The biggest takeaway for me was using the weather channel app’s radar function to track actual tornados. The man showed us how the tornado in our area was just north of us and moving away from us. He assured us it was safe to continue. So we did, but reluctantly. Another five minutes down the road, and we thought we saw the tornado to the north of us. Here is a screen shot from my dashcam. Notice the dark cone on the right.

The next day we learned the tornado near us was classified as an EF-2. It did some property damage, but luckily, no one was hurt. The rest of our drive to the Culver household was uneventful, which was welcomed. We got settled in, had a great BBQ chicken dinner prepared by Scott, and got some rest. Day 5 was house closing day!

Day 5

Closing day went off without a hitch and we became Missouri home owners. Even though we were now home owners, we would stay with the Culvers for the rest of this trip as our beds were not scheduled for delivery until the end of this stay.

The rest of the day was spent running around getting things we would need and scheduling a painter, who would paint the entire interior before we left for California.

Days 6-9

These days were spent getting the utilities turned on, getting the house and carpets cleaned, getting more basics for the house, and so on.

Day 10

This was Cindy’s birthday. The day started with flowers, we had a nice dinner out with the Culvers and Scott’s parents, and ended with a fun bonfire, complete with sparklers, in the Culver’s backyard.

Day 11

Day 11 was Halloween. We visited a local wine bar named “Prestyn’s Wine Bar.” It is between our house and the Culver’s house, so about a three minute drive for either of us. This place was really nice, and we will definitely return.

Since the Culvers live where everyone has several acres of land, the houses are spread pretty far apart and are far from the road. This is not conducive to trick or treating, so we had no visitors.

Days 12 – 15

The rest of our trip was spent shopping for necessities, and waiting for deliveries. One of the deliveries was for our beds. Two adjustable twin beds (making a king) for the master bedroom and queen bed for our guest bedroom. We had ordered the beds on our last visit and needed them to be delivered on this visit so we could use them on our next visit. Knowing this tight schedule we had, we purposely ordered beds and mattresses that were in stock so there would not be any delays. We also paid extra for delivery and set up. The “Platinum Package.” We were so naïve. The beds were scheduled to be delivered on a Saturday. On Friday, I received a phone call that our two beds for the master bedroom were not in stock and would have to be delivered on a Tuesday, two days before we left. As you can imagine, I was not happy. How can beds that were “in stock” not be in stock? And I didn’t want to wait around on two different days for these deliveries. So I had the salesman postpone the Saturday delivery so everything could come on the Tuesday. And I was assured everything would come on Tuesday. Famous last words.

On Monday, I received another phone call from the salesman informing me the master bedroom bed was still not in yet, so he had postponed the whole delivery until the next Saturday, A day we would be in California. I expressed my dissatisfaction and made it clear the queen bed had better show up on Tuesday or bad things were going to happen. On Tuesday, the queen bed showed up. And here is the “Platinum” set up.

Needless to say, I received a refund on that set up. Cindy and I set up the ONE bed, and put sheets on it so it would be ready for our return trip. On the last day of our trip, we drove the truck and parked it near the airport and flew to California. We would be there for 5 days, attend or friend Sylvia’s birthday party, then return to Missouri.

Trip 9 will be our brief return to California and then back to Missouri.