July 19, 1997

THUNDERSTORM

I got into Tribune, KS around 6:20 p.m. When I stopped at the sheriff's office to see if they knew of any place or a minister who could let me stay around their church. They didn't know of any minister but they gave me approval to camp out at the fairgrounds. In case of bad weather, they told me that I could camp out at the 4-H Building under the cover of the animal stalls area.

On the way to the fairgrounds, I got stopped by one of the townsman and offered dinner and the chance to take a shower. It wasn't till around 8:00 p.m. when I headed out to the fairgrounds. The sky was really clouding up because a thunderstorm was coming through the area.

I was sort of hesitant in camping out sort of in the open and near the animal pens. Something inside of me told me that I should check out the doors of some of the buildings near the animal pens. I found one of the doors of the 4-H Building open. I kind of thought that it was an offer for me to get out of the storm. Nobody was around and if I didn't use any lights nobody would know that I was there. There also was a bathroom available.

I was really glad that I did go inside. The thunderstorm that went through the area was really intense with a lot of hard rain and the wind was really strong. I'm not sure that my tent would have held up from the strong wind.