My Road Trip
 
 
 
We had a peaceful drive through Missouri today, seeing a good portion of the state as we drove south on US-71 and then up I-44 toward Saint Louis.  Judging by the roadside signs and what else we could observe, we concluded that Missouri’s economy is based up on fireworks and pornography, with a bit of soybeans and corn mixed in.  
 
Arriving downtown, we parked the car and headed into the Radisson to get our room.  Turns out they had two rooms, Orbitz fucked up our reservations.  Worse still, some eight year old Bart Simpson wannabe pushed all the upward buttons in our elevator, threatening to give us the long tour up through the hotel.  They were headed to the game.
 
We headed out to dinner a bit later, after watching the clouds roll in, and a light rain begin to fall.  As we drove out of the garage, the rain turned to sheets, driven like waves to the beachfront by a heavy and unyielding wind.  We set the GPS for Zia’s, and set out.  We ended up taking a wrong turn, one that put us on the bridge across the Mississippi to Illinois, and stuck in a traffic jam.  The rain was only getting worse and the wind was picking up.  I set the car into park, and tightened the parking brake, but we were still getting moved a bit.  Eventually the cars began to move again, but showed a grizzly scene on the bridge: a semi carrying two trailers had blown over onto an older Thunderbird, causing havoc and damage on the westbound bridge.  
 
We detoured around to the MLK Bridge and back through downtown.  Downed trees and power lines were common, and several tunnels and underpasses had a good amount of water in their deepest spots.  We carefully headed back to Zia’s for dinner.
 
370,000 people are without power tonight, and many more are experiencing downed trees and all manner of other damage.  
 
What a storm.  If I’d known we were going into a Tornado Warning, I think we might have opted for the lobby restaurant instead.
 
Tornadic Activity
Wednesday, July 19, 2006