Sunday, April 24, 2011

roadtrips, golfing, and tornadoes?

this year, I got to take spring break for the first time in years!  I'm liking this working in schools already!  So I decided to hop in my car and make the (not so) short drive down to Hilton Head, South Carolina, to visit my parents in their "retirement home" and spend a week relaxing in the sun.

little did I know what was in store for me on the way down...

being from the northeast, tornado wasn't really a weather term that was in my usual vocabulary...the most I knew about tornadoes was from watching the Wizard of Oz or Twister...so when I watched the sky turn a strange shade of blackish green...felt the winds picking my car a little bit off the ground...and then the distinct and terrifying funnel shaped cloud...needless to say, I have never been so scared in my ENTIRE life...


hail the size of golf balls were falling, and the power went out in the gas station parking lot I had pulled into...and thankfully, two nice strangers came and rescued me from my car, just before the tornado tore through the parking lot in Dunn, North Carolina...


the rest of my drive was pretty awful...seeing the damage, avoiding the downed trees, power lines, pieces of fence, even the occasional abandoned car...an 8 hour drive turned into 16+...I was very grateful to reach the house in one piece, take a shower and pass out in my comfy bed!







thankfully, it was not an omen for the rest of the trip, which was wonderful!  I got to hang out with my Mom, seeing the sights around the island, going to the grocery store, having our favorite lunch at Panera, things we missed doing :)

and my Dad played in a Pro-Am golf tournament!  The Heritage, at Harbor Town is a pretty famous tournament, and my Dad and some of his friends played with golf pro Stephen Ames...and finished in second place!


my drive home was much less eventful, and took just the right amount of time...and I even got to meet up with my friend Dana and her family, when she went to try on wedding dresses!

I could get used to this whole spring break thing :)

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