Day 6: St. Louis MO to Salina, KS

We left St Louis Friday morning around 8:50am.  The weather was sunny and 60’s.  We drove through to Salina, KS and arrived just before 6pm.  We only stopped 3 times along the way and that cut the time down a lot. We drove through heavy rain and thunderstorms just outside St. Louis.  It was very hard to see in front of the truck.  The temperature when we pulled into Salina was 93.   

The KOA campground is basically in the middle of a wheat field.  The campground is fairly small but has a pool and playground for the girls.  It is so much prettier than St Louis.  But it is HOT.  We cook dinner, run 3 loads of laundry.  The girls were in the pool when I noticed the lightning and ordered them out at 9pm.  Scott had taken off for Walmart so I put the grill under cover and tried to get a weather report- but he had the weather radio, large maps, etc.  Finally found a regional map and discovered we were in line for severe thunderstorms.  We had a very harrowing hour of nervousness.   

When Scott got back (he didn't make it to Walmart as the storm was too big) the wind and rain was starting.  By the time we realized the potential of the storm, it was too late to move to the rec hall.  So we pulled in the slides (to reduce the surface area exposed to wind) and the girls read on our bed.  Lexi was great at reading to Isabella to distract her while I folded laundry and tried to maintain a normal atmosphere for the girls.  Scott stayed glued to the tv, weather radio and computers, tracking the storm. It was a 60,000 foot tall supercell with 60 mph winds on the front end and extreme rains in the middle.  Fortunately only a small corner of the storm grazed us, sparing us the heavy wind and dumping a bunch of rain on us.  Wichita wasn't as lucky:  the storm hammered them with 60 mph winds, large hail, lightning, and heavy rain.

Finally the worst passed over us and we put the girls to bed.  It took Isabella a long time to go to sleep as she could still see the lightning (she hates thunderstorms).  The land was so flat, you could see the lightning hours later as it moved into new territory.  Scott and I finally went to bed around midnight, after making sure the girls were out and finding the code for the weather radio for Salina.  We were happy to not have any damage from the hail and torrential downpours.

Under Tornado Watch

At 3am, the weather radio woke us up with another severe thunderstorm warning for Salina.  After watching and listening, we chose to wake the girls and take shelter in the laundry room. With pillows and blankets in tow, we spent about an hour waiting out  the storm in the rec hall.  There was another family there who were tenting and told us the KOA staff came to their site earlier to tell them of the threat of storms and advised them to take shelter.  There were a few close booms of thunder and the lightning was intense but the storm quickly passed us, and we returned to the camper.  The girls quickly fell back asleep around 4am.  After the storm, it was a lot more windy and we turned off the AC so we could hear better.

Road ratings:

MO:  A-

KS:  A