Tornado Warning (Malkolm)

“Y’all know we’re in a tornado watch zone?”

A man leaned out of a truck window. We must have looked an odd sight, three sopping cyclists, squatting in the mud, eating lunch. “Just letting y’all know.” He pulled away, leaving us alone with the rain. Texas had greeted us with headwinds, Louisiana with freezing temperatures, now Mississippi was welcoming us with a downpour and a tornado threat.

We packed up our lunch and cycled on: puddles and pavement below, and massive, dark thunderheads above. I remembered a line from a comedy paper, “If you see a tornado coming, lie in a ditch. If you are already lying in a ditch, do not sit up.” I had laughed when I had read that, but it didn’t seem that funny now.

A few hours later we pulled in to a small town, and headed for an RV park. Wendy walked into the office, I stayed outside and minded our bikes. Through the window I could hear Wendy’s conversation with the clerk. “The weather will be gettin’ worse.” The clerk said. “It’s a tornado warning now. Our other RV park up in Hattiesburg was hit by two tornadoes today – that’s just twenty miles north. Watch out.”

We decided against tenting, and traipsed into a small cabin. If we see a tornado we plan to take refuge in the bathroom of the cabin, which is less likely to get smashed into a pile of sticks. If you want to find out if we survive – y’all will have to read a future blog!