You probably remember the scene from the movie, “Twister.” As the tornado comes roaring down the freeway, people run from their cars, clamber up the embankment and take shelter under the overpass. But that is Hollywood! What are you supposed to do  ‘in real life’ when you find yourself in an area of severe weather with dozens of red tornado cells showing up on the weather forecast of your iPad screen, and you have nowhere to get off the highway? Such is our dilemma as we navigate our way from  Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia to Nashville, Tennessee. Our intention is to stop and visit the Great Smoky Mountain National Park as well as other places such as Davy Crockett’s birthplace or some of the Civil War sites.

We run into severe weather shortly after crossing from Virginia into Tennessee. The torrential rain pounds down so hard that we barely see the front of the car, let alone the magnificent scenery outside. Instead, we visit the Weather Channel trying to figure out how far away the severe storm cells are. There are other hazards on the road — people driving at 70 mph who have no idea what to do when their car starts to plane across the water. There are dozens who end up in the ditch. Fortunately, none of them appear to be very serious but they make a mess of the traffic anyway. With nothing to see and nowhere to stop, we decide to press on to Nashville where we hope the weather is improving and where the music is waiting.

Reading the signs on the road is like driving through a lifetime of music, “Tennessee Roads,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “Cumberland Gap,” not to forget songs referring to the Blue Ridge Mountains, country roads and the civil war. Remembering the songs keeps us occupied for a few minutes. Then, as lightning crashes around us, it is back to wondering what we would do if a tornado suddenly appeared before us. In the end, we consult the internet and learn that the worst place to be in a tornado is in your car (!!), and that the last thing you should do is to try to outrun it. We also learn that you might not see a funnel cloud to signal the approach of a tornado — other weather signs are large hail, a roaring sound like a freight train and large, low-lying clouds.

If a tornado is approaching, you are supposed to get out of your car, run to the side of the road and lie down flat in a depression, gully or ditch, and put your arms over your head. Charming thought! A mud bath! We decide that, since there is a police car not far ahead of us as well as several large trucks if we suddenly see the drivers pull to the side of the road and run off, we would do the same.

A tornado does, in fact, touch down 30 miles south of I-40 where we are driving. And a forest fire started by the intense lightening burns a large area just outside Great Smoky Mountain National park near Pigeon Forest! The skyline of Nashville, where the music and honky-tonk bars are waiting, never looked so good.

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