Tornado country

As we approached the Indiana border a man in the parking lot of a diner stopped us. He invited us in for a cup of coffee. His name was Tom McKinney. Tom had served as a Marine infantry officer in Viet Nam. We talked for quite a while. The horses needed the rest and so did we. I was greatly impressed by this quiet warrior. After leaving the service Tom became a Bible teacher, evangelist, missionary and author. We spoke of the hardships of the trip and the hoping to have the resolve to finish it. Tom encouraged us to trust in the Lord. I told him that that was at times all that kept me going in the bleak parts of the trip. Tom gave us each a Bible and a copy of a book he had written called "Live Free." He autographed the book with the inscription, to Ron a man with something special in his heart, who devotes his live to the freedom of forgotten men. I thanked him for the kind words. As I thumbed through the Bible he had given me, I found a hundred dollar bill he had placed there. Barry's Bible also had one. He asked for my home address, for over twenty years now I have received his monthly newsletter. He was a man I was very proud to meet. He lived the principles of God and Country.We rode into the center of a small village the sky had been turning dark. Suddenly an air raid siren started to sound and people started running in all directions. I looked at Barry and said I wonder what's going on. Barry didn't know either. A pick up truck came to a quick stop next to us, the man rolled down his window, pointed his arm towards the sky and yell, "tornado". Oh shit, I thought to myself. What do we do now? Coming from a part of the country where I had never seen a tornado, plenty of hurricanes, but no tornadoes, I wasn't sure what to do. The winds started to pick up and soon the streets were deserted accept for two guys on horses who didn't know which way to go. What do we do with the horses? The winds were now like a strong hurricane and if the tornado past close by us we were dead. We tied the horses to a strong tree and run inside a gas station. Thoughts of my horse flying through the air kept entering my mind. Would nature put a stop to our ride, where the bureaucrats had failed to? In twenty minutes the wind was dying down. We went out to the horses expecting to see only the reins still tied to the tree. the horses were still there, shaken but the noise of the wind, but still there. The tornado had moved off in a different direction. We calmed the horses and walked them for awhile. We had been through scorching heat, heavy rain storms, lighting and now this. Nature was the one force that we could do nothing about. We were out there exposed to whatever nature threw at us and had to learn to deal with it. The sun came back out soon and we rode on. Cars were back on the roads and waving as they passed us. I stop to buy some envelops and stamps. It had been a while since I had a chance to write to my eight year old daughter. I sent her the keys to the cities that I was presented with. With no TV or radio, those long nights under the stars gave me a lot of time to think about her and home.