Tonight...the plan was to go to the Clinton City Park, for their "Clinton Days". The park is open until 11:00pm, full of carnival rides, vendors (craft and food), and entertainment. As we got there, Patrick commented it was windy, so we better go to the rides first, as they might get shut down soon. We decided to not pull out the stroller, and to just let Harvick and Jarrett walk with us. In the few minutes between unloading the boys, and walking toward the park, the wind started to pick up. We were just a few feet away from the inflatable slides (you know, those giant ones - probably 20 feet tall, and 15 feet wide) and rock wall tower (20+ feet tall), when it was obvious the slide was getting picked up by the wind. Patrick had Harvick, I had Jarrett, and Ryder was holding my hand walking. I literally picked up Ryder by the hand, and Patrick and I ran forward - as the slide was picked up into the air, flipped, and quickly rolling in the wind, it brushed/hit against my elbow/arm. Ryder says it hurt his knee - we're not totally sure if it hit him, or just scared him.
The rock wall tower fell over (and into the windshield of the person who owned the tower and inflatables). The slide was picked up by the wind, and carried several hundred feet (we didn't actually see it stop) - rolling over cars, and knocking over Port-a-Potties. The canopies of the vendors were getting ripped off from the tent bases, and the main (huge!) canopy with several dozen picnic tables underneath was having to be held down. Police and ambulance arrived within minutes.
Really, it was scary for a couple of minutes. We stayed (at my insistence) for just a few minutes to see if the wind was a freak storm - when it was evident it wasn't going to improve soon, and that the majority of the vendors would have to shut down for the evening, we packed the boys back up in the car, and headed to Costco (might as well be productive, since we were already out of the house!).
I looked all over online tonight, and don't seem to be able to find it in the news - they mention "high winds" on the forcast, but nothing specific to Clinton. A few posts on FB seem to indicate no one was hurt.
Ryder; however, was upset all evening about it - telling us repeatedly "slide fell bown (down), OH! NO!". Not sure if we will be able to convince him to try out one of the inflatables anytime soon...
In contrast, our time at Costco was great. As we were walking out, we stopped at the Food Court for a rare Costco treat...churros! The boys LOVED them!!
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| (Harvick on the left, Jarrett on the right) |
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| (Ryder) |
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