Midland Texas- My cousin Cherith moved here from Bozeman with her husband and daughter a few years back so we made a point to stop and visit.  They treated us to some amazing Mexican food and we spent the evening sipping wine in their enormous built in hot tub.  (Total treat!)

The kids have great memories of hanging out with their older cousin

so it’s always a lot of fun to watch them reconnect.

There were tornado watches all across the area all evening.  However, when we went home to our RV late at night the weather alerts took a turn for the worse. Our weather alert system was notifying us of several tornado warnings in the area and there was quite a storm brewing right over head.  By the time we were getting ready for bed, it seemed too risky to go to sleep with continual warnings and watches that were going to be active until at least 2 am.  So we decided to bail. We loaded the kids up in the mini van in the middle of the night and drove through the torrential rain to the first hotel we could find!  Thankfully they had a room and it was a quick transfer from camping to hotel room!  The storm really hit hard at about 1:30 and I was a little worried about our doggie in the van.  Of course mom didn’t get much sleep that night.  Thankfully, the night came and went without any disaster and when we returned to the RV park the next day the only damage was some down satellite dishes.

Notice the blue dot.  

That would be our RV location right about the time we made a run for shelter!  

Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones in the series of tornadoes that hit less than one week later.  For our fellow RVers, here’s a great read about “what to do if you’re in an RV during a tornado warning”.  Stay safe out there!

This is the seemingly friendly Western Black Diamond Rattler we stumbled upon at a rest stop!  The kids like to say, “We almost died twice that day. Once from a tornado and once from a snake bite”.  It makes for an exciting story anyway!

And of course there were these as far as the eye could see.  

Fair well West Texas!  Thanks for the great food and the great company!