Its somewhat ironic that Im listening to the thunder clouds and rain outside my window as I write this.
Another summer storm. Well today we decided to take off to the middle of Alberta and take in the world renowned “Royal Tyrell Museum”. Very cool indeed. However, I must say, taking a four year old always seems like such a good idea in theory. Yes, he thought it cool. Did I get to actually absorb anything I saw? No. As a mom of a preschooler – its the constant running after him, and keeping his little wandering hands off the priceless Stegosaurus skeleton that keeps my day hopping. After driving 1.5 hours to get there we sort of came to the conclusion that he’d much rather be in the playground NEXT to the museum. Good thing we burned up that $1.38 a litre gas to figure that one out. Kidding aside, Jack did think it was “Cool” and “Awesome” (in his words). After a dip in the spray park and Ice cream cone at the ‘worlds largest dinosaur’, it was back on the highway.
This is where the fun starts.
So as were driving and admiring this amazing black sky that was beginning to take over the horizon – Jack fell asleep. Thank god (in my words). I start concentrating on this little ‘funnel’ that seems to be decending and then slowly rising back into the depths of the storm clouds. “ah…honey…did you see that funnel?” Apparently Bruce was watching it as well. Somewhat scared, I still took out the camera to see if I could get something on film! We keep watching. The funnel comes down again…this time touching down.
So what do the McDonalds do? We keep driving right towards it. Luckily by the time our Hwy guided us to the place where the tornado had been – it was gone. The sky still perpetuated a blackness that I have never experienced before. Hearts pumping, we got thru unscathed. Moments later the emergency broadcast system came over the radio saying a tornado had touched down and was moving 45 kms an hour in the area we had just escaped.
I suppose that was worth the price of admission right there.
