Dobbelaere Family Moments: Taking Cover

We have all been in a hail storm at one point in our life. But have you ever been in a hail storm that brings "grapefruit" size hail? Well we have not, until this past weekend...and I hope we never experience it again.

The day started out nice and sunny. Chad's sister Katie and family had rented a spot for the weekend. We decided to head out for a couple hours with the kids and head back by lunch. After lunch, Chad's other sister Tricia and kids had shown up. We left the girls behind to nap and loaded up the boat. The clouds were starting to come in, but we figured we'd have plenty of time. While out in the water, it got darker and darker and we started seeing lighting in the distance. The lighting seemed to be far off, so we continue to enjoy the water. As the bad weather seem to get closer, we wrapped things up and was just about to head in.

This is where it got interesting...the boat would not start. So we hauled everyone onto our friends pontoon, hooked the boat up to the jet ski, which hauled us to the dock. Good thing we were just around the corner, so it was not a far distance. By the time Chad, I and JR (he was on the jet ski, hauling us in) arrived at the dock all the other family members were heading to the camper. We tied up the boats and I received a call to get to the bar...the storm was coming.

I ran into the bar while Chad headed back up to the camper to drop off one of our friends so he could be with his family. I looked out the windows of the bar and what I saw was unbelievable. It looked like bombs going off in the lake...EVER WHERE. The hail would hit the water and the water would bounce up like Old Faithful, it was unreal. This is when we decided to run for the bathrooms and take cover.

While the girls, I and the rest of our family stayed in the bathroom, I kept thinking where is Chad? Well, he was in our camper. Not a place to be when you have grapefruit size hail pounding you. He has never heard anything like that before. He was trapped, but his Guardian Angels were definitely watching out for him.

After the storm we headed back up to the camper. Along the way it was a sad state...trees down, branches every where, windows smashed out...it was crazy. Our camper suffered many dents, huge dents, we have a window out, vents out, sheds out, the list goes on. Every car you saw was dented and almost every other car had at least one window out.

We are fairly sure our camper will be totaled. The truck will need some body work. The boat only had a few cushions tore up that we plan to repair ourselves. The weirdest thing...we had started the grill and had turkey breast cooking...the grill never went out!

No one was hurt. Yes we have some things to settle with the camper and the truck...but they are only "things" in our lives. The most important things: us, our family, friends and others are safe!

Pic of camper about an hour after the storm...

here comes the sun, of course