Our getting here was very interesting! We left Joplin last Friday at 7:30am. Beautiful weather. A van with 10 people (3 of which are Jayson & Janice's awesome kids!) and pulling a trailer. We were moving right a long doing great. Kayla was driving. We made our famous stop at I-44 Exit 274 for lunch at QT.
We crossed over into Illinois knowing that we were most likely going to hit bad weather. We drove through Lincoln and were almost to Bloomington when the wind picked up. It started hailing and pouring down rain. We could barely see, so Titus got us to a rest area for a few minutes to let the storm pass.
Janice French started driving and we stopped for dinner around 6-ish for dinner just south of Chicago on I-80. By the time we crossed over from IN to MI...all crazy broke lose. It was dark, thundering and lightening everywhere. The rain was pouring down and the wind started to pick up just as we got on our final leg to Holland. Water was rushing over the interstate in several places...in the dark and the rain.
Hwy 31 was closed where we needed to go in Holland, so we had to snake through town. The roads were flooded. Cars were stalled. By they time we go to campus it was a mess. We had to park 3 blocks from our apartments and carry luggage, food, kids through knee deep water! It was a crazy experience at 10:30pm at night.
A lady had just tried to drive down the road in front of our apartments. Water started rushing into her car. We went to help them get out of the car. 4 people, a suitcase and 2 huge graduation cakes. We toted all of them across the street and up to the apartments until someone got there to help. Wreckers were making a ton of money that night!
A guy was kayaking down the street. Brave people were forcing there way through the streets hoping to make it. The "tidal" waves they created were rocking the other cars down the street! It was all very surreal!
The next morning when I got up around 7am...I thought was had dreamed it all...there was no water anywhere. Seriously!!!???
I promise I didn't make it up! See:
I was so excited to see the water gone the next morning! I got up and walked down to an amazing Farmer's Market. I got some fresh strawberries, nectarines and homemade spice cake doughnuts! Happy day!
So excited for the week to get started. It's going to be awesome!
