Unlike years past, this year I am doing a lot of last-minute preparation’s. Typically my bags are fully packed I need the van a full week in advance. This year, I am running up to the wire, completing only two days before the trip. Letting my preparation run right up to the last minute reminds me of some thing I’ve known a long time: there’s good adrenaline and bad adrenaline. Now that everything is ready for the trip, the bad adrenaline is draining out of my system little by little. It is fading as my level of distress (that’s negative stress) falls. Hopefully the reward on this trip is lots of good adrenaline (eustress, the good kind).

In it average year, two days before the trip I am mowing the lawn. This is partially to avoid getting a citation from the local code enforcement people and partially to get the grass cut at the last possible moment.  Like most people, I also don’t like the idea of pissing off my neighbors by having overly long grass. The newest neighbors to move in our a little bit fussy about such things, and I try to be sensitive to their needs.

The very last moment before the trip are occupied with things like unplugging the kitchen appliances and several odds and ends around the bathroom. The last thing I need is to accidentally leave some thing on and hear from my neighbors that my house burned down while I was away. Also, as a volunteer with a local fire department it would be especially embarrassing to have the house burn down.  It seems that every year there is one of those “my, how ironic“ stories about a fire chief making some terrible mistake and returning home to find his house burned to the ground

One of my favorite things during the last few days before a vacation is that stretch of days where I don’t want to make any trash. Who wants to come back from vacation with the house stinking from two week old trash, right? During this stretch I tend to eat meals that are more like my “road meals“ and do my best to avoid any kind of leftovers.

I try to do this once the chase is underway, too. I am certain I have probably left 100 pounds of food in the motel refrigerator in one town or another over the last 20 years.  I only hope that the hotel maids enjoy the food and (on rare occasion) a few beers that I may have left in the fridge.

In any case, the part a vacation that seems to start first is vacation meals. And I really like it!

QUICK UPDATE:

Traveling a bit further south, we caught another tornado near Big Springs, TX:

This entry will be expanded to include details of the day, chase strategy, and maps when the weather slows down.

16 May 2021: INTERIM UPDATE:

07:00: wakeup call
08:00: breakfast
10:00: briefing:

Shear: xxxx
Lift: xxxx
Instability: xxxx
Moisture: xxxx

xx:xx: Pass Happy, TX (Saw an F3 tornado here on May 5, 2002
xx:xx: East of Tulia, TX – Stop to discuss storm options
18:24: Olton, TX – model stop
19:34- Sudan, TX – funnel cloud in progress; tornado develops 2 minutes later. Tornado stays on the ground 6 minutes.

After a moderately long drive from the Guymon, OK, we caught this photogenic tornado a few miles from Sudan, TX:

TEACHING POINT:

A more complete update (with details of the forecast, chase strategy, and maps) will be posted later.

MAPS of the day’s route:

Start – Oklahoma City,OK
End – Del Rio, TX
Distance– 669 miles (664mi captured on GPS track)
DRAFT – map and more photos to be added soon

07:00 – Wake up call; packed my gear; morning chores

07:30: Light breakfast with a couple of my fellow travelers

08:15: Pack my gear in the #2 Tempest van

08:30: Morning briefing : We are heading to South Texas, as it is the only area with a slight risk of storms.

09:00: Depart Oklahoma City on I 44, possibly the bumpiest the interstate in the country

10:41- Enter Texas, crossing the Red River. It is obviously a drought year as much of the riverbed is visible.

11:01 – Depart Wichita Falls on US277S.

13:01: Around Anson, TX, follow US 83, Passing by Abilene and many smaller town.

15:59: Anvil Time! South of Junction, TX (and I-10), we choose our first storm for the day. We are in rugged territory south of interstate 10. The road network here is very sparse, so we have to choose carefully. The cost of a mistake is missing a storm and ending up several hours travel from the next one.

1850: Decision Point! First storm fizzles, so choose our second storm of the day. Daylight is running out, but there is still atmospheric energy to fuel a good storm.

20:40: We briefly see a conical lowering that could be a funnel. Our storm gets tornado warning, probably for this feature which might be interpreted as a developing Tornado.

21:10: We arrive at the La Quinta motel in Del Rio, TX. We grab our gear and pack it in for the night