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Betty and Ro (aka the twitterer and texter) |
Let’s go back to last Friday. Each year at this time, my sisters, Betty, Ro, and I, take a road trip to Cincinnati, Ohio, for Betty’s granddaughter’s birthday celebration. Cincinnati is in the southern portion of Ohio, only minutes from Kentucky. From our homes, it is a 10 hour drive each way. (11 if you take into consideration the age of our bladders) As you can imagine, there is much chatter and laughter along the way. My husband actually came with us one year, but when we got home he said “never again” (I don’t know what his problem is).
But this year, we did have a fourth
travel buddy, her name is Siri. If you own an iPhone, you know her as the voice
that answers questions that are spoken into the phone. And sometimes, her
answers are actually correct. I own a Droid, so traveling with Siri was new to
me. After about five hours on
the Pennsylvania Turnpike, we were heading into the mountains of Wheeling, West
Virginia when my nephew, Scott called from the Kentucky school where he is an
assistant principal. “Just thought you should know that you might run into some
rough weather. They are calling for strong thunderstorms and possible tornadoes
here later.”
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"We have cows!!" |
So on we went not realizing that we were tempting the weather gods! By
the time we stopped for lunch in Cambridge, Ohio it was cloudy with a
sprinkling of rain. Ro’s husband, who is an IT manager for a chain of banks,
texted her to say that the banks in Kentucky were closing because of the storm
threat. “Maybe, I’ll get a picture of an actual cow flying”, she said, and we
all laughed and kept heading toward the storm. (Keep in mind, we are from New
Jersey, where we often get warnings but very rarely get the storms – hence the
nonchalant attitude).
Along the way, Betty was twittering out our
conversations, Ro was texting her husband and I was driving down Interstate 71
listening to Adele, starting to feel a
little uneasy about the skies ahead. We pulled off the highway in Reynoldsburg
for gas and went into the store for coffee. People were coming in buying ice
and filling their gas tanks. “What are you hearing about the weather?” I asked
the man behind the counter. “Oh, not to worry ladies,“ he assured us “tornadoes
are not expected here for about 25 minutes”. I heard myself yelling “what?” as
my sister was responding “well, then I have time for a cigarette.”
At this point
(and I can’t explain why) looking down in the ice cream case in front of us, I
realized that it had been years since I last had a Nutty Buddy Ice Cream Cone. And since this didn't seem the time to watch calories,
“what the hell” I said, reaching into the case. I was eating the cone while I convincing my sister that it probably wasn’t a good idea to be
standing over gas tanks smoking with tornadoes in the area. We got back in the
car and continued toward Cincinnati on I 71.
By now, it was pouring, and
lightening was bouncing among the swirling clouds. I told Ro to find a local
radio station so we could track the weather. Betty and Siri were not getting
along at this point because Betty was asking her about tornadoes and Siri was
giving us links to the Wizard of Oz. When a station finally came in clear,
music was playing so I figured things can’t be that bad. That secure feeling
lasted all of five minutes when the Emergency Broadcast System took over the
airwaves. It was the second time in my life that I heard those annoying beeps
followed by a message I should actually be listening to, and not hear “this is
a test”. (The first time is when I was visiting Betty’s daughter in Florida –
I’m beginning to see a pattern here).
“If you are traveling on Interstate 71, please exit as soon as possible as tornadoes are imminent”. The announcer then mentioned mile markers, but I had no idea where we were in terms of markers, I only knew that the storm was directly ahead of us. “I am going to tweet this out and see what comes back”, said Betty. What came back was something like “get off the highway”. We were only a couple miles from our exit, so after a “discussion” the twitterer , the texter and the driver decided to keep going. The best we could figure, the storms were mostly in Kentucky and not Cincinnati.
“Stop arguing with Siri, and call Scott”, I told my sister. “See what
is happening where he is”. Even with the EBS telling us to get off the highway... even with a black swirling sky and crackling lightening... even with pounding rain and
heavy wind... Betty was not about to let a little storm alter her plans”, “I’m
sure it’s fine. They just don’t have tornadoes in Cincinnati” She called Scott
who told her that tornado sirens were going off and his family was in the
basement…..and we kept going.
Well, we made it, thankfully. By the time we arrived at my nephews, the storm had aimed its nasty head over Kentucky and Indianapolis where many lives and much property were lost. Knowing the fear I felt just watching this thing forming overhead, I can’t even image how those poor people felt as the tunnel clouds came directly at them. I love New Jersey.
The weekend was great, with the exception being that the relationship between Betty and Siri had reduced to name calling (on Betty's side). As we were packing the car to leave, I was just thankful that without those awful storms, the ride home would be void of stress. That's when Ro looked up and said "hey, I think it is starting to snow". And it did...most of the way home!
What a great read, thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, Dionne! It was really hard to write because while so many funny things happened to us, it was a tragic day for a lot of people. I tried to keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteWow! I saw Betty's tweets so I knew you were on a road trip. But what a road trip!!! Glad you all made it home safe and sound.
ReplyDeleteIt is always an adventure, but this time topped them all!Thanks for reading!
DeleteIt is a crazy group to travel with! The storms in neighboring states were horrible. Over 50 people lost their lives and whole towns are gone. You just don't know how lucky you are sometimes. Thanks for reading!
ReplyDelete