Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Yesterday's word:
benignant \bih-NIG-nuhnt\, adjective:
1. Kind; gracious.
2. Beneficial; favorable.

Today will be a day that we won’t soon forget. It all started off so innocently. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful campsite and go for a little bike tour. They had some trails around the area that we thought would be fun to take. First we swung by the water to find that we were, indeed, right on the banks of the Missouri river. This brought back memories of the film we saw at the Arch in St. Louis about Lewis and Clark’s expedition to explore the western US via the Missouri. They would have had to pass right past our campsite. Cool. After that we rode down one of the trails which brought us to a feeder river which was obviously very slow moving and was beautifully overrun with lily pads. This is where Chantal and I were lucky enough to spot some Blue Herons. Our presence surprised them and they took flight which gave us a chance to watch their large graceful bodies seem to float upward with their wings spread wide yet barely moving. An absolutely gorgeous show.

After our ride it was time to hit the road again, with our sites set on Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We started along I-29 north again and it was yet another beautiful sunny day. However, that didn’t last long. Some rather ominous clouds came into view off in the distance and the sky started to turn decidedly dark. We turned on the radio to see if we could catch some local weather reports just in case this was more than just a bad rain storm, The scene seemed to get worse by the minute until we saw what appeared to be a greenish hue to the western-most sky. As regular readers know, we dealt with some very strong winds on our way south into Chicago but nothing could have prepared us for the first serious gust of wind that sideswiped the MoHo. It was so sudden and so strong that, in all seriousness, I thought we were going to flip over! Well, you can just imagine what I looked like as this Nebraska-based storm unexpectedly unloaded a can of mid-western “Wupass” on the side of the poor innocent JoRo MoHo. Upon feeling the initial jolt I immediately added a sharp, adrenaline-filled almost-full turn of the steering wheel to the left in order to keep us on the road. Of course these two violent, and opposite, actions had the undesirable effect of tipping the MoHo to the right at what felt like a 60 degree angle! When I felt this happening my body reacted instinctively. You know that feeling you get when something you are on starts to flip over and you naturally try to rearrange you body weight to help “right” it? There I was, driving down the highway, doing my best to keep the MoHo pointed in the right direction while simultaneously, and desperately, trying to maneuver my body in an effort to somehow balance the 14,000 pound vehicle to avoid the impending flip onto the side followed by the inevitable spark-filled, 50 mph Hollywood sideways slide down Interstate 29. I’m not sure of exactly happened after that but it appears that my efforts were successful. The massive thrust knocked us so hard that I truly wonder if any of the left-side wheels came off the ground … even just the slightest bit. Let’s just say that bad boy leaned over way more than the designers ever took into account when it was on the drawing board. I remember saying about our Chicago-bound segment that if you looked only at the steering wheel you’d think we were driving in a circle. Well if you were looking at the steering wheel the moment that gust hit as we were going down the highway, you’d think I’d just tried to pull an u-turn! Well, on the positive side, we are still here and it makes for slightly more lively blog entries.

After that initial blast of air, the wind continued its brutal assault on us. The funny thing is that it had not even started to rain yet. We were in a bit of a dilemma since the sky ahead looked bad but the sky to the west looked worse yet we were really having trouble keeping the MoHo on the road. Even though none of the following gusts matched the strength of the first pummel, we did not know when the next “mother of all wind gusts” was going to put us in the ditch. Once the rain started we knew we had to get off the road. Luckily there was a rest area at that point so we pulled in until we could determine the best course of action. If a tornado was on its way, which it certainly looked like it was, were we better to stay put to avoid it or continue driving to get away from it? We listened intently to the local radio which was reporting a severe weather warning just south and west of us with golf-ball sized hail and very strong winds. They recommended moving into a basement or at least get into a building and stay away from windows. The MoHo did not seem like the best refuge. After 15 or 20 minutes, the storm seemed to lessen and we could see brightening skys to the south west. But knowing that the worse of the storm was to come from that area, we chose to continue driving north and take our chances. We ended up making the right choice. It seemed like there were two storms and we managed to get in-between them. As we passed through each city along the way, they were all reporting the tail end of a severe weather advisory. That was a little more excitement than we were looking for but fortunately it turned out OK in the end.

On a less stressful note, we lucked into another fine camping location in Watertown, North Dakota. We ended up getting a site right on the water (appropriate for a town with this name I guess, eh?). We had tried another campsite first but it was full. Thank goodness too since we found out that there was a local speedway just beside it with races that night! We were miles away across on the other side of the lake and we could still hear the cars. Looking out at the serenity of the lake at the end of a beautiful sunny day it seems almost surreal that we almost encountered a twister earlier in the day.