25 April 2012 – DAY 5 – Fizzle, Fizzle, f’shizzle

ALL TIMES ARE LOCAL (MDT)

  • 0300 – night bathroom run! Gotta avoid caffeine with dinner.
  • 0400 – neighbors making noise So I can’t sleep! Transcribed yesterday’s paper chase log to this blog. Pure hell to enter WordPress entries via Safari!! (I discovered the WordPress app afterwards. This will be easier/saner going forward.)
  • 0900 – Laundry run
  • 1030 – return to hotel ; pack van
  • 1035 – weather briefing: we have a chance for storms that might produce small hail and some lightning in the plains of Eastern Colorado.
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  • 1130 – lunch at Kim Lin Chinese Buffet
  • 1230 – Depart La Junta, CO northbound
  • 1315 – stop 2 miles south of Arlington, CO to photograph an old storm shelter
  • 1327 – Arlington, CO – stop at rest area and photograph an outhouse. Yes, it’s a SLOW DAY!
  • 1341 – N on CO59(?); arrive at Eads, CO to watch the sky, data updates, and toss a Frisbee around.
  • 1530 – leave Eads on US287N, heading to an area where storm development has started.
    20120425-203840.jpg
  • 1607 – turn onto northbound CO59
  • 1625 – stop at I-70 for fuel, washroom visits and snacks; continue north to US36W
  • 1707 – pass Cope, CO
  • 1715 – turn north toward Otis,CO
  • 1740 – dinner at Mom’s Restaurant in Otis
  • 1830 – stop west of Otis. Our target storm has fizzled, having run out of moisture.
    20120425-203904.jpg
  • 1900 – return to Otis; after Bill gets us hotel rooms in Yuma, we head to US34E and on to Yuma. On the way, illustrates how super cells look on radar, using a radar image of a southeast moving storm entering Illinois from near Keokuk, IA
    20120425-204917.jpg
  • 1920 – arrive at the Nelson Inn in Yuma. Bill announces we meet at the van at 9 a.m. (MDT) due to a heavy travel day. Tomorrow appears to be our ‘big day’ for our excursion. Updated this blog
  • 2130 – lights out

24 April 2012 – DAY 4 – Convection without Conviction

[editor’s note: entering WordPress blog entries via iPhone is pure hell. It took almost 2 hours to write this entry!]

ALL TIMES BELOW ARE LOCAL (MDT)

I’ve reverted to using paper chase logs, transcribing them after the fact. My log for 24 April follows:

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  • 0700 – wake up
  • 0930 – update blog on hotel PC (netbook dead
  • 1030 – pack van; weather briefing
  • 1100 – depart Sands Hotel, Raton, NM
  • ____ – Kmart stop; bought hand pump and inflated Bill’s football. Had fun watching our Spanish and Portugese guests toss around “a demented American fútbol” [ed.- my words, not theirs]
  • 1130 – depart Raton on I-25N
  • ___ – enter Colorado via Raton Pass; gorgeous snow-capped Rockies rise to our west, but there is no safe place to pull over for a photo opp. Dang!
  • Leave I-25 at exit 13; eat lunch after an extended search for Lee’s Ribs (which appeared closed for some time). Subway, here we come!
  • 1323 – arrive at Model, CO; photograph the decaying cantina and supermercado. It makes me sad to see the skeleton of what was likely hub of activity, but Bill loves to photograph old buildings.20120425-070552.jpg
  • 1600 – we wander south and east, to Folsom, NM and tiny Walt’s Corner, in hopes we may see some daytime lightning. 20120425-070733.jpg

    The weather is being totally uncooperative . As we wait, we feed one of my apples to a horse behind the general store and toss a frisbee with our Spanish and Portugese guests. My impression: it’s a new experience for them.20120425-070717.jpg

  • 1704 – depart south on CO 389; re-enter NM a minute later, about 14 miles N of Folsom.
  • ____ – photo stop to look over weak storm to our SE<20120425-070749.jpg/li>
  • ____ – continue SE to Des Moines, N
  • ____ – double back to Colorado
  • 1841 – head east on US 160.
  • 1914 – angle north on CO 109 toward La Junta
  • 2030 – dinner at Boss Hogg’s BBQ. I had the BBQ combo plate. “Yummers!” Francisco had a plain hamburger (no lettuce, no tomato, no cheese. Alberto had the lasagna. Too bad neither embraced the “Midwest Barbeque Experience.”
  • 2134 – turn in for the evening at the Mid-town Motel. My fridge smells very stale, as if a dead animal had been stored there. Phew!

Travel: 270 miles

24 April 2012 – Fred Astaire without Shoes?

Yesterday morning, my netbook computer charged up (by outward appearances), but when I tried to use it, it would not power up.

Last night, it did not even light up when I attached the AC adapter. As it stands, I will be without my computer for the remaining 8 days of my chase trip. As a career computer professional, I find it very trying to be without a computer; as a storm chaser (who needs constant data updates), I feel like Fred Astaire trying to dance with no shoes!

I can use hotel lobby computers and my iPhone to update my blog (as I am doing right now). I can probably improvise a solution for getting my photos into those blog entries, but will be hard pressed to incorporate my forecasts and nowcasts into the blog ‘in the moment.’

23 April 2012 – DAY 3 – Playing Tourist

[All times are MOUNTAIN time (MDT) unless noted otherwise]


  • 0700 – wake; shower; dress; get breakfast; pack bags

  • 1030 – load van; briefing

  • 1100 – head west

  • 1154 – On the road to Taos (US 64 West), we stopped for some photos for 10 minutes. A ranger stopped to tell us we needed to pay $5 (even though it was obvious the 8 people with cameras and no tents were stopping for photos, not to set up camp. “Bureaucrat!” I though as he drove off. (To save further grief and aggravation, we drove off shortly thereafter. No $40 from us!)

  • 1213 – I took more photos of the landscape to our south. I see snow on the mountains and in scattered patches on the ground. Hopefully, we do not have any on the roads ahead.

  • 1229 – We stop for a few photos of a few mountain storms brewing. Typically these fizzle as they reach the flatlands (especially when the dew points are in the 40s there).

  • 1245 – continue to just east of Eagle’s Nest; photo opp for mountain lake with snow-capped Rockies as a backdrop. Breathtaking!

  • 1250 – At the Eagle’s Nest convenience store, we stop for washrooms, food, fuel

  • 1305 – continue to Taos; per GPS, our route crests at 9058 feet above sea level then descends into town.

  • 1412 – After a 15 minute stroll, we have lunch at Ricky’s (based on a recommendation by some friendly, local workmen). “It’s a keeper” $14 plus tip for a hearty New Mexican combination plate and an iced tea.

  • 1538 – depart east on US 64 until NM 505. We stop to observe several storms rolling off the Sangre de Cristo range (one NW, one S of us). Both are photogenic non-severe storms that fizzle as they reach the moisture-starved plain of NE NM.

  • 2100 – we check in to the Sands Motel (again); 5 minutes later several of us pile in the van for star gazing

  • 2127 – then 5 in our group take a stargazing side trip to 7 mi E of Yankee.

21 April 2012 – DAY 1 – Positioning Day (Arlington,TX-Lubbock,TX)

0700 – Check email; pack
0800 – Return rental car
1000 – Return to hotel via courtesy shuttle; breakfast
Saw Bill, Rob, and Martin talking business
1100 – Introduction and greetings. I soon acquire two new
jobs: MiFi diagnostic technician and [informal]
translater for our guests from Portugal and Spain.
I am reminded of my small Spanish vocabulary. Still,
we become fast friends and manage to communicate.
1200 – We depart for the Texas Panhandle, to position our
group for slim chance to see storms tomorrow.
1600 – stop at Albany, TX; we watch the last30 minutes of a local classic car competition
1630-1700 – we stroll around town and photos of its 1883 courthouse and other local attractions.
1730 – we stop at the Beehive Saloon for root beers and a dinner of standard Texas fare.
???? – we head west toward Lubbock.
???? – We stop to photograph the first of many wonderful
western sunsets
???? – We arrive at the Days Inn, Lubbock, TX

Travel: 331 miles

TRAVEL – 20 April 2012

  • 0300 – Rise and shine
  • 0330 – Off to the airport, thanks to help from my friend and neighbor, Stuart.
  • 0400 – Change my 9pm flight to a 7 am flight. Now I’ll have time to explore Arlington, Dallas, and the rest of the civilized world of Texas.
  • 0700 – Flight delayed 30 minutes, due to weather (How ironic!)
  • 1000 – Arrive in Dallas. Grab my bags, get a rental car, go to the hotel.
  • 1200 – Lunch at Mariano’s, home of the first frozen margarita machine. Its owner Mariano Martinez has been honored by the Smithsonian Museum for his invention, an adaptation of a common Slurpee machine into the mainstay margarita factory of restaurants across the nation.  Mariano is credited with doing more to sell tequila-based drinks than anyone else on the planet.
  • 1430 – Check in. Take a nap
  • 1800– Wake up.  I apparently have been battling acid reflux (a by-product of pigging out at Mariano’s).  I feel like my meal returned to visit the back of my throat for several hours as I napped.  No wonder all those painting of guys taking a siesta show them leaning against a building versus laying down. Oy! Lesson learned!Also, it looks like the others have not arrived yet (or are not interested in getting together for dinner).  Such is life!
  • 2145 – After venturing out to Fry’s Electronics and a visit to the Sonic drive-in  (for a banana milk shake to soothe the savage stomach). I’m turning in for the night.  I’m not very optimistic about our chances for sever weather for the next view days.  I wonder how we’ll pass the time.