On our last camping trip, my sons and I had a very close encounter with a tornado. As we sat in the motel, with our air conditioning running, we heard an odd noise. No sooner did we turn off the air conditioning and the television, but we lost our power. The motel had an emergency generator, but it only ran the lights and not the air conditioning. We just wanted to go home, by this time, but they said they weren’t allowing anyone on the roads until the tornado warning had passed. Half an hour later, we were given the go ahead to leave the area. It was almost daylight, and we made the decision to drive by the campground and pick up our tent before we got home. We had everything packed in the truck from the night before, and we made to leave the motel. I couldn’t believe the sight we saw when we walked out. A tornado had gone through the area and not one hundred yards from our truck, the buildings were destroyed. We slowly made our way to the campground. The boys had turned on the air conditioning in the truck because it was still very humid and hot and it was only seven in the morning. They wouldn’t allow us in the campground, even though I tried to explain that we had a campsite in there. He walked us back and right where our tent had been less than twelve hours earlier, there was nothing but an empty lot. The telephone poles were down, and our tent was up in a tree. We got back into our air conditioned truck, grateful for not being hurt from either tornado, and swearing off camping for the rest of my life.