Visiting with a Friend - Tornado Alley

(Edwardsville, IL) Hi 83 Lo 62 -- We had a couple storms come through last night that woke me up but Jim slept right through them. The one that got us both up was at 8 this morning, with one long loud thunder clap. So we got up and started our day.

We had a lunch date with Steve, Jim's close friend who he worked with back when we lived in this area. We try to see him every year when we come to town. He travels overseas a lot in his job, but luckily he has been home every year we're here. Frank gets off work at 11am so he joined us at Tucker's Place, a small restaurant in south St. Louis. We had some good food, good laughs, and as always we tried to fix the world's problems.

After our leisurely two-hour lunch we said our goodbyes to Steve for another year and headed about a mile away to Soulard Market, a farmer's market that's a St. Louis landmark. However, it wasn't open. We later found out it's open weekends only this time of the year, so we headed home.

Severe storms are expected to come through tonight, with more expected all day tomorrow. We saw on the news that a terrible tornado hit Moore, OK and devastated the town. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the residents of that town as they cope with property damage and shattered lives. This is the second major tornado they've had, with the last one in 1999.

I've been wanting to see the movie "The Notebook" for some time, so Jim recorded it and we're watching that tonight. Then Jim will watch the Cardinals game from the west coast. It may be a long night, but we'll ride out the storms if we get them and hope for the best.