Guardian angels....

I don't really know how the idea of guardian angels work, but I am grateful that we have been watched over on this trip so far.  Our first Sunday we were driving through the Texas Panhandle and knew that we were driving into some dark clouds, but didn't really have an idea of what the storm was like ahead of us.  We just kept driving until we passed a really strangely shaped vehicle that looked a lot like this: Storm Chaser Vehicle.  It was parked next to a truck by the side of the highway.  We decided to turn on the radio to see what was going on and heard weather warnings involving tennisball sized hail about 5 miles away from where we were.  The storm was definitly one of the worst I have ever seen, and the worst that I have ever driven in.  We only got small hail where we were, but rain was pouring.  We had the terrible decision to make of just to pull over and hope it blows over.  (Park next to the storm chasers perhaps?) Drive through it (um, no).  Go back to the nearest town, or try to find our way around it.  We decided to try to find our way around it, and drove for a terrifying half an hour to get back out of the storm that we had driven into for less than 10 minutes.  We were relieved to get out of the storm, but were in an area that the storm had just passed over and some roads were flooded.  We drove through one that didn't look that bad, but got worse as we went along.  We came to another flooded road, and fortunately there was a highway truck that could guide us through the flooding, and make sure it was shallow enough for us to safely pass.  We were very grateful to get to clear skies and dry roads again.

The other scary highway moment happened today as we were driving in Montana.  We were on a two lane highway following a semi carrying a load of gravel, when it suddenly started to dump its load.  We were totally blinded by the gravel and dust flying at our windshield, but couldn't stop quickly because of course the road was covered in gravel. We were sure that we would need a new windshield and possibly a new front end and radiator, but in the end (so far) the only damage we have found was a dent in the driver's side door. 

I view these incidents as evidence that it isn't our time to die yet, because ya know, if God wanted us to, we could have all been gone right there.