12/7/07 A Desert Storm

Sunny skies when we got up this morning. No rain in sight. Hopefully the weather man was wrong.

We played mini golf this morning in the tournament we're in. It was a little chilly and I did take a sweatshirt but found I didn't need it. Some were bundled up but I'm not ready to give in to "winter weather" so I'm still in shorts.

After golf I got sidetracked by the puzzle so I stayed an hour or so to add more pieces to it.

When I did finally make it back to the rig Bob suggested we go for a ride to check out an Escapees Park that isn't too far from here. So off we went for a ride. We weren't on the road too long and we noticed the wind had picked up considerably. Next thing we knew we were in a sand storm!

Here's picture of palm trees to give you an idea of how windy it was.

We could see the sand storm off in the distance.

.....and then it was in front of us.

It kept getting closer....

Next thing we knew we were in the middle of it and there was no escaping it. The wind was blowing so hard Bob had to really grip the steering wheel to keep us on the road.

There wasn't anyone playing golf today! That's sand blowing!

It just kept getting worse. I didn't think we'd ever get out of it.

We finally did get clear of the blowing sand. Here's a picture of some small mountains off in the distance. That "cloud" in front the mountain is blowing sand.


So this is our first experience with a sandstorm in the desert. Its one we hope we don't have often.