To Cleveland or Bust!

So the weekend... was three days ago, I fully realize that.

And in these last three days, I have been sick, working, and working yet again. So you'll forgive me if I'm a bit behind on the recap of my trip.....that you didn't know I took. :) 

[Now a week ago but.. you know I had other things to think about this last week] 

So yes. I got out of town for the weekend, and it is hitting the leader boards as THE most scariest trip of life. Is that a bit of an exaggeration? Maybe, because honestly I didn't realize how scary it was until we were on our way back. But I digress. 

This story starts out around a couple of weeks ago, when my friend Rebekah asked me if I would be willing to accompany her to Cleveland Ohio, to attend a housewarming party, for a mutual friend of ours. At the time of this discussion, I was a bored out of my mind and ready for any sort of adventure. 

Boy, did I get it. 

Fast forward to Friday morning. 7:30AM. 

Since Rebekah and I live about a stone's throw from each other, (and work within a mile radius of each other) we agreed to ride to work together and leave as soon as I got done.
All morning there were predictions of severe weather, and storms; but being in a windowless office, I really didn't think anything of it. I was focused. 

12:00PM 

My work for the day is done and I'm more than ready to leave. Rebekah finishes up, picks me up and we hit the road, stopping to grab some lunch before we get too far. As we were picking up our food, we were inundated with Twitter updates and severe weather alerts from the radio. But since we were headed out of state, I wasn't too awful worried about it.  After all, we were leaving the area right?

WrONG.

Had we known we were headed directly into the path of a tornado, I don't think we would have been so eager to leave town. Well...yeah. no. 

I-75. Blue Skies, Clear Sailing

The more we traveled, the less we saw any severe weather, the less concern we felt. In fact, we were in Cincinnati before we saw any rain even. However, when the text messages, inquiring about our well doing, we decided to see if we could get updates about weather in our area. But not knowing what counties we were in, it was hard to know if WE were in any danger. But by that time, we were more concerned with the traffic we kept getting in, with the party starting at 7:00PM, we were doing our best to make it at least in that time frame. We'd finally broke free from that traffic when Rebekah made the fateful statement: 

And I paraphrase: 

Rebekah: "Phew I doubt we'll have any more traffic problems." 

Me: (with a horrified look on my face): You just jinxed us! 

About 20 minutes later, we were stopped on the interstate. 

15 minutes later, she was putting the car in park, and rolling down the windows. 15 more minutes later, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic, trying to breathe deeply, and not cry. After an eternity, we began moving again. 

By this time, we were ready to stop, stretch a bit, and refuel our bodies and the car. 

We were definitely late for the party. 

Once refreshed, I took over driving, as fast as I dared (considering I have just avoided a ticket).

It was 9PM by the time we arrived at the home, of the party, and we were exhausted. Though everyone was still having a great time, we found some chairs,collapsed gratefully into them and sent texts to our various family members to let them know we arrived safely.  

The night was far from over yet. 

Though the party was winding down, family and friends wanted to go see "Chelle's Place" and take over all the goodies she'd received. We went, because... we didn't have much choice, and did want to see her condo. 

Throughout this time, it had been raining off and on, but the wind was blowing like nobody's business. After hours of tornado alerts we were, understandably, a little on edge with the high winds. So we're sitting in the living room, trying to stay awake while we wait for our ride to come and get us, when we hear this rumbling sound, very similar to that of a train. One of the guys hops up..
Guy #1:What's that?

Guy #2: Tornado's sound like trains right?

Both jump up and run to the door and peer outside.(Because that is the smart thing to do after all!)  While the rest of us (save one who had his iPad and was engrossed in his game) mentally panic, trying to figure out where to hide, out..

"Its just a train." 

You don't realize just how tense you are until, you can sigh with relief. I think I was literally shaking by that point. Shortly there after, our friend Michelle arrived to take us, to our lodging place and we gratefully (after hanging out for a bit) hit the hay. 

3:00AM 

Saturday- 12:30 PM

I woke up to the sound of Rebekah trying to turn off my white noise app. I can't sleep in absolute silence, and the house we were staying at was like a fortress. I was already swimming towards conciseness anyway, and heard the waves moving further away from me. So I knew someone had picked up my phone. I reached for said phone, turned off the app and glanced at the time. 

12:30PM? Seriously? I never sleep that late while out of town! 

That's when we heard them. A high pitched wailing sound, that could only be tornado sirens. At that point, I really didn't know what to do, so we just sat there. Rebekah had lived in "the flat lands" before, and decided they were probably testing them, given the time and the day. 

Not knowing if the other girls were awake, we sat around checking our phones, for about an hour or so before deciding to get up and get dressed. At this point, we were both starving. And I do mean STARVING people. 

We convince Michelle to take us to Chick-fil-a, then we went and wondered around the mall, for a while before talking 'Chelle into driving us downtown. To be honest, I have always thought of Cleveland as a small town type place, but... I was wrong I think! :)

By the time we'd looped through the city, it was time to meet the rest of the family for dinner.

After dinner, we returned to our hostess's abode and hung out, played games, talked.. basically had a good time. By the time we went to sleep, it was 1:00AM.

I woke up to these words.

"Erin! look out the window"

Instantly, I knew. There was nothing else it could be but snow. Sure enough, there was about an inch on the ground already, and I had a sinking feeling, we might be leaving a lot sooner than we expected. Within minutes, Michelle's mom was on the phone with me, advising us to start heading back. Much to our disappointed.

Getting out of town, took some doing, and there were some nerve wracking moments. But once we got out of Cleveland, it was smooth sailing.

Going through Kentucky, was were we realized just how much we were protected from on our way up. These pictures are scary when viewed from hundreds of miles away. These pictures are terrifying, when that could have been you, had anything delayed you on your trip through there. It was one of those rare moments, when you actually get to see what God protected you from, and it hit me pretty hard.

Though its been a couple of weeks since this storm, I'm sure these families are still attempting to salvage what is left of their homes. Please keep them in your prayers.

And that, my friends is the end of THIS epic adventure of Rebekah & Erin.