I'll take the rain instead, thanks.

This morning just as I finished touring Bandalier National Park, a heavy rain storm started just as I was walking to my car.

My Honda Fit is a cute little hatchback and I'm able to pop the hatch up and stand underneath it in order to use it as a temporary shelter. So this morning I did just that, pulling food from the coolers in back so I could have a sandwich, chips and a soda. It was nice to just stop, relax, eat lunch and not be bothered by the rain. When I was done, I got in my car and drove the 30 minutes or so into Los Alamos to visit the Bradbury Science Museum.

Once I got into Los Alamos I noticed white stuff that looked like snow on the grass in someone's front lawn. I pulled over to discover it was hail. really big, dangerous hail.

Turns out the storm that had just come through Bandalier thirty minutes earler had hit Los Alamos. My location in Bandalier was down in a deep canyon and Los Alamos is sitting high on top of a mesa. That difference and the fact that I didn't get to Los Alamos when I was schedule to today saved my little car some serious damage.

I talked to one resident nearby who said the insurance office was filling up with people who, like her, had smashed windshields and dented hoods from the surprise summer hailstorm. When I took a look at her neighbour's car sitting in the driveway: more damage. When I finally got to the Bradbury Science museum I took a close look at the big Ford pickup sitting next to me. It's hood was covered in dents.. all over the hood, nothing but dents.

I count my blessing on this trip: haven't been hurt, the car hasn't been in an accident, nothing's been stolen, etc. I didn't expect to add "avoided hail storm" to them.