1 post tagged “extreme weather”

What's the most extreme weather you've been in? A memorable storm? Heat wave? Or something else?

When I was 21, a girl I would talk to online asked me to go to Hookahville with her.  Hookahville is a three day music festival held in Ohio every summer.  I had met this girl twice before at a Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie concert.  For those concerts, we went with our own friends and just said hello for a few mintues.  I remembered her being super cute.  But when I picked her up in Pottstown, PA on our way to Hookahville, my memory must have failed me or time must have failed her. 

As I drove through PA to OH, we had a great time, singing as loud as we could to the stereo.  However, by the time we arrived, we had our fill of eachother.  For the duration of the festival, we went our separate ways and did our own thing.  Both of us had an enjoyable time. 

Monday morning came and we met up again to drive back to PA for her and NJ for me.  That morning, the rain appraoched like darkness on a winter night.  The girl met one of her high school alumni from Pottsville and asked me to drive him home.  He was quick to tell me that he had no money for gas.  I figured since I was already going to his town, there was no harm in him tagging along as an act of charity.

Driving through the parking lot, my NJ plates were a beacon for drenched hippies trying to find a way home.  I sensed the disapproving stares of my passengers as I rejected muddy hippy after muddy hippy.  As we left the parking lot, the rain played an unfair game with my windshield wipers.  The wipers didn't stand a chance.

No gas money man complained about the no smoking rule in my car. The girl just sat there silent.  The rain followed us the entire way, remaining as a blind fold for my car and setting the mood for the drive.  I should have stopped and joined the other cars sitting on the shoulder.  But I was trying to minimize my time with the brooding hippies.

The trip included 8 hours of driving into a wall of rain and one gas stop where no gas money man bought potato chips, beef jerky, candy, and a soda.  And no, he didn't offer me a potato chip.  But no amount of potato chips would have made the ride any better making this my most memorable storm.