A Journey Into the Land of Dreams

Tornados Galore

It was a bright, beautiful sunny day. All seemed to be at peace in the world. My husband, Grayson, had the week off and we were planning to take a trip to see my side of the family.
I had put together all of our clothes and snacks for the 8 hour trip out where they were. Instead of staying with one of the family members though, we had booked a hotel room for the week. We had chosen not to let anybody know we were coming in order to surprise them. I was very excited! I hadn't seen them in a year and I couldn't wait to hug my little nephew again!
My husband came in the door holding Sonic bags for lunch! I was super excited to dig into my triple smasher and drink my ocean water! He planted a gentle kiss on my lips and sat down and we started eating. I informed him all the snacks and clothes were ready that they just needed to go out to the car.
After lunch, he quickly got our suitcases and snack bags in the car. We had planned to leave really early the next morning so we planned to retire to bed around 8 tonight. We relaxed on the couch and my little Weiner dog, Lucy, jumped up and curled into my side. We threw a blanket over us and her and my husband wrapped his arm around me as we started up a movie.
I nearly dozed off but thankfully managed to make it through the movie. We checked our phones for any weather alerts or messages and then started another movie. After that it was around 5pm. We decided to order dinner a little early, so we ordered Chinese takeout and waited patiently for it to come.
When the doorbell rang, I quickly got up, and accidentally bumped Lucy, who in turn, side-eyed the loving shit out of me. "Aww! I'm sorry, Lucy!" I chuckled and gave her a gentle pat on the head.
Grayson gave Lucy some attention while I headed to the front door to grab our food. It smelled heavenly! I thanked the driver and handed him a 10 dollar tip then settled back in on the couch. We pulled up The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and started eating. The orange chicken mixed with the fried rice and the General Tsos chicken screamed flavor in my mouth and I nearly came my panties. Grayson chuckled at me while he munched on his sweet and sour chicken. Finally 8 pm rolled around, and I was already tired, so we retired to bed.
The next morning we were awake at 5 am and packing the last little bit of our things in the car like toothbrushes and phone chargers and deodorant. I grabbed our pillows and a blanket and of course our favorite stuffies. Lucy jumped in the car with us and we headed out.
8 am came around and it was time to stop for breakfast so we found a nearby McDonald's and hopped out. We let Lucy go potty and then headed inside the building. I got my usual breakfast burrito meal and he got his sausage McGriddle meal and we ordered coffee with it. After eating, we fed Lucy and let her use the restroom again before taking off.
As we drove, we got to watch the gorgeous sunrise over the horizon as the hours passed. Around 9, we stopped again to let Lucy use the restroom and stretch our legs. As we walked around, I looked up and the sky started changing colors. The wind picked up, and it grew cooler outside. Weird. I thought. I poked Grayson to get his attention and pointed out the weather. He looked a little concerned, so we grabbed up Lucy and started heading back towards the car.
The weather started to get even worse. The wind picked up faster, and began screaming angrily. The trees around started waving frantically and the sky grew darker grey. Then we saw it, a funnel. SHIT! I looked at Grayson and he looked panicked. We had to try and get out of there!
Grayson started the car as the funnel began growing longer, and longer. Within seconds, the funnel kissed the ground! It started out very thin, like a spaghetti noodle, but as I watched, it began growing thicker around, and the lighting was flashing eerily but beautifully in the top of the twister.
It continued growing wider as we drove, finally expanding to just about 3 miles wide. This was an EF5 tornado, and all we could do was drive to find shelter. The tornado was coming in hot on our heels and Lucy was barking up a storm of her own, and Grayson had stepped on the gas. Still, the giant monster barreled towards us picking up debris and livestock that dared be in its way.  It felt like hell coming to consume us, until we finally out-drove it.
The sky was suddenly bright again, as if nothing had happened. The weather warmed up slightly, and Lucy calmed down along with Grayson.
We finally arrived at our destination. We didn't want to go anywhere else for at least a couple hours, seeing as we were still shaken up from being chased by a fucking tornado. At around 4, we called my mother and asked if she was home. Of course, she replied yes, so we changed our clothes and drove over to her house.
She was so surprised to see us! She and my dad were just about to set out to run a couple errands but decided to hold off until we had left for the day. We visited for a while then around 8, we headed out, hugging them goodbye for the night.
On the way back to the hotel, the sky again got grey, and the winds started picking up speed and once again, that horrifying funnel started to form. This one came down even faster than the one we had previously outdriven. We panicked, immediately raced over to the hotel, just barely dodging this twister. Unfortunately, however, the tornado came right for our hotel, so we gathered up all of our stuff and ran back out to the car. Maybe our summer home would be safer.
As we drove off, missing the tornado another twister came down followed by one more. Lucy barked like a madman and Grayson drove as fast as he could as these twisters followed suit. Again, we managed to escape the tornados as we arrived at our summer home.
We quickly ran inside and tried to breath. And relax. Two more fucking twisters? I shared a concerned look with my husband as I picked up the phone to call my parents. They were ok and hadn't gotten hit by the two twisters. We invited them out to the summer house and asked that they bring the other family with them.
Finally, the rest of my family showed up, and we hoped it would be safe from the tornados as it was out of the way a bit. We all took a while and drank some sodas and ate whatever dinner we could stomach. We all eventually drifted off to sleep in the different bedrooms.
The next morning we all awoke and decided to go for breakfast, not in town since things would be destroyed. We traveled over to the next twin and had some breakfast, then unfortunately, once again, the sky grew dark grey. The clouds flashed lightning, the funnels formed. Three different funnels from the same storm cell. All three started off thin, like the first one that Grayson and I had escaped from, but grew thicker and wider. Three seperate EF5 tornados, again, barrelling towards us. We climbed in our separate cars after grabbing everything we had brought, and hurried out.
We drove, all the way out to the beach a few miles away. The tornados angrily raging over the land were seen in our review mirrors. Debris and houses were picked up and thrown around by each of the tornados, including our summer home. Silent tears fell down my face. All the memories in that home. Gone. Destroyed in the tornado's fury. We had built that house, bottom to the top. We had painted it and everything, and it was just gone in the blink of an eye. I felt a hand on my thigh and I came out of my thoughts.
Grayson looked at me with eyes of concern and love as he rubbed my thigh, comfortingly. I gave him a soft, sad smile as we drove. Lucy climbed into my lap as if she sensed my heart breaking a little bit. I chuckled softly and patted her head.
We made it to the beach house along with my family and we all climbed out of the cars. We all hugged and kissed each other to comfort one another. All we could do was stand back and watch these angry beasts destroy everything we cared about. We had to be thankful we had each other, because that was all we in fact had. Thanks to those twisters.