Bev and I had another wild adventure but this one we did not fair very well.
Wednesday June 6th started out great, Bev and I headed back to Pam & Kent's house to relax and visit. They are great hosts and we really enjoy visiting with them. Bev and Pam worked on crafts while I stayed out of the way drinking Kent's beer.
Pam made a great supper (it's always good when someone else cooks) then Bev and Pam returned to playing with their crafts while Kent, Elisabeth and I watched TV. The news on TV talked about very bad thunderstorms in the area with flash floods but we really were not concerned. At about 7:30 pm it was time to hit the road because I had a headache and like to get back home to the camper before it gets dark. It normally takes us about 45 minutes down I-25 to return to Monument.
Just after we got on I-25 we hit extremely heavy rain, lots of lightning, and then it started. We hit "HAIL" and I don't mean "hail" I mean "HAIL". The "HAIL" and rain came down so hard that we, along with everyone else on the highway, had to pull over and stop because we couldn't see to drive. We have never been in hail so bad that lasted so long. The noise in the car was so loud that Bev and I couldn't hear each other talk. We waited for the "HAIL" to stop but it kept on pounding and pounding and pounding and would not stop. I have been in hail before and it hits and passes in 10 or 15 minutes but not this "HAIL" it just kept on pounding.
After quite a while we started creeping along. At that time I-25 was now covered by over 4 inches of hail (it looked like snow covered the highway) but we kept creeping along while the hail kept pounding. I really couldn't see very well so I accidentally exited the highway. Driving up the ramp the "HAIL" was so deep and frozen on our windshield that our wipers stopped working. Now we were in for it! Bev stuck her hand out the window to try to clear the ice but her hand got blasted so hard it left her with a couple of cuts and the ice was still there. I inched off the ramp, stopped on the side of the road, and went out in the storm to clean the windshield. I got the ice removed along with getting soaked and my back beaten by "HAIL". The wipers started working again so we moved into a Walgreens parking lot to wait out the storm.
By then the headache I started out with was now a migraine and I didn't have any pills so I was glad we stopped at a Walgreens, I got pills. The "HAIL" still did not stop so we got back on the highway and parked under a underpass with other cars and waited. Finally it looked like the "Hail" was subsiding so we started driving. YEA! We were out of the "HAIL" and heading down the highway. We were in the "HAIL" continuously for one and one half hours and were sure glad to be driving at highway speeds again.
We finally made it back to the camper. The camp ground never did get any of the bad weather, everything was nice and dry.
The rest of the evening we watched the news which was constantly reporting on the severe conditions and how many people had to get rescued from floods and deep ice from the "HAIL". Cars were actually covered up to their hoods in ice. This was truly a one of a kind storm.
Now you are probably wondering how the car faired. Not good at all! I didn't look at it until the next morning because it was dark out and I was exhausted. Our nice new 2012 Red Honda CRV is destroyed! It looks like someone worked on it with a hammer for and hour and a half. The top, hood, sides, back, everything is full of dents. It is still drivable and the windows did not break so we will keep using it. I called the insurance company and we are now waiting for a claims adjuster.
This couldn't happen to our 14 year old Saturn, NO, it had to happen to our new car.
Well I guess dems da breaks (or dents)!!
Bev and Tom still livin and lovin the RV lifestyle even with the dents.
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