You see, 15 years ago was our very first RV experience ever. We were living in Ohio near Mike’s family. Mike’s dad had just purchased a new RV and had taken us for a couple hour drive. We had a lot of fun and thought what a good way to travel with our dog. So we asked if we could borrow the RV and take a trip down to Disney World. A few short months later we were on our way.
We were having a great time and our 85 pound German Shepherd, Mandy, was just the perfect RV dog. All was going well and we were anxious to get to Disney World so we were driving well into the night. Suddenly the engine just quite – no sputtering or noise of any kind – it just quit and we coasted to the side of the freeway. This was before the days of cell phones and we didn’t have a tow vehicle. It was close to midnight and since we were out in the middle of nowhere there weren’t any lights of any kind. As we were trying to figure out what we were going to do we notice some parking lights from a vehicle in the median. We thought we were in luck when we realized it was a police car. We started flashing our headlights and honking our horn but there was no response at all. After a few minutes the police car started to move and we thought we were in luck. But instead he just made a u-turn and left. Our faith in the police force certainly went down a notch. We truly had no idea what to do.
About half an hour later a police car came by and stopped – we still don’t know if it was the same policeman or not. But anyway, we explained that we had broken down and needed help. After much discussion he said he would call us a tow truck. A couple hours later we got towed to a truck stop just south of Cordele, Georgia. Of course, you can’t stay in your vehicle when it gets towed so the driver, Mike, Mandy, and I all had to squish into the front of this very old and dirty tow truck. Once again Mandy was perfectly well behaved even though she was squished.
Before we broke down we hadn’t seen anything for miles. And when they towed us to the truck stop we saw nothing in that direction either. We spent some time sitting on a bench at the truck stop until some guy finally came and said nothing would happen until morning. When we inquired about a place to stay for the remainder of the night he said there wasn’t any place around but he was fixing up some rooms over the truck stop that were going to be hotel rooms and they were all done other than some decorating. He offered us a room for $25 a night (remember this is 15 years ago) so we decided that was just fine. We have never seen such a garbage pit. It was filthy and wasn’t close to being done. There was a very old mattress (no sheets) and a sink that kind of sort of drained but the water looked so very dirty. It really was gross.
As it turned out, the motor was completely shot – it couldn’t be fixed. So they towed us to a nearby RV park where Mike then found someone to hitch a ride with to go rent a car. We were a little upset to find that only a couple more miles up the road was a real hotel where we could have stayed for LESS than we were charged at the truck stop.
Anyway, we ended up staying in the broken RV’s for a number of days until we were rescued. So when we saw that we were going to be passing through Cordele today we decided we were going to go fast. Funny thing is the truck stop and RV park look exactly the same as they did all those years ago. We made it through the area with no problems and figured that our luck with Georgia had changed.
We pulled into our RV park in the pouring rain. Oh well, we’re only here for the night so we’ll just stay inside and watch TV and get a good night’s sleep before another day of driving. The rain stayed steady when suddenly the satellite stopped working. We thought it was really odd as the satellite only goes out when the weather is really bad and it just didn’t seem that bad. Only a minute or two later we heard sirens and saw flashing lights out the window. Just as I was getting up to look out and see what the commotion was there was a knock at our door. We were told to turn on the TV to the local channel 13 as there was storm cell heading right toward us with potential tornados. Sure enough we were in the direct path but it looked as though it was still a ways off. Even so we weren’t real worried at this point. But it wasn’t too long before they came by with the sirens again and told us to get to the Bath House NOW. The cell was coming directly toward us and was getting close. At this time it was about 9:30pm.
We quickly got ready and off we went – with the dogs of course! There are two Bath House’s at this park. I saw everyone headed to the one farthest from us. Even the people at our end of the park were heading toward the other Bath House. I asked the worker if there was a reason for this and tried to find out which one we should go to. He said the one most people were going to was built of blocks. The one closest to us was also built of block but had wood siding over that. He figures that most people were heading to the one that looked like block. So we headed for the one closest to us.
When we got there the bathroom was stuffed with people. It didn’t look like there was any chance of fitting two more people and three dogs in there. But at times like this I figured I was going to make a way! But I was very surprised when the people all said “you can’t come in – there just isn’t room.” Wow, I really thought people would be more considerate and caring during an emergency. So we went around the building and noticed there was another bathroom there. Turns out those people had all crammed into the Women’s Room but no one had gone around to the Men’s Room – it was hidden I must say. Anyway, when we got there a guy was just going in dressed in his jammies. He was a guy about our age – and I must say looked very good in his jammies! We were in there just a minute or so when Mike decided to walk the two younger dogs around outside for a few minutes leaving Wazzu and I alone with Mr. Cute Jammies.
The guy started talking to me and after some small talk mentioned that he’d been near a couple hurricanes but never a tornado. You know I was really calm until he said that. Suddenly all the emotion and memories came back from the hurricane we went through in Fiji. Our hotel was destroyed and we had to be evacuated to another place which also then had to be evacuated. During the first evacuation we were literally within just a few feet of being killed. We just made it but the people just a couple feet behind us were killed. That was by far the scariest thing we’ve ever been through and suddenly now I felt my blood pressure going through the roof, I felt shaky, my head started spinning, and I got very scared. I realized that this wasn’t helping one bit and that I needed to collect myself and calm down quickly. The reason I felt this was so important was I didn’t want to scare Wazzu anymore than she already was. Plus I knew I needed to be at my best so I could react appropriately should a tornado touch down. Within a couple minutes I was once again clam and rational. Interesting how quick your adrenaline can get pumped up just from some memories coupled with impending trouble.
Mike came back inside as the weather outside was getting worse. More people kept coming in to join us and hunker down. It was very interesting to see how each dog handled the stress. As always in times of stress, Wazzu gets even more subdued (if you can believe that) and really withdraws. The doors to the stalls were all closed and she crawled under the door into one of the stalls as that felt like a small safe den to her. She laid down in there with just her head sticking out so she could keep a very close eye on me. All traces of a bold, loud Pointer quickly left Sparkie. All that was left was a very scared Whippet. She was wet and cold and was shaking and crying. She wanted Mike to hold her but he couldn’t do that as he had to keep track of Slugger too.
Slugger thought this was GREAT! More and more people kept coming in to join our little party. How fun that so many people kept coming in to see him! His tail was wagging so hard and he was just so happy. I really think this helped to calm many of the people as they would pet him and smile and you could see their minds were distracted from the potential danger.
About 40 minutes later the workers came by and told us that a tornado had touched down at the local hospital. We were told the cell had passed us by and we were free to go back to our RV’s. But there was still a tornado watch in effect until 5:00am. They told us to sleep in our clothes and keep our shoes right next to the bed. If another cell was heading directly at us they would go around with the sirens again.
We stayed up until 1:00am watching the weather and seeing the various cells going just to our right and left. Since Mike has to drive again tomorrow we decided we’d better try to get some sleep.
We feel very fortunate that the tornado spared our RV park and our feelings and prayers go out to the friends and family of those that were killed and injured in the local hospital.
We’ve also decided that Georgia is just not the place for us. We’ve only been here twice and both times were much less than pleasant. We’re here until Monday and then I think maybe we’ll try to avoid Georgia at all costs.
Debbie
3/1/07
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