It's hard to tell from these sunny photos of our site, but the most important part of Hidden Lake RV Park in Ardmore, OK, is actually the new storm shelter.
We had time to set up the rig and take a good walk around the park to admire the lakes. We saw a lot to admire. Everything is well designed and well cared for. But about the time we started to fix dinner, storms gathered. When we checked in, the man at the desk said that if the storm sirens went off, we should run for the storm shelter. When the storm worsened, we weren't sure if we'd heard a siren or not, but we ran for the shelter. We had heard some news of the major tornadoes that hit the Oklahoma City area today and didn't want to take any chances.
We weren't the first ones there, either. An assortment of folks with their kids and their dogs, had gathered. One man was following the storm on weather radar, and after a while he said we were okay for a while, but that another storm would come through in 45 minutes. We headed home to work on dinner again, but soon got a message that a tornado warning had been issued for Ardmore, so back to the shelter we went. Fewer people were there this time, and after a while it seemed the storm had passed again, so we went home.
A few minutes later, we got another message that another tornado warning had been issued, and this time the storm hit in earnest. The sky opened up, and lightning flashed and thunder roared. We ran for it again, but this time we ran through lakes of mud, fighting against the wind and rain to reach the shelter dripping and soaked. This time a lot more people joined us, including one family with a little teacup Chihuahua puppy that ran around the shelter.
When the storm let up and most of the folks left the shelter again, we straggled home and stripped off our sodden clothes and shoes (the shower is full of them now). Finally we got a chance to eat dinner. It seems that the worst danger has passed. We've resolved to avoid visiting this part of the country during tornado season.
We stopped at Camping World in Denton on our way north on I-35 to pick up a few things.
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