Camping and a Tornado

I absolutely love camping!  I grew up camping and I am so glad to raise my little girl to love camping too.  Our fam (along with mom, dad, chad and his fam, and mark and his fam) try to go about twice a year to camp together.  Sometimes we can't all go, but our family of three usually ends up being able to go with mom and dad and having a blast.  We were suppose to leave last Wednesday to go camping, but I wanted Cadence to have one more full day of resting and recooping from her illness.  Also, we saw on the weather channel that really bad weather was coming towards Clayton, GA (near where we were camping).  Mom, dad, Lynn and Elizabeth (some close friends of the fam) decided they would go ahead and head out early Wed morning and brave the potentially bad weather, and we would just drive up the next morning.

 Mom and I texted throughout the day keeping each other posted on the weather.  About 10pm mom texted to let me know that they weren't having any signs of bad weather and that they were fine.  When I got in the bed about 11, I decided to check the weather and it said that a tornado was headed towards Clayton and due to hit down around 11:08 pm.  Umm I FREAKED OUT!  I tried texting and calling mom, but heard nothing.  I literally did not get much sleep that night b/c A. I was scared and B. I was praying so hard for a hedge of protection around my parents and friends.  I woke up the next morning and immediately called mom.  The phone went straight to voicemail.  I tried calling over and over and NOTHING.  My brother, Chad called me about 9 am and asked if I had heard from mom.  He had texted her off and on after I did the night before and his last text from mom said something like this, "We are all huddled in the bath house, along with 15 other people.  They say a tornado is coming."  After that, NOTHING!  So, needless to say we were all extremely worried.  I told Chad that we would head out soon and that I would call as soon as I made it to the campground (about 2 hours away) to tell him what I found.  I could not stop praying!  So many times horrible thoughts went through my head as to what we might find when we arrived, but I kept trying to keep my mind from going there.  So, Matt, Cadence and I loaded up and headed out about 10am. 

I tried calling mom over and over.  I tried calling the campground.  I tried everything.  I knew that if they had bad weather that the phone towers were probably down and that is why I couldn't get ahold of anyone.  However, I also knew that if mom was okay she would find a way to get in touch with me.  Finally, about 10:45 I received a call on my cell phone from a 706 area code.  I knew it had to be mom (I prayed it was mom).  I answered by saying, "ARE YOU OKAY?!"  Thankfully, it was mom.  They had made it to a nearby Fire Station and borrowed a fireman's phone to call family to say they were okay.  Cell phone towers were down and that is why she couldn't call.  She knew that we, Chad especially, must be worried sick considering her last text.  She said that after she sent that text the service on her phone died and she was worried all night and morning about how we were feeling. 

A horrible tornado did touch down about 1/2 mile or less from the campground.  The park ranger road through the campground with a siren alerting everyone to take cover.  My parents, along with other campers huddled into the laundry room of the bathhouse and waited out the storm.  My dad and Mr. Lynn actually stepped out of the room for a second and saw the tornado going across the lake (which was extremely close to them).  They were in the bathhouse for a few hours waiting everything out until it was finally over.  I cannot thank the Lord enough for putting that hedge of protection around my parents and Lynn and Elizabeth.  My goodness at how close that tornado came to hurting my family!!  Thank you, thank you Jesus for protecting them! 

Getting to the campground, for us, was a nightmare.  Daddy had told us on the phone that part of the road would be closed due to horrible damage and that we may need to find an alternate route.  When we got within a few miles of the campground we saw it was blocked.  The state trooper told us it would be about 2-3 days before the road would be opened b/c of all of the damage.  Hmm what to do?  We had everything packed up and we couldn't call to get in touch with my parents to let them know we wouldn't be there.  Well, Matty re-routed us and we road about an hour another way only to find that it was blocked too.  Okay, so we were getting really frustrated.  Matt talked to a nice man who was heading the same way as us and he said he knew of a way we might could go but that it would be a little dangerous b/c he knew some power lines were down and some trees and that our SUV (with luggage rack) may not fit under.  Well heck-we decided to chance it.  So there we went on these curvy mountain roads, under power lines, over and around trees another hour or so...just to find some policeman blocking the road we wanted to go on.  Yes, I admit that I cussed quietly.  Cadence was such a trooper and kept saying, "The road is blocked because of the storm, but we're trying to get to Mimi and Papa."  Matt pulled over so I could change her diaper and he went to talk to the policeman.  He came back with a smile on his face and said, "They will let us through b/c the campground is so close and it's safe to drive that far."  HALLELUJAH!!!  I was so relieved b/c A. I wanted to see and hug my parents and B. I was not about to drive home with all of our camping gear and let my little girl (and us) down.

We finally arrived and saw the campground in GREAT shape, untouched.  We hugged and hugged my parents and finally began our camping trip.  We had such a blast!  Cadence loooooooves camping and loved sleeping in Mimi and Papa's new popup camper.  Matt and I slept awesome in our tent.  We ate good, played hard and enjoyed our time together!  Mark, Andrea and Brie came the next day and spent the night and the girls had a blast.  Chad, Michelle and Crosby came up for the day Saturday and we really enjoyed spending time with them too.  Saturday, they finally opened one of the roads and we went riding and saw AWFUL devastation.  No wonder those roads were closed!  I still can't believe my parents were sooooo close to danger and came out of it untouched.  Again, thank you Jesus!  We left Sunday and are already looking forward to our next camping adventure.  Next time, though, if it says anything close to bad weather expected, I refuse to let my parents go!!

One morning, our family of three drove up to the Dillard House for an amazing breakfast and walked around their little farm.  What fun!

The girls enjoying their massive marshmellow

                                                                   This was once a house.

These pics dont give justice to the devastation we saw.