Survival Of The Fittest. A Tale Of Driving In The Amarillo Wind

I've been in some windy places, but never as windy as when I moved here to Amarillo. When we first got here, I thought to myself there's no way it's always this windy. I was wrong. That's ok.

Since then, I've learned how to deal with and handle the wind. I've also learned Amarillo is the TRUE windy city. Ok, no problem. I'll adapt and learn how to constantly drive with the wind blowing me around the road.

Yesterday was different though. My oldest son has his baseball games canceled early in the morning because of the wind expected later in the day. I thought to myself, really? Canceling because of wind? It's ALWAYS windy out here, go play some ball.

I pick up the kids from school, break the news to my oldest, and head home. It was probably for the best for him because he had a TON of homework he needed to complete. However, my youngest son wanted to head over to D-BAT to get some hitting work in.

So we get home, he grabs his bat, and off we go.

We live about 15 minutes or so from D-BAT, but it took a good 25 minutes to get there yesterday. The wind was unlike anything I'd ever dealt with in my life. I knew it was blowing, but I had the hardest time keeping the car in its lane. It felt like the wind was just pushing it sideways and there was nothing I could do about it.

Just as we get past the Hollywood Rd. exit on I-27, there was this cloud of dust. I thought to myself as I get inside that dust, I'll be able to see.

I was dead wrong.

I slowed down to about 15-20 mph just to make sure there wasn't anyone in front of me. I literally couldn't even see the hood of the car, that's how thick it was. Thankfully, we got through the cloud of dust, but not without some seriously tense moments. I've driven in blizzards before, and never had visibility THAT bad.

The moral of the story here is don't EVER take the Amarillo wind for granted. If youth baseball games and high school sports are being canceled for the day, it's probably a pretty good indication you should stay home and, pardon the pun, let it blow over.