A Drive in a Windstorm

As I promised yesterday, I thought I would tell you a story of my drive in a wind storm to pick up the delegation last week. At the time it wasn't all that funny, but looking back there were several things I find pretty amusing. 

Last Saturday morning the wind started picking up.  I left Taraz at about 2pm to make the 2 1/2 hour drive to Shymkent to pick up our coaches.  The wind was howling and as I drove out of town I had to detour around a downed power line (only one minute after my departure).  I left town, passing several gas stations - since the one I prefer is about 10 miles out of town.  Along the road, I saw roofs that had been blown off houses, trees in the middle of the road, and other signs of the heavy wind that I was about to drive through. 

When I got to my favorite gas station, they had no electricity.  I was down to about 1/2 a tank, so although I was not excessively worried, I was a bit concerned.  Thankfully, the next gas station had electricity.  I got out of the car (having to use some force to pry my door open) and was thankful for my windbreaker as I waited for my turn to pay.  Then I went around my car and started pumping my gas.  I took shelter behind my car, thankful that it was a really big SUV.  The entire gas pump was rattling and shaking - which made me a bit nervous as it seemed like it might just blow away and the idea of gas spurting out of the ground and being caught with the wind was not that comforting. 

As I was standing behind my car (once again - my car is a BIG SUV) it started shaking in the wind.  Although it probably wasn't the most logical thing to do, I decided to walk around my car and get in to wait until my gas finished pumping.  As I passed the edge of my car, the wind hit me like a wall and I had to strain to get to my car door.  Then, I had the fun of trying to open the door and wedge my body in before it was slammed shut by the wind.  I got enough of me in to keep the door open while the rest of me had time to squeeze in.  After the effort of getting into the car, it wasn't long before I had filled my tank and it was time to get back out and venture towards the pump.  Opening the door was a bit easier, since my entire body weight was behind it.  I made my way to the back of the car much to the amusement of the men waiting in the car behind me.  I had to laugh as I then proceeded to return from the pump and wedge myself back into the car. 

After that adventure, I figured I was up for anything.  I was driving along enjoying my music when the dust started blowing so hard that my visibility was cut down to something like 30 feet in front of me.  Thankfully, this only lasted for about 2 minutes, although fairly low visibility lasted for about 30 minutes.  It was like driving in fog.   

Later, as I was driving along I saw a glass beer bottle bouncing down the road about one foot off the ground.   I don't think I have ever seen anything that heavy fly like that. 

The funniest thing was that through all of the wind, every cow, horse, or donkey that I saw seemed completely unaffected by the storm.  I saw cows slowly chewing their cud right next to a tree that had blown into the median.  I could almost picture them saying "what's the big deal, it's lunch time."