My sister frowned at the sky and then turned to me, "Ummm, doesn't a red moon mean something bad?"
"I thought that was something to do with sailing and a red moon in the morning. Dunno if it means anything at night. 'Sides, there's not a cloud in the sky. It's a beautiful night."
A few hours later we were in the tent, nearly alone and definitely out of sight of any other campers out on the Montana prairie and the wind started blowing. Hard. Then there was some lightning in the distance, thunder and a bit of rain. The wind picked up, the lightning increased. I laid (lied? I hate English.) awake, suddenly concerned about tornadoes. I mean, this is the prairie. As soon as I mentioned it to the Youngest Sis we immediately set about trying to find a cell signal so as to get the weather report from those internet connected individuals at home (our parents). Dad responded with a "get in the car!" We were there. Ten minutes later Mom gives us the weather report for some area 200 miles away. Yes, it's in Montana, but no, the weather isn't nearly the same everywhere in that giant state!
The wind started to really get alarming and I remembered I'd left the poor needy dog in the tent. While YS (Youngest Sis) stood on the passenger seat with her cell phone above the roof to try and pick up a signal, I opened the tent for Harper who came shooting out in a tired and confused panic. He joined us in the car, completely bewildered after five days of traveling away from his normal family, house and car. What insane creatures he must have thought us. Word came back from Mom that there were indeed no tornado watches or warnings in our area, just scattered thunderstorms. We waited for confirmation before heading back to the tent.
After gathering up some things we didn't want to get soaked and throwing them in the car, I climbed back into bed. Harper stumbled around and tried to crawl in my sleeping bag before collapsing in a huff on his own pad. YS, still not entirely convinced that there wasn't going to be a tornado later on, attempted to tie her cell phone to the inner roof of the tent, in the hopes that if something did come along and Mom heard about it and texted we might get a signal.
"Just tie a slipknot," I suggested after she had spent five minutes fiddling with the thing. The it fell and clonked Harper on the head. He just sighed.
"What the fuck is a slipknot?" she hissed at me. "I don't have time for all your fancy knots it's the middle of the night!"
So that's how we spent the rest of the night. The wind howled and battered the tent, with YS's cellphone swinging wildly from the roof and Harper sitting up every half hour having been awoken by the tent flapping. Just know that a red moon in the evening may not mean tornadoes, and in fact may not mean anything at all, but it doesn't rule out crappy weather either.
