I saw lightning for the third day in a row Saturday.  The previous light shows were after dark, and with 30 mile visibility you won’t hear thunder until rain is close.  The electrical storms were spectacular but basically non-productive of precipitation.  Today that changed.  Dave, retired police chief of Allentown, PA, now Cedar Creek Campground Manager, beat on our trailer’s door about six p.m. with news that big hail and tornadoes were highly possible.  We should go to the Visitor’s Center.

The Center is half a mile away.  There is a cinder block restroom 60 yards from our trailer that we can get to quickly if necessary.  No building here will survive a direct hit from a real tornado, but the blockhouse bath would provide shelter from flying debris.  We chose to wait out the storm in Kat’s Cradle, cooking pasta with red sauce, meatballs, and a 2010 BV Merlot.  Just as we sat down to our fine repast the first wave of the storm hit.  There was enough wind to gently rock the A/S despite it being on four wheels, a nose jack, and four stabilizer jacks.  There was enough thunder that Pink got in her bed and didn’t bother to beg for our food.  And then came the hail.  It was mostly small, but some sounded more than marble size.

Not Ideal Tenting Weather

Several more rain bands tore through overnight.  By sunup Sunday it was over.  I checked The Red Sled and Kat’s Cradle; neither seems worse for the wear.   But we got a whole lot of rain here.  My guess is close to 2 inches.  There’s standing water here and there over the campgrounds, and it borders on miraculous how green everything has become overnight.  Trees that were bare a week ago are nearly fully leafed out today.  Every kind of grass or weed has perked up.  Even the cacti look extra prickly.

Come to think of it, this happens everywhere we go.  We arrive at the tail end of winter; we stay a week, a huge rain smacks a drought into temporary retreat, and suddenly Spring has sprung!  Our work here is done.  It’s time to move on to a colder climate and higher elevation.  We gotta keep chasing Ol’ Man Winter a little further up the road.