Blue skies

What a bodacious storm we had last night! Hays is typically on the edge of storms, but last night we were right in the middle of it. When the storm siren sounded I and my one guest did the sensible thing and waited it out in the middle of the basement with the emergency kit nearby. Several tornadoes touched ground within a few miles of town, but I didn't hear of any serious damage done, which was a miracle.

Once in a great while we get a little stormy excitement like that. But it's like I tell my B&B guests--this house has been standing unscathed for 101 years now, and that's a pretty good record.

Nevertheless, I was moved to go out and buy a weather radio today. I opted for a "crank" model, so I can manually recharge the batteries. I can also use it to recharge my cell phone and computer, although there's no telling how much cranking those would entail. It has a built-in flashlight and AM/FM radio. I was pretty pleased to get all that for 40 bucks!

I also replaced the bottled water stash with fresh bottles. All ready for the next cautionary basement visit, or winter power outage (also rare here).

Now, if you only know Kansas by reputation and not experience, you might think Kansans are always rushing down to their primitive cellars to escape enormous twisters, like the one in The Wizard of Oz. I am a lifelong fan of that movie. I'm pretty sure I know all the dialog by heart. I love TWOO. But I am also reasonably sure that those dull, gray scenes of a perfectly flat landscape (it was a soundstage, folks, not the real thing) are more responsible than anything for the image most people still have of Kansas. That is, unless they've actually been here and have dared to stray more than a mile or two from the interstate. It's a beautiful state, and part of that beauty is in our dramatic skies.

Yes, a tornado ocassionally drops out of those dramatically gorgeous skies. But no more often than in a dozen other states, and that's a fact. So come see Kansas! I can recommend all kinds of day trips and short excursions with the Tea Rose Inn as the base camp. And if necessary, we can huddle together in the basement with a well-stocked emergency kit until the skies turn blue again. Really, really blue.