Oh Hail

We've decided that we don't know how to read the weather in South Dakota, the hard way!

We got caught in another hail storm and this time it was a lulu. Last Wednesday we decided to drive to Rapid City to check out Sam's Club then go to Wal-Mart for groceries. The day was beautiful, so nice that we didn't even take our jackets. We were just finishing our shopping in Wal-Mart when I heard the thunder. I'm thinking, "don't tell me it's happening again", the exact same thing happened last week when we went to the Wal-Mart in Spearfish. So we hurry out of the store, hoping to beat the rain, then bam the lightning seemed like it was directly over our heads and the thunder was so loud I about jumped out of my skin. Here we are with this big metal rack on top of our jeep, so of course I'm thinking the lightning is going to strike us dead.

We got the groceries loaded and headed home. No sooner had we got on the Interstate when the sky opened up and golf ball sized hail started coming down. All we could do was pull over to the side and wait. It was pretty darn scary, it sounded like the hail was going to come through the windows. It seemed like it lasted an hour, but in reality it was probably 15 minutes before we got to take off again. The streets and parking lots looked like it had snowed. (I got the golf ball size from the news that evening)

Our jeep really took a hit, we have lots of dings on the hood and fenders.

Pictures:
1. Mike loading groceries in Spearfish
2. Jeep damage in Rapid City
3. After the storm in Rapid City