June 13 Tornado Warnings

We arrived at the Grand Palace to find that the crew had been successful at fully erecting The Wall and it was ready for the scheduled dedication ceremony. The tributes were moving and the young patriotic singers sincere, even the 8 year old who misplaced the words to the national anthem. The group chimed into the song to bail him out in the true American spirit.

The afternoon found us traveling with others up to one of the showcase theatres for the “Event Kick-Off and Show”. This meeting covered many of the logistical details for the week regarding individual scheduled events. Once they were finished with “business” then we were treated to a sampler of the “Best of the 60’s” Show. It was fun and entertaining and a good start to the week.

One aspect of our visit here was the opportunity to reunite with various members of our Vietnam trip group. At this meeting we were able to locate “Jim” from Arkansas and meet also his wife, Linda, who was not able to accompany us to Vietnam because of her health. Afterward we were able to go out to dinner with them which turned into something resembling a “progressive dinner” when we ventured clear across Branson for an ice cream desert at Dairy Queen. They are very good people and we enjoy their company a great deal.

Again the weather was predicting storms and even some mention of a “tornado watch” so we made sure to tuck our magic red machine back into its enclosed trailer for the night. What a night it was! As the storm winds got stronger and stronger with lightening continually lighting the sky around us, we unplugged all the electronics in the coach that we could to protect from power spikes. Next time we will just unplug the entire coach, but by the time that occurred to us, it was all ready hailing and too dangerous to venture out. Finally we hunkered down under the covers waiting out the fury of the storm to pass so we could relax and sleep. Gary said it did not bother him but I have to say that once it started sounding like freight trains all around our motor coach, I was sincerely scared, storms here are just not the same as at home and the images of tornado damage they have displayed on the television in the past had me pretty spooked.

Needless to say, we survived but woke up in the AM a bit more tired than usual.