After spending an enjoyable evening at BackStory Brewery (which included the loud horns of two passing freight trains in the middle of the night) Joe awoke at 5:30 and was surprised to find that we had not experienced any rain overnight. A quick check of the weather revealed that Sulphur Springs was presently under a tornado watch. Torrential rain was coming but so was the potential for high winds, hail and tornadoes.

Rather than remain in place and wait for the storm to pass, we decided to pack up and head west through the leading edge of the storm which would shorten our exposure to the bad weather. (There was no chance for us to head East and outrun the storm due to the long range of the front.) Did we mention there was no time to plan our route and that it was still pitch black outside? No time to brush teeth or brew coffee!

Once through the front edge of the storm we would continue southwest toward Austin. We are the blue dot in the screen shot above. This was taken forty minutes after we left Sulphur Springs. By 7AM we were behind the storm front and had mostly clear weather as we headed southwest into Dallas where the skies were sunny. We are the blue dot in the screen shot below.

Sadly, we were not prepared to to video the storm as we were in a big rush to get out of town. We also neglected to turn on the dash cam. Cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes were all around us and quite impressive. Sue did catch some of the lightening on her iPhone.

We finally stopped for breakfast when we felt safe and out of danger near Waxahachie, TX. We ended up, of all places, at a McDonald’s where Joe learned that oatmeal is a “breakfast side” and not a main breakfast item. We finally brushed our teeth.

Happy but tired, we headed toward Driftwood, Texas where our favorite BBQ destination is located.