When the storms wake you up.....

Part of our journey we shared in Saint Louis this year was impending tornados that apparently came through the city and caused alarms to ring in our hotel at 5:30am.  I had just gone to bed at 4:30am working on backing up all of my images onto an external hard-drive and making sure my laptop was a bit more cleaned off.  I was enjoying the last few moments I had in my room with the roomies asleep and the darkness filling the space. 

At 5:30am...and crazee siren went off and said there was a tornado warning ...and that we needed to proceed immediately to the basement.  I woke up....at first confused....was this a TEST????

No, it was not.  I scrambled around FREEZING cold cause it was chilly in there...and digging for my shoes cause I figured wherever I was going...I would want shoes, a light jacket, the hotel room key and my phone.  At first, I was just going to laugh it off and hide in the bathtub, but mama Jane insisted that her phone said this was all legit and that we needed to leave FAST! 

I'm not a morning person. 
I'm not a nice person with lack of sleep.
So I was angry.

Not at anyone.....................
AT THE TORNADO.

We got to the basement....and about 60 seconds later...the warning had passed.  We walked through passageways like ... THIS - you know tons of skylights, windows and things that break when tornados come through.  The entrance to the basement was down the stairs and through a door...whilst passing through atriums, sky lights and more.  You can see how that might have fueled my anger.

 I should have just crawled into the bathtub i'm thinking..................

We make it back to the room and make insanely loud sobbing noises because the tornado has robbed our sleep and we silently pay homage to our 5:30am wake up call with a funny pictures. (Thanks to Rachel Frank)  I love these ladies. Through the madness of the storms - we still found much laughter.

We also had a casualty of war....when the sirens were hitting Rachel lost a nail in the bathroom.....lol

Morning came fast...and so did our checkout time....we awoke around 10am and I was just like OH CRAP!!!!! we have to check out!!!! I got a late checkout by a miracle and we spent the next 3 hours singing, packing and getting ready to say good bye. 

In my moments of "despair" I figured in order to laugh at myself later - I would "save" my camera gear before I left the room for the tornado .  Mind you, the window is RIGHT THERE and so are the curtains.  I merely scooted it around the table...and abandoned it.  *facepalm*  Notice the dissaray of the stuff...and the forcibly thrown shoes and props around the floor.  Yes folks....
Here is what I did when I left the room....

I found that we could have a good laugh....and being that my whole season this spring has been NOTHING but freaky deaky storms every time I travel...I had to do nothing but laugh...and pack...and sing En Vogue all that morning.  When they say FREE YOUR MIND and the rest will follow?  For realz yo.

For fun moments...and waking up moments....I relied on my sense of humor to give you what I call..."Fashion-ado"....or "Rachel-nado"....because our room did look like a tornado anyways.  Such great fashion to be had and much fun to have followed those 4 days at after dark.

And this my folks...is the beauty out of storms....you may be ANGRY....frustrated....a little delayed....but you are guaranteed to have laughs and stories to tell for the rest of your life.  I wouldn't take that back for anything.

But there's MORE.

Because apparently the storm system was ongoing.....I was at the airport for my flight and we had THREE warnings of tornados while there.  Every time I turned around...there was a warning and telling us to get away from the windows.

I should have been a storm chaser, in another life.

Thanks for letting us fly out....even with all the tornado storms....so glad that the system passed so I could get home for Adventure part 2. :) 

I end this story with this.....you WILL have storms...........
you WILL have delays...............

but find a way to laugh - it always helps. :) We did!

This was my "i'm so mad at that tornado for waking me up at 5am look"............

Thanks for reading everyone.............

What the latest funniest travel story for you? <3

Jen