Yahoo!  Time for another get away to Debbie’s house. I love my life in Milwaukee but really look forward to the occasional break to visit my bestie at her Mauston area home in the Wisconsin driftless countryside.  Hiking, kayaking, and swimming were all on the agenda.  But when I arrived in the early afternoon, a gentle rain was coming down.  We played some scrabble, another cornerstone of our quarterly visits, but we grew restless after a few games.  So we decided it would be the perfect time to go to Wollersheim Winery.  Brilliant!  You don’t need good weather to go to a winery and it was another one of our planned activities.  So we hopped in Debbie’s mini van and off we went.  

Wollersheim is about a 40 minute drive from Debbie’s.  We were having a lovely time catching up—bragging about our talented grand kids, commiserating about the aches and pains of our aging bodies and venting about the foibles of the husband’s we love. The further we got from her house the harder the rain came down.  A little rain is no big deal right?  But soon the sky grew dark and the rain was coming down in torrential sheets.  Thunder boomed and blinding lightening bolts were firing all around us.  With the windshield wipers unable to keep up with the rain that now turned into hail, Debbie slowed the mini van to 15 miles per hour.  Ten minutes away from Wollersheim and sirens were blaring.  My cell phone was screaming “TORNADO WARNING!  SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY!  Cars were pulled over on the road.  We were scared, very scared, hands shaking voices quaking scared.  What should we do? We wondered if we should pull over and find shelter but there was no safe harbor in sight so we kept going.  Slowly.  5 miles per hour.  The road was barely visible.  

We made it.  Debbie drove right past the guest lot at the bottom of the hill and parked in the bottle pick up spot as close to the entrance as possible.  We flung open the van doors and made a mad dash.  The. doors were locked!  A sign directed us to another door and we scurried in.  Since we didn’t know what else to do we ducked into a restroom just inside the door and made a lame attempt to dry ourselves off with paper towel.  We stood there for just a minute or two in trembling confusion when a staff member who said he saw us drive in came to get us.  He lead us to the basement wine cellar.   With a sigh of relief we joined 10 or so other friendly sheltering customers drinking free wine and sharing snacks  Perfect! 

In about 30 minutes, we got the all clear. Turns out this tornado was no joke.  It did touch down less than 5 minutes away. Debbie and I were in awe of the calm composure of the staff who quickly resumed business as usual and vowed to be loyal Wollersheim customers forever. We gleefully enjoyed a wine tasting and a delicious lunch in the bistro to celebrate our survival.  We toasted to this day that we would never ever forget, grateful that we weathered the storm. (7/16/2025)]