Back and Ready to Play

We are now back from vacation.  It was a relaxing week with hardly any electronics.  I did take my tablet to read and play a couple games on but it messed up part way through the week so I really didn't have any electronics the latter part of the week. 

It rained a lot while we were in the mountains, but we still got quite a bit of hiking, driving and fishing in.  I caught rainbow trout, brookies, and brown trout on the fly rod.  We also drove up a mountain pass that was 4 wheel drive only access.  I didn't need 4 wheel drive on the side we came up but the other side it sounded like I may have needed it. 

My Explorer was good and dirty when we left the mountains.  Mainly due to the road our cabin was on. 

During the rainy part of the day I took naps and played cards.  We taught the kids to play kings in the corner, pass the trash and war.  We played pinochle with my parents while the kids watched t.v. when the baby was asleep.

On the way home I about tried to avoid the storm below as my truck was good and dirty and I didn't want it washed off right away.  The mud formed a good pattern.

We drove right into the core of the storm and within seconds everybody was pulling off the interstate.  Hail, high winds and massive amounts of rain were coming down. 

We pulled up the storm on the iPhone and saw that the storm was moving slowly right along interstate away from us.  If we didn't get through it we would be following it at 10 mph for the next forever.

We started to drive through it again.  I told the kids to duck towards the middle of the vehicle as I thought we were going to lose windows to the hail.  The wind was blowing hard under the cell.  It had to be blowing close to 80 mph to 100 mph.  The grass was laid flat and you couldn't see hardly anything.  Hail stones were slamming into the windshield and busting apart so fast that the wipers were shoving mounds of ice off the windshield.  It felt like we were on the outer perimeter of a tornado.  The radar didn't even show red.

The road was flooding as we drove through, then all of a sudden we could see the other side.  The rain was coming down all nice.  I told mom that we had just gotten through the power wash and was now in the no spot rinse cycle.

When we finally got to a stopping point I saw that the hail stones did not dent the vehicle but had gouged through the paint and pitted my windshield in several places.  It must have been some jagged hail.

Tonight I get into poker full steam again with a local game.  It was a nice break but I'm ready to play again. 

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