And Why Are We Doing the Great Loop?...

When Danny and I discussed doing the Loop, we came up with many reasons.  We enjoyed traveling and always enjoyed the USA when traveling with the kids.  The boat would give us the opportunity see places we couldn't travel to by car.  In addition, we would meet lots of people on their boats as well as the towns we stopped to visit.  And let us not forget the food we would experience and each place's specialties.  What also goes with all those things that we didn't think much of was... weather.

The day before we left, we had a snow and ice storm in Kentucky where I face planted myself on the uncleared gangway.  Last night, we were in the middle of tornado fields.  The guy next to us in the slip is from Mississippi.  He was talking to Danny and told him what apps to make sure he had on his phone with the sirens.  He and the boat on our other side traveling together found out we had a rental car and wanted to know if it got bad as predicted would we go to the underground shelter.  Of course, I spoke up and said absolutely.  About 8pm the siren went off and I asked Danny, he said we were fine.  Five to ten minutes later, the siren went off again.  He still said we were fine.  Next thing I know the guy from Mississippi is banging on the door- "Dan, we have got to go, it is coming this way."  Of course, I went into panic mode, grabbed the keys, my wallet and started running up the pier through lightening with Danny further back.  In the shelter, there were already people of all ages.  One was a 5 year old boy who was getting ready to have birthday cake at home after blowing out his candles.  We had 2 tornados pass just NE of us.  We left at 10pm.  They called for further activity between midnight and 6am.  When we got back, I told everyone, I'm going back just before midnight not run through lightning bolts like last time.  We went up to the shelter and stayed until 4:50am.  The Police of Demopolis of which there are 3 on a shift and a supervisor took turns overseeing the shelter and we were most appreciative.  The sirens went off 5-6 times but only 2 came close to us to the south and SE.  Those sirens made my heart stop and swallow hard.  Danny chose to snore.  I just don't know how he does it.  







Our arrival at the shelter with Officer Jones.

Above, you see us lying on the concrete floor with my pillow, a site for sore eyes!
So on the Great Loop, you can see weather patterns of which you are not accustomed!  Again, I hope to never hear sirens like that  again.......


After all was said and done, we found out the land where the former City Hall, now Civic Center where we were underground had its own historical significance. 



Our visit over the last week through Alabama and Mississippi will be forth coming.  We leave Demopolis on Friday morning, at least thats the plan.









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