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 When
I first started to travel in an RV, I was unsure of all
the things I should have known. I didn't know of any RV
magazines and there were not a lot of people RVing. As I
have said in past articles, I started RVing in 1970 (Karen's
first trip was in 1978 when she met me). My first long trip
was in 1973, when I went out west to Winnipeg, Calgary,
Vancouver, Seattle, San Fransico, Los Angles, Las Vegas
and the Grand Canyon.
Over the years of traveling, I have learned
that the weather can really wreak havoc. My biggest scare
is tornadoes. I have seen three and heard one. Tornadoes
are nothing to fool around with, they can be deadly to someone
in an RV. My first encounter of a tornado was in Georgia.
I was traveling south on I-75, I could see the dark clouds
ahead, first came the rain and then some hail. Off in the
distance I saw it,the tornado was south of me and was crossing
I-75. The traffic stopped and the tornado went back up into
the clouds. As I slowly moved ahead, I could see the damage.
I just couldn't believe my eyes. All I wanted to do was
to get out of there. I was worried it might come back.
When I arrived at the campground that evening,
I told the campground owners of what I had just been through.
They told me I was very lucky. If I had only been going
a few miles faster, I could have been in the path of the
tornado. They took me into their office and showed me their
weather radio. This radio was kept on 24 hours a day. It
only had one station and that was the National Weather Station
for that area. Whenever a severe storm was approaching,
the weather radio would sound an alarm that would alert
the campground personnel to turn on the sound of the radio
and hear the weather report. This was great advice. I went
and bought one the next day.
The reports that are broadcasted over the
weather radio always detail weather information in certain
counties. If we don't know which county we are in, we always
ask when we check-in at the campground.
Over the years the weather radio has been
my best friend. Just outside of Rapid City, South Dakota
at the Bad Lands KOA our caravan was in for two nights.
This was an R&R stop, just sit back and relax. It was a
beautiful day, blue skies, and sunshine, you couldn't ask
for more. Off went the weather radio alarm. The radio reported
that a windstorm with up to 60 mile per hour winds was moving
east from Rapid City. Karen and I ran around warning the
campers to put their awnings away. Everyone in our caravan
did, but some of the other campers did not. The wind came
and some awnings blew away. Several people came to us after
the windstorm, wanting to know how we knew about the storm
and we showed them our weather radio. (Page
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On another trip, I was pulling into a Good
Sam Park in Cortez, Colorado, and the weather radio went
off. There was a dust storm coming east out of the desert.
The campground owner moved us around the back of the barn
and had us back in. Our motor home was facing east. We got
out of our motor home and walked around the other side of
the barn and we could see the dust storm coming. It was
moving at a good pace. It lasted most of the night.
Traveling in South Dakota, we parked at
the Mitchell KOA. We had only been parked for a few hours,
when the weather radio alarm sounded. Severe thunder storms
were coming our way, large size hail and possible tornadoes.
Again Karen and I went around the campground warning of
the coming storm. Many who were in the pool did not take
our warning seriously. The dark clouds came, rain, large
hail came down on the campground and to the north of Mitchell
a tornado touched down. Many had broken vents from the hail
and one car was left with quite a few dents.
The tornado I didn't see, but heard. I was
coming home on my own from a Rally in New Orleans. I had
just crossed the line into Tennessee and pulled into a campground
for the night. During the night the weather radio sounded
the alarm. I woke up to find my motor home rocking from
the wind. A thunderstorm was fast approaching and tornadoes
were on the ground. I quickly put on my clothes and headed
for the door. My clock radio was not working, so I knew
the electric was out. The lights in my motor home were running
on the batteries. I opened the door and was hit in the mouth
by a flying branch. This was not good. People were yelling
at me to come and get in the ditch and I did. The wind got
louder and stronger, things were flying everywhere. You
couldn't see a thing, but you could hear trees snapping
and I was scared. The wind seemed to be blowing in towards
the storm, I always thought the wind blew away from the
storm. As fast as it started, it ended. You could hear the
noise go off in the distance. The wind slowed down and it
just rained for a short time. You could see the lightning
in the distance.
In the morning, the campground owner showed
us where the tornado had gone through. It missed us by about
four football fields. My two front teeth were broken from
the branch and my new teeth I call my tornado teeth. (Page
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Over the years, Karen and I have traveled
through snow, rain, dust storms, thunder banger's (storms
with no rain, just lighting and thunder), thunder storms,
tornadoes, sand storms, hail, devil dusters, ice storms
and yes beautiful sunny days. Our weather radio warned us
many times, so we could take shelter and be safe. We wouldn't
travel without it.
If you decide to get a weather radio, buy
one that works on electric and batteries. If the electric
goes off, your radio will still run on your batteries. Make
sure it is portable, so you can put it beside your bed at
night or on your front dash when traveling.
Do not buy a weather radio that is in your
dash radio. If you are in a trailer and your weather radio
is built into the dash of your car or truck, it won't do
you any good. Same goes for the motorhome, if you have it
in your dash radio, are you going to leave your ignition
on all night, so your radio is on.
Buy a weather radio that has channels for
the National Weather Stations. Our first radio had three
channels, our next weather radio had five channels, and
I understand that there is a new weather radio with seven
channels. It is well worth the price to have a weather radio.
At the end of the camping season, I decided
to bring the weather radio in from the motor home and have
the benefits at home too. Very early one morning the alarm
went off, and a little panic sets in. When we listened to
the weather alert, it was a frost warning for the farmers.
We just rolled over and went back to sleep.
If you would like to get more information
from us or see what we have planned, just send us your e-mail
address to: rvtours@interlog.com (Page
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