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KCBS News FeedBack from Rio Rancho
April 2, 2008 We got home from our first event in Rio Rancho, NM, yesterday afternoon. Not a scratch on the truck or the trailer! We have a few tweaks to make to the trailer to help it support us better for future events, then we plan to be off to our next event in Poteet, TX, next Monday, April 7.The Poteet, TX, event is their annual Strawberry Festival. http://www.strawberryfestival.com/index.cfm
One of the highlights of our Rio Rancho trip actually occurred on Sunday morning as we were leaving. It is a popular area for hot air ballooning, and we saw about 8 balloons up in the air looking all colorful as we started our drive home.
We spent our first night just west of Oklahoma City and spent the evening with tornado warnings. Not watches, but "warnings." One problem while traveling is that you don't know what county you are actually in when the Weather Channel provides its local warnings. A little work with the computer showed we were in Canadian County, Oklahoma, and that yes, we were dead center of the warning area! Then the local sirens went off and we knew they were serious.
Then the local weather forecaster starts telling people to get their vehicles under cover because the storm had dropped hail as large as six inches. Hard to do when your truck and 32 foot trailer are parked in a hotel parking lot.
Bottom line is that the tornados and hail went elsewhere, but we had lots of wind and rain. Did not discover until we got up on Monday morning that the 75 foot high hotel sign had been blown down and smashed in their parking lot less than 100 feet from our trailer.
Our trailer has a listing of all the events we will be attending on the back of the trailer. The Rio Rancho event now has a red checkmark next to it. Twenty two events to go!
We’ll write again when we take off for Texas next week.
Ernie and Linda
