I was in Edmonton, hanging out with Vanessa the night before I had to leave. My car was covered in bug guts (from driving across 4 provinces) and I was running low on gas so I figured I would go fill up and get a car wash before I picked up my mom in the morning. It had been a gorgeous day all day, but it was starting to get cloudy and we could tell that the rain was coming. So we leave around 9:30 to go find a car wash and end up about 10 minutes from her house at an Esso. I fill up my car and go inside to pay. The guy directs me over to the car wash which was about 150 metres away from the gas station.
So we drive over there I put in my code and drive in. Don't you love how I'm giving you ALL the details? So anyways, we drive in and the garage door closes behind us. Now, most car washes the front door is always open. This one was closed. Vanessa and I are feeling a little claustrophobic but no big deal, right! Then the lights inside go off and the car starts getting soaped up. Minorly sketched out, we turned on the inside lights and wait. Then, suddenly, the water turns off and the whole city goes dark - great, a power outage! We look out the window to the right and holy snap, the trees are bending sideways. Nonstop thunder and lightning (no lie) and what looks like a big, black funnel cloud getting closer and closer to us. And the door won't open. So here we are, during a crazy electrical storm with what may or may not be a tornado headed straight for us, in a little metal shack full of water. Lovely.
We try to lift the gate up, but it's not moving at all. We're starting to panic at this point. Then the north sky lights up - we start freaking out even more, as we were only a few kilometres away from the majority of Edmonton's oil refineries. We found out later that Edmonton's largest oil refinery, about 2 km away had actually caught fire. Anyways, so back to my story. Here we are in this car wash, getting more and more scared by the minute. The storm is getting closer and closer - the trees outside are going absolutely nuts.
Then, a truck pulls up to the window and shines his lights in. We start waving for help, but it drives away! Oh crap. Vanessa tries to lift the gate again, but it barely budges. Then, all of a sudden, 3 pairs of hands lift the gate up. 3 teenagers wearing skater shoes hold up the gate. They are silent and I ask them if they can hold up the gate long and high enough for me to get my car out. "Go quick" one of them says, and that is all. We get back in the car and hightail it out of there, calling "thank you!!" out of the window to our sixteen year old angels. We book it back to Vanessa's parents house with the storm at our back . The road that had been clear 15 minutes before was littered with trees and debris. All of the power is out.
Then we go back to Vanessa's house and have a little freak out and wake up her parents and let them know that we almost died. Then we went outside and took pictures and videos of the lightning. Then it started hailing big mothers and we went and watched Fracture.
Here's a picture of the lightning. I'll see if I can put the video up later.
1 comment:
Sounds like you guys are having even more freaky weather conditions than we are here...and that says something. I've noticed - reading your posts - that you are settling back into your native Canadian slang. I might need help with translation soon!
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