“A good day on the road is a good day. A bad day on the road is a good story.”

Many people romanticize the traveling lifestyle. Most of the time we 100% agree. There is nothing we would rather be doing. However, there have been a few “hiccups” in which life on the road has been difficult, frustrating and downright scary.

Pseudo names have been used in this blog. No need to embarrass anyone.

The purpose of our blog is to let you know real world things happen on the road. While most days are a wonderful, exciting adventure not every day on the road is sunshine and unicorns.

Speaking of a “good story”, let us tell you our story about the time we rode out a tornado in our motorhome. Someone must have been watching out for us.

A Little Background

Dave and I have been full-timing since 2018. We live and travel in our motorhome 365 days a year. There are two or three months during the coldest part of the year we will find somewhere south of I-10 to spend the winter. It could be Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama or Florida. Anywhere warm-er!

One of the things we have done along the way is to do “workamping”. We will go somewhere and volunteer in return for free RV site and free electricity. We have been camp hosts, gate attendants, maintenance workers, etc. A little of this, a little of that. It is a great way to save a little money, get immersed in a geographic area and meet some great people.

Winter Storm Preparation

We know so much more now, than we did when we started full-timing in 2018!!! We came from Maine. It snowed. Sometimes a lot. Actually, the “a lot of snow” part is why we decided to go full-timing. We no longer enjoyed the process of spending hours and hours of our life shoveling and/or plowing snow.

But we understood snow storms. And ice storms. We knew how to be prepared in the event of a snow storm knocking out the electricity. During one ice storm, it took 14 days to get the electricity back on. We were prepared. During the winter we always kept extra food and water on hand. We had a generator. We had a wood stove and stacks of wood.

We had lived in Maine for decades. We understood the rules of a winter storm.

Being Naïve

Beyond watching TV news coverage, we knew nothing about hurricanes and tornadoes. Of course, we knew about “tornado alley” and to avoid the area during certain times of the year. Huh!

We knew the difference between a storm watch and a storm warning.

In Maine, we knew what preparing for a storm meant. Food, water, generator and wood. Our shelter was our home. The four walls of our home would keep us safe.

Beyond watching TV news and the Wizard of Oz, we were totally naïve about hurricanes and tornadoes. Not anymore.

The Setting

Early on in our full-timing and at an early workamping experience we learned about being in a tornado.

At this one workamping experience, workampers were in two groups, one down the hill in a more open gated commercial/public area, one up the hill in a more remote forest area. Down hill there were 5 couples who were workamping.

We were up the hill in the more remote forest area. It was very quiet and most of the time, we were the only ones up there. There was another workamping couple uphill about ½ the time.

There was no direct path from the upper to the lower workamping sites. To join up with the rest of the group, we would walk or drive about ¾ of a mile out and around a forested area, unlock the gate and go into the work area.

It is important to understand the physical layout of the site.

No Longer Naïve

We like listening to the news and weather in the morning. While it was a bright sunny day where we were, heavy thunderstorms were predicted for later in the day. We had the day off and we decided to drive to a bigger city about an hour east of us to do some sight-seeing and grocery shopping.

While there, we stopped at a casual fast-food restaurant for lunch. They had a TV on and it was tuned to weather. The thunderstorm that was approaching now was considered severe. Conditions were right for tornadoes.

What? Two hours ago, rain was coming. Now there were tornado watches?

Being new to the area, and not really understanding the fast changes in weather, and not knowing if we should be concerned, I called Carol, the person who was in charge of the workampers. She said “It’s no big deal, tornado watches happened all of the time.”

We drove the hour back west to our workamping site and went to our RV. By then it was raining. We listened to the weather and the meteorologist were talking about tornadoes west of us, and warned us “to be prepared”. I called Carol and asked her what “be prepared meant”. She reiterated it was no big deal, it happens all of the time.

The Tornado

Well, it was a big deal. Never had we been in such a ferocious thunder and lightening storm with 50 mile an hour winds, with much higher gusts. In a forest. ¾ of a mile from anyone else.

I called Carol and asked what we should do. As the wind is howling, the rain is coming down in sheets, the thunder is deafening before we even see the flash of lightening, she said, “the storm is too dangerous to be out in, stay where you are!”.

We pulled in our slides and we listened to the radio as the meteorologist was listing a nearby town, then a nearby neighborhood and then a nearby street where a tornado was touching down.

What we didn’t know that prior to the height of the storm, Carol had corralled the other down the hill workampers into the cement storm shelter bathroom and that they were riding out the tornado there, not in their RVs like we were. It is not a good idea to be in an RV in a forest during a tornado.

The tornado passed. We were safe. Winnie held strong and firm.

Take-away Points

While this whole process was very scary and dangerous, this is life on the road. We still believe a bad day on the road is better than a good day in a stick and brick house. It wasn’t the end of the world. We are fine. Winnie is fine. And that is all that matters.

We learned to be more weather prepared and be a lot less naïve. We learned what to do in the event of a weather emergency. We now have a go bag ready at all times (How to Prepare Yourself for Natural Disasters). If we are in a tornado prone area, when we arrive at a new campground, I will ALWAYS ask is where do we go in the event of a tornado. Lesson learned.

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn, Dave and Lucky
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

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