Gillette, Wyoming FMCA Wild Weather

Saturday morning we attended the Pancake Breakfast, and yes the pancakes were great.  We walked over to the Vendor Center, called the Wyoming Center, for the third day in a row.  It's amazing how much "stuff" you can collect every time you wander the aisles.  Between Bill and I we brought back seven bags stuffed  full of giveaways, free one week camping vouchers, and even stuff we bought.  Our big purchase for the show was the Rand McNally 7720 GPS.    With my new Samsung Galaxy 3 and the new GPS I can find anything in the world that I want, right down to the next rest area and if it's got a dump station.  Modern technology is wonderful.

Manochevitz can it rain in Wyoming!!!  After the pancakes and the third roaming through the vendor exhibits we were heading back to our rigs when there was a weather warning of a tornado watch.  Like who's big idea was it to come to this Rally any way huh?

We had dismantled everything the evening before because of the wild weather and hail on Friday afternoon, so we only had to hunkered down in our rigs.  The sky on the western horizon darkened and we watched as the thunderheads grew and rolled closer and closer.  Betty Ersparmer said she knew all about tornadoes so she was appointed the official watcher whose job was to run from coach to coach letting us know when she saw one.

Suddenly we heard a crackling sound from the PA system with a warning to "take cover"; basically batten down the hatches for the imminent severe thunderstorm.  I'll tell you within seconds that wind, rain and hail hit with a huge roar and lots of rattling, rocking and gusts just shaking the rigs for all it was worth.  I thought it would come right through our windshield it pelted us so hard.  The hail was the size of marbles and sounded like them too.
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You can't see through the rain and hail on the windshield.  That's Larry's rig just ahead to the right.  It was about 4 p.m.

Rigs were stuck trying to leave and tow trucks were in high demand.

Ersparmer's Pond, now vacated.

We sustained no damage but poor Larry's slide awnings looked like someone had used them for target practice.  They were shredded and scattered all over the area outside our rig.   Ron and Betty bailed out of their little pond after the ruckus was over.  There was mud, rainwater and bits and pieces of awnings and motorhome paraphernalia scattered everywhere.

This is what both of Larry's slide awnings looked like afterwards.

A little left over hail.