Storm report - LSLC Roundup (1 Viewer)

[Panzer]

So this year I got a late start due to some mechanical issues and didn't arrive until dawn on Friday.
No problem, I find a spot to camp next to some Expo Cruiserheads that I know, unhook the trailer and head for the trails. I had a great time bumping and banging down a trail that should be called the chinese finger puzzle; You cant back out and the further you go the tougher it gets. Got back to camp around 3pm and started setting up my camp.

 

[Panzer]

I set my tent up and like normal I set up my ez-up right out the tent door like a changing room and put the shower encloser right behind the trailer . (sorry no pics of the full set up)
Since the weather was talking rain with 25-35mph winds I staked everything down.

 

[Panzer]

So after setting up the house it was time for the Friday night festivities, raffle, band etc. I headed back to my hooch around midnite and was asleep soon after. Around 3:30am I hear a few rain drops hit my tent so I sit up, zip up all the windows and lie back down. As I am about to fall back asleep I here this soft rushing noise. WTF is that? For over a full minute I hear this sound getting ever so slightly louder...then I realize what it is, the gust front! Oh, #*$%&! My ez-up and shower aren't going to be able to take that and no time to collapse it before impact. F, F, F-ity, F! Theres $$ about to go flying into the treetops.
The storm arrived at 3:45am with 60 mph winds, horizontal rain and hail. It hit my tent so hard I thought the trailer was going to get blown over. I peeked out the window to see my neighbors campfire like a torch, 2 inches off the ground and 40 feet long blowing sparks and flame under their truck.
After a while the wind settled down a bit so I crawled away from my little window and layed back down. Lying there about to fall back asleep I hear a train in the distance and think to myself "I don't remember tracks near here." Wait, a train, that is how every toothless idiot on the weather channel describes a tornado! Well the sound isn't really close and its too cold and wet to go jump in the ditch so I made the executive decision to die in my tent. Turns out it wasn't a full tornado freight train but just a big downburst wind and more heavy rain. From 3:45 til ? it was wind and rain chaos outside.
I saw headlights sweeping across camp, heard the occasional scream and a lot of cussing but so far the little mombasa tent was hanging in there. I don't know when I fell back asleep but around dawn I got up, got dressed and prepared myself to go gather the rest of my campsite from the trees.
I unzipped the door and....Tada! My ez-up was still there .
So was the shower . Awesome! Panzer HQ survived unscathed.
So I climb out and look into main camp
awnings in trees, tents in trees, tents under trucks, people sleeping in trucks.
(in these pics my trailer is in the background. This was my neighbors shower and awning)

 

[Panzer]

My friends Mike and Kirk who are also trailer campers were right across from me camped in a low spot. They weren't as lucky as I was. All of their stuff was either in the trees or under water. Their low spot filled in and Kirk awoke to being a tent island.

 

[Panzer]

I spent the morning stomping around in the muck, drinking coffee and seeing who needed a hand cleaning up. Around mid morning we started to get some very light sleet and the weather report was for a secondary cold front and freezing weather to arrive by 5pm. Now I don't mind winter camping when I plan for it but no where in the forecast I saw was there any SNOW! I broke camp and headed back north. I stopped off at Hard 8 BBQ for the world's best chopped beef sandwich on a jalapeno/cheddar roll and then back on the road around 5:30 into a monster north wind.
I hit intermittent light snow at Eastland and by the time I got to Fort Worth it was 3/4 mile visibility in snow showers. Crazy first day of spring eh?
(My dog isn't too happy about snow after spending last week sunning like a lizard)

 

[kling-on]

Great event crazy weather ... Never seen that many smashed tents... 90% of people jetted by 2ish so I did as well weather looks great in Sanantiono now wish I had stayed ... The rocks rocked can't wait hitem again

 

[mmw68]

I just got off the phone with the Hill Country Inn, Those people went out of the way to put the remaining folks up Saturday night. I think they had squeezed 12 people in one of the room! She even dropped buy K2 to see the damage, good folks...

-Mark

 

[40's rock]

Staying in the Motel was my smartest decision....after Butch winched me on the trailer, we headed north. Got home to Dallas in snow flurries around 8:30. Woke up to this:

 

[cool breeze]

Great and crazy write-up..thanks for sharing!

 

[valkyrie610]

I just got off the phone with the Hill Country Inn, Those people went out of the way to put the remaining folks up Saturday night. I think they had squeezed 12 people in one of the room! She even dropped buy K2 to see the damage, good folks...

-Mark

+1, they were very gracious and congenial, they went out of their way to check on us and make sure we had towels and were comfortable.

I sincerely thank Butch for offering us a room and I need to find out who left it for us pre-paid, that was simply an amazing gesture!

 

[chris777]

We were warned at the drivers meeting on Friday at 9am that this was coming our way. I checked my iPhone for an up to date weather report at 5pm, and sure enough, it was going to be a doozie, early in the morning. So I battened down the hatches, take down my shower tent and hammcok, and prepared for this cold front and winds BEFORE I went to eat barbecue and get drunk. I also parked my FJ60 so that it would protect my tent. The time I spent getting read for the storm, I was going to spend taking 360 degree VRs of the nights festivities, like I did last year. So that was my only loss, not being able to do that.

When the storm hit, I was wondering if my tent would hold. It was fierce. VERY loud. So loud, I didn't even hear it upend my cook table and big heavy water tight kitchen box. When I woke up, the table was 100 feet away and the kitchen was upside down with all its contents strewn.

Cottonland Cruisers had a huge pavillion tent, like they usually do. At 12:45am I remember asking if they had guy-wired it to something, like a truck, and they said it only had stakes. I thought to myself at the time that they were taking a chance. It was flattened and destroyed.

 

[JasonH]

Not much you could do in a storm like that. I knew it was going to be windy, but I didn't expect that. I put every stake and guy wire I could on my tent. I was under a tree and close to a couple of trucks, and it flipped my tent over and tossed me in the air. I've tented in storms before but that was a first for me.

 

[kling-on]

We were warned at the drivers meeting on Friday at 9am that this was coming our way. ...Cottonland Cruisers had a huge pavillion tent, ....

I never seen wind like that my tent was bent down till it hit my face even with my truggy blockin it

there camp was flattened and it didnt roll it was flattend in place crazy

 

[Texican]

+1, they were very gracious and congenial, they went out of their way to check on us and make sure we had towels and were comfortable.

I sincerely thank Butch for offering us a room and I need to find out who left it for us pre-paid, that was simply an amazing gesture!

Bobby Don Brown, of Bonham......actually gave it to me but Kristie and I were already firmly into one of Randy's cabins with an electric heater.......


I said the wind sounded and felt like someone had hooked onto the cabin and was dragging us across gravel..........Kristie said it sounded and felt like a freight train was going by 2 ft from the wall....scary to say the least.

 

[mmw68]

I decided to give Woody and Bruce my paid hotel room for the night and head back to Austin. When I handed Woody the keys he had this evil look on his face.. "Like sure - we won't order any movies or charge anything"

Another morning after shot from Woody's facebook album.

 

[kling-on]

Bobby Don Brown, of Bonham......actually gave it to me but Kristie and I were already firmly into one of Randy's cabins with an electric heater.......


I said the wind sounded and felt like someone had hooked onto the cabin and was dragging us across gravel..........Kristie said it sounded and felt like a freight train was going by 2 ft from the wall....scary to say the least.

Never heard a" train" comin in a storm before that .... Hope I dont hear it again

 

[chris777]

how many campers were there Saturday night???

Did the JDH band play anywhere? probably not. But there was talk about finding a venue in town.

 

[wardfoto]

Hey! The T.L.C.A banner survived!!

 

[CruisinFJ60]

Never heard a" train" comin in a storm before that .... Hope I dont hear it again

agreed, i could also do without getting hit and beat by a tent, glad it was tied down and had 3 people!
it was a blast before the storm hit tho. i was prepared with extra shoes, jacket and a rain suit but not for sleet and psyco winds.
driving into those north winds home was the first time it has been a real pain in the ass to drive my 40, it was all i could do to stay in the lines half the time and i usually cruise at a nice 55-65mph range with no problems and can usually still accelerate up a hill with my 3B in there but those winds were so killer maintaining my 55-65mph speeds was all it could do, up hill was a loosing battle.

 

[valkyrie610]

Bobby Don Brown, of Bonham......actually gave it to me but Kristie and I were already firmly into one of Randy's cabins with an electric heater.......

Excellent, thanks! I *might* know the whereabouts of a bottle of Templeton Rye- I'll bring it to the next meeting but you have to promise it makes it up to Bonham so both of y'all can share it.

Thanks again!