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Blake asked if we were ok and safe after the big storms that went through Ohio last night. We are.

We are in Columbus, which aside from some heavy wind/rain didn’t see the worst of the storm. Some places lost power, some power lines were knocked down, and bunches of tree limbs and leaves were blown from trees. There wasn’t any major damage here that I’ve seen or heard about. Some of the north west side of the state, however, was not so protected. Lots of power knocked out, 5 people dead (in Ohio, many more in TN and AL), several big trees felled, tornados, and hail. And therein lies the rub.

You see, my grandparents live on a farm north of Tiffin which is not far from the worst of the storm. We make it to visit them only once a year or so, and since today is my grandma’s 80th birthday, we went there after worship in the morning to celebrate with one of my cousins. We had a nice visit (which was a wonderful blessing) and about 6:30 were ready to go. My uncle had called and let us know there was a tornado warning and hail in Tiffin about 5:45-6:00ish. We hung around until 6:30 with grandpa watching the storm on tv. It seemed to pass by pretty much except for the rain, so we headed out.

The best way to come home to Columbus from Grandma and Grandpa’s is down some country roads. We went south a piece, but came to a railroad crossing and the train was stopped across the road. Must’ve been something on the tracks, we are guessing. So, we turned around and went west toward Tiffin thinking we’d catch State Route 53 to US 23 and get home, which is the longer route. We got into Tiffin and the road we wanted to take was closed with a tree across it, so we turned left and went through part of the Heidelberg campus. Eventually on that road we seemed to go through a section that may have had a tree across it, but was already cleared. Then this road dead-ended into another. We couldn’t turn right because there was a crew there working on yet another downed tree, but there was a kind man directing traffic and we asked him about getting to 53 or the Marion-Melmore Road. He pointed us in the right direction, and when we followed his instructions, we found we were back on the road we had started on, but were past the train. Yay! That meant that I knew where we were in order to direct Jason as he was driving.

The rest of the trip proceeded without incident, if you don’t count the large amounts of lightening brightening the night sky. It was pretty awe-inspiring that the Lord could direct our paths and keep us safe in such adverse conditions.