Scary Thunderstorms

Last night is a looooong story, but to make it short...some circumstances forced us to be driving home in the middle of a severe thunderstorm. I'm talking continuous lightening and thunder, torrential downpour, high winds, hail, flash floods, the whole nine yards. I typically enjoy thunderstorms, just not when I'm in a car! I was so scared I covered my ears and eyes for fear of the worst. We ended up exiting the highway early since we couldn't see the road and headed towards a friend's house. We never made it there since we would have to forge a river in the road that was at least 2 feet deep.

We ended up at a random house, and the nice family let us soaked travelers in. As we waited for the storm to pass, we conversed with the couple and found a common thread that made the world...or at least the Twin Cities...much smaller. We managed to not be strangers after all. The couple made us hot chocolate (we were shivering!), gave us some blankets, and even offered to let us sleep there for the night. Good Samaritans still do exist! Thankful but wanting to sleep in our own bed, we left once the rain passed. Our car made some funny noises (what we know now as a bent something), but we chanced it and made it home safe. Phew! So much for a long night of sleep.

This is a picture of a tree from Como Park in Saint Paul. The string of storms that has hit the metro area has left tons of huge, mature trees split in half, uprooted, twisted, you name it. We had a power outage both storm nights at our apartment, but thankfully missed out on tree, wind and hail damage.