T-storms and Tornado Alert in Hugoton, Kansas

Today is a scary day.  We are on thunderstorms and tornado alert until 10 pm tonight.  After work, I went home to collect my essentials and went back to the hospital for shelter.  My apartment has no basement.  Fortunately, the hospital where I work is just 2 blocks away.  It does not take me 5 minutes to walk and less than 3 minutes to drive. 

Outside the hospital, I saw scary cloud formation.  I saw clouds moved pretty fast.  Somehow we are blessed today.  The winds changed direction.  It moved away from our county.  We have to be on alert though - not only until tonight, but on the coming days.  Tornado season has started. 

ROADTRIP: When Ms. Dumb Meets Mrs. Dumber - Part I

Going on a road trip is exciting.  There are many beautiful scenarios and memorable experiences. Early this year, I have been traveling to different states particularly in Midwest.  I usually travel with my friends.  Just a couple of months ago, my friend and I went to Oklahoma and Dallas to shop.  The trip was nice and fun.  It was like an adventure. Never a day in our three days trip that we missed a moment of fun.  Actually, it was funny after surviving a disaster but going through it was quite scary and stupid. 

The first mishap that we had been through happened in Wichita Falls, where I booked two nights for sleep over.  We did not know exactly where our motel was located, so we relied on our GPS.  I must admit that somehow GPS is like a necessity for travelers like us. It was not dark yet when we drove to find our motel.  I had been driving the whole day so my friend volunteered to drive.  While driving, she noticed the driver of the truck in my right side of the passenger seat opened his car window and  forcefully shove his arm downwards.  He was trying to tell us something by his hand gesture.  When I saw him, I got scared.  Just few days before our road trip, my colleagues and I had conversation regarding people who mislead other drivers by giving warning or distress signs.  When the driver stops, these people hold-up or do inhumane things to their poor victims.  At that time, I remembered all that we had talked about so I got scared and told my friend not to mind the driver at my side.  I told her our gas tank is full and I had my car serviced before the trip so there should be nothing wrong with my car.  The driver who looked like Hulk Hogan, my favorite wrestler, persistently changed lane to my friend's side and tried to tell her something.  Our windows were closed, so we can not hear anything.   We became more scared.  I told my friend to pull-over in a restaurant since we were driving in a busy high way.   She told me to better drive straight to our destination so that we could rest.

Our GPS led us to several turns.  We felt relieved when the truck driver stopped  following us.  While nearing a secluded intersection a few miles away from the city center, I noticed a police car following us.  My friend stopped our car and told me to take out my registration and license.  I did.  A young policeman went out of his patrol car and looked inside our car using his  flash light.  We were totally scared to the bones and tried to think of the possible violation we had committed.  We can not think of anything.   My friend opened her window to show her license to the police. The police asked us where we came from and what we were doing there.  We told him we came from Kansas and we had been driving the whole day.  He then asked us if we knew we were driving without overhead beam lights on.  What?  Lights?  My friend simply forgotten to turn on our lights.  It was night time.  Although it was not very dark but we were supposed to have lights on.  The cars and post lights in  the busy street lighted our way so we did not noticed we had no lights.  Considering we were kind of "lost tourists,"  the young policeman showed us mercy.  We were warned not to do it again though.  We were so thankful we did not get a ticket.

When the policeman was gone, we realized the intention of the truck driver.  He was trying to tell us that we did not have our overhead beam lights on.  Personally, I think I was too paranoid then.  I simply lost my commonsense. I think too much.  I was kind of Dumb and my friend was Dumber.  I consider her dumber because she should know better.  She has been driving since the day I was born.  That was almost three decades ago.  Or I could be the dumber.  Since I am the writer, I will take up the dumb and she is the dumber.  We continued driving and laughed our way until we reach our lodging safe and sound.  It was a very memorable night.