I was coming southeast from Sherman that evening, that front was doing 50 as it crossed east, sparked a tornado warning south of Dallas, one of them "brrreeeeepp.....brrreeeeep.....brrreeeep" radio interruptions from the National Weather Service, I caught up to it when I was going eastbound on I 30, found myself white-knuckling it, zero visibility, constant lightning, looked down and for all of that risk we were all only going 40 so I pulled off for a bit to let the front get another 30 miles along past Mt Pleasant where I would turn south fer Gilmer.
That front was running at an angle so that Gilmer was getting hammered as I came south from Mt. Pleasant. I had the phone turned off to save batteries so the first I knew anything serious as up was encountering fallen trees on the narrow road to Ed's place about 100 yards from his front gate. It was all over by that point, the storm and rain had passed.
Walked in with my dog to say hello and see if there was anything I could do, random trees and branches still falling heavily off in the woods, and then slept out the rest of the night in the laid back driver's seat of my car by the roadside, door wide open on account of it was pleasantly cool and the wind had sent all the skeeters into the next county. Slept so well the power company came in way early and cleared those trees as I slept right through it not 100 yards away
As I always have been at these things, I was humbled by the caliber of my Campfire friends, both as people and as sportsmen. Ed and Barbara both displayed admirable composure and grace throughout. Seems like in no time the next day the electrician and tree guys were out, the tree guys quickly and efficiently doing their thing.
Very quickly this whole catastrophe became a problem that was in the process of being taken care of and fixed.
I hope I handle it as well if a tree ever lands on my own house, let alone while I got 20+ adults and kids visiting.
Birdwatcher
