1000 – Errands
_____ — Home Depot: a long quest for a SEEK infrared camera for Phil (they aren’t sole yet in the UK)
_____ — WalMart: searched in vain for a Bruce Springsteen album for Kathy. Fellow traveler Eric Meola photographed the cover art for the “Born to Run” album. The WalMart music section was so disorganized that five of us could not find a single Springsteen album. Bad WalMart, naught WalMart!
_____ – Continued on to Penn Square Mall to visit the Apple store (and search for another music store). Phil spent a bit of time looking or the new Apple Watch. We discussed lunch at Whiskey Cafe, but the wait was almost two hours (as this is Mother’s Day).
_____ — Venture northwest (on Northwest Expressway) to F.Y.E., a real music store. Plenty of Springsteen, but we cannot find “Born to Run”. *SIGH*
_____ — we head south to Reno and MacArthur, ending up at Lin’s Restaurant for all-you-can-eat steak, sushi, and Chinese food. Stuffed, we return to the hotel, to allow safe storage of our purchases. We take a short break to allow all to regroup.
13:30 — We head up to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (just off the Kelley exit from I-44). Many great exhibits, a lot of walking, and a visit to the souvenir shop.
16:45 — We hed back to the hotel, then regroup later for dinner.
19:00– Walk to dinner at Frosty Mug (a bar and grill a few doors down from the hotel). We aree later joined by David Balfour, who arrived s bit earlier in the afternoon. The British/Aussie/Kiwi contingent is complete!
22:30 — Wrap up the day by frafting the day’s blog entry.
Here is the overall plan for my 2014 storm season (which I’ll update as events warrant):
CHASE 2014
DAILY JOURNAL
DATEDAYSTARTENDMILESREMARKSSEMINARS/CLASSROOM TRAINING: 14 FebruaryFridayBolingbrookILDenverCO-ChaserCon 2014 – day 1 (convention) http://www.chasercon.com/15 FebruarySaturdayDenverCO—ChaserCon 2014 – day 2 (convention) http://www.chasercon.com/16 FebruarySundayDenverCOBolingbrookIL-ChaserCon 2014 – day 3 (convention) http://www.chasercon.com/11 MarchTuesdayBolingbrookILNapervilleIL-Naperville EMA
Radar class (#1 of 3)
Weather Command Class I http://www.napervilleema.org12 MarchWednesdayBolingbrookILNapervilleIL-NEMA Spotter Training (mandatory) http://www.napervilleema.org15 MarchSaturdayBolingbrookILWheatonIL-DuPage OHSEM Advanced
Spotter Training (seminar) http://www.dupagesevereweather.com26 MarchWednesdayBolingbrookILNapervilleIL-Naperville EMA
Radar class (#2 of 3)
Weather Command Class II http://www.napervilleema.org09 AprilWednesdayBolingbrookILNapervilleIL-Naperville EMA
Radar class (#3 of 3)
Weather Command Class III http://www.napervilleema.orgTBAPOSTPONEDBolingbrookILNapervilleIL-Blood-borne Pathogens (mandatory) http://www.napervilleema.orgSOUTHERN/GREAT PLAINS CHASES: mid-May: 4060 miles / 11 days 09 MaySaturdayBolingbrookIL––Prologue10 MaySaturdayBolingbrookILOklahoma CityOK–TRAVEL11 MaySundayOklahoma CityOK—PLAYING TOURIST12 MayMondayOklahoma CityOK______DAY 1: ORIENTATION; DEPART BASE13 MayTuesday_________DAY 2: _14 MayWednesday_________DAY 3: _15 MayThursday_________DAY 4: _16 MayFriday_________DAY 5: _17 MaySaturday_________DAY 6: _18 MaySunday_________DAY 7: _19 MayMonday_________DAY 8: _20 MayTuesday_________DAY 9: _21 MayWednesday_________DAY 10: _22 MayThursday_________DAY 11: RETURN TO BASE23 MayFridayOklahoma CityOKBolingbrookIL___Homeward bound24 MaySaturdayBolingbrookIL EpilogueIL/IA CHASES/SPOTTING: Chaser/spotter fun within 300 miles of home (TBA)(TBA)BolingbrookIL(TBA)– VIRTUAL CHASES/SPOTTING: Like chasing without leaving home (or the office) (TBA)(TBA)BolingbrookIL(TBA)–
0730 – Wake up; shower; pack, but leave everything in the room since it’s a little ways to the breakfast room and the vans are closer to my room in the front of the motel.
0830 – Ate in the breakfast room. My waffle stuck to the waffle machine, and I was barely able to get it out before started burning. It was so funky looking I decided to do something totally off the wall and put white gravy on it instead of throwing it out and getting a biscuit. All things considered it was pretty tasty, but I certainly got some strange looks.
0930 – Meet at the vans; load up; we do a short weather briefing, and discuss what things look like for Saturday and Sunday, which look like our first days with a reasonable prospect for severe weather on the high plains. Patience!
1000 – Depart Cheyenne on westbound I-80, for Laramie, after breakfast.
1040-1100 – stop at the Ames Monument, a tribute to a pair of brothers who made major contributions during the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.
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____ – continue to Laramie for lunch at Lovejoy’s: spicy buffalo burger! We do a bit of shopping afterwards. I’m running low on laundry, so I buy a T-shirt to hold me over until I do laundry tomorrow morning.
____ – head south towards Walden, CO; beautiful snow-capped mountains rise to our west, south, (later) east
____ – Enter Medicine Bow National Forest (elevation:____)
____ – we rise to 9150 feet in elevation, allowing smaller vehicles to pass us.
____ – As we descend, we hunt for a turnout with a scenic view. The drivers, Bob and Rook, get plenty of practice downshifting.
1450-1501 – Scenic overlook #1 (photos in gallery, below)
1513-1526 – Scenic overlook #2 (photos in gallery, below)
[Gallery will be inserted here a bit later… laptop battery DYING]
1600 – We enter Walden from the north; check-in at the motel.
1640 – I chat briefly with the motel manager, whose daughter is fascinated with both storm chasing and Antarctica. I offer to chat with her if she is interested. I wander over to the town bank to buy a couple of roll of quarters, as it has reached the point of the trip or I will need to do laundry pretty quickly. The T-shirt that I bought in Laramie will buy me an extra 24 hours, but no more.
1658 – I get my quarters for laundry, with two minutes to spare before the bank closes for the weekend. I wander around the main strip of town just looking to see what is there and taking pictures of some interesting stuff I encounter along the way. I wander up to what looks like a good place for dinner, the River Rock Café. Looks like they have a terrific menu and I bump into Bob one of our drivers there, who agrees this is a good choice for dinner.
1800 – The gang gathers close to my room to wander up the main street for dinner. It looks like Eric is sitting this one out. I hope he is feeling okay.
I order the Volcano Burger, opting for the 1-pound size, because I’m a little bit hungry. There is a 3-pound size available called “the challenge”, but I don’t feel up to eating that and the waiter warns that the burger is extremely spicy, made with jalapeños and habanero sauce. I later discovered that the burger is hotter with every bite, and barely finished 1 pound burger, guzzling several quarts of water along the way to cool my taste buds. I reward myself with a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the end of it all, partly as a self–congratulations and partly to cool the heat of the habaneros that have saturated my taste buds when this time.
On my way out the door, I get a farewell hug from River Rock Café’s mascot, Fred the Bear.
EOD – North Park Inn & Suites
TRAVEL SUMMARY
Start
Cheyenne, WY
Finish
Walden, CO
Route
I-80W, through Medicine Bow National Forest, to Walden (CO 14)
0600MDT/0700CDT – wake; shower; pack bags. Can’t find my neck pod (Sima VideoProp) – later found in my duffle bag.
0850MDT – Pack the vans. test the Diet Coke and Menthos myth: VERIFIED!
[I’ll add video later]
0910 – Weather briefing. Another down day today.
0920 – Depart Imperial, NE westbound on US 6.
1000- enter Colorado, heading to Holyoke, CO for breakfast
1040-1140(est.) – breakfast at Kardale’s, Holyoke, CO. Kardale’s Haystack Breakfast: Hash Brown Heaven!
1222 – I turn on the GPS Tracks app. (Oops!)
1250-1400 – We stop at Sterling, CO to look for a replacement 400-watt inverter. Without this key piece of equipment, we have no laptop power and no radar images or weather models. After the team lead and one of the drivers check out several local stores, they find the needed item at the NAPA Auto Parts store. Eric and I visit the Verizon store, in the meantime, to locate a phone battery for his iPhone.
1431 – Entering Raymer, CO, traveling west on CO 14, then angle northwest on County Road 390 toward Wyoming.
1446 – We wander off the main route to Keota, where it looks like they’re doing oil exploration or fracking.
1533 – We continue north from Keota, CO.
1556 – We pass through Hereford, CO
1600 – We cross into Wyoming, our sixth state on the journey; the road is now WY 217
1620-1640 – Burns, WY, I-80, WY217 exit – Fuel/snack stop; we enter I-80, heading west to Cheyenne.
1700 – Arrive at Rodeway Inn, Cheyenne, CO. The desk clerk is overwhlemed, so we leave the details of our party and go get dinner, so the poor man can catch up with check-ins, preparing our rooms, etc. (This happens more often thatn you might think with smaller, older motels.)
1720-1930 – We take a liesurely meal at a local Chili’s, near the Wyoming Air Group airfield. Many C-130 cargo planes here! A brief weather update (video) follows:
EOD – _____
TRAVEL SUMMARY
Start
Imperial, NE
Finish
Cheyenne, WY
Route
US6 to Holyoke, CO,CR 390 to Keota then north to Grover and Hereford,I-80
0800 – Breakfast and conversation with chase team. I overcooked my Carbon brand motel waffle because I did not hear the timer ding after the mandatory 2:30 cook cycle. Crunchy waffles are OK, too, once in a great while (LOL).
0830 – Return to my room; brush teeth, re-pack my bags, and work on my blog for a while.
1000 – Weather briefing (breakfast room)
1100 – Depart Hoisington to the west
1430-1450 – Photo stop at abandoned farmstead
1458-1525 – Stop at Monument Rocks. Bill chills outs to David Bowie’s “Panic in Detroit”
1553-1653 – Lunch at Colonial Steak House, Oakley, KS. Ate at the buffet, as we save steak for after we see our first tornado of the trip. Re-fuel and head for Nebraska
1748CDT – Distant cumulonimbus to our east, a tiny rain shower on our west:
1834-1904 – Stop at another old, abandoned house for photos
[photos to be added later]
1938 – pit stop – St. Francis, KS
1956 – cross into Nebraska on KS27. Jct US34. Head east. Hotel will be in Imperial, NE.
2111(est,) – N on NE61 from Benkelman, NE
2157MDT – Rodeway Inn, Imperial, NE. We grab dinner at a local convenience store. Mmmm, hot dogs!
0630 – Wake; edit this blog site; shower, dress, pack.
0830 – Breakfast: waffle, highly homogenized scrambled eggs, orange juice, toast.
0945 – Pack the vans; weather briefing. The Great Plains will be quiet until Friday or Saturday. Blech! Time to play tourist on our way northwest.
1035 – Depart Days Inn.
1045 – Arrive Walmart
1122 – Dpt Walmart
1140 – Started using the GPS Tracks app to record our route. (Thanks For pointing me to this, Eric Meola!)
1230(est.) – Enter Joplin. Inspect 2011-05-22 EF-5 damage path.
1315(est.) – BBQ brisket and pulled pork at Sawmill BBQ (612 S. Main St. in downtown Joplin, MO; 417-782-7225). SO MUCH FOOD!
1418 – dpt Joplin
1449 – cross into Kansas on US160/MO96
1503 – cont E toward Sherwin, KS
1520 – At Oswego KS, briefly separated from the lead van. Reunited 3 min W of town.
1550 – Reach Jct US160/US169; continue W US160 to Independence, KS. 15 minute pit stop at Citgo.
1638 – cont W on US160
1700 – cont W from Elk Falls, KS
1709 – N KS99
1730(est.) – Stopped to take photos at Hubble’s Rubble metal sculpture exhibit (Howard, KS)
1744 – W on US400 toward Wichita, KS
1825 – Augusta, KS , going W on US400.
1836 – x I-35
1900 – re-enter US400 after meeting with Jim Reed (to get a set of keys); exit to I-235 N, which becomes KS96.
1933 – Haven, KS near KS96. We stop for some sunset photos. I tangle my hand in the latch for the van door after I loose my footing. I’m luckyt to not break a finger! My hand hurts so much, I almost miss a beautiful sunset:
EOD – Arrive Rodeway Inn, Hoisington, KS
EOD – Also ate dinner here: Grilled Chicken sandwich and a diet Coke (with a shot of cherry liquer).
0600 – airport limo arrives. 1 passenger and four bags to O’Hare.
0644 – Arrive at O’Hare. My driver, Chip (short for Chiprian, a classic Romanian first name) helps me unload, runs my credit card ($56) for the fare, accepts my tip — I always try to do cash, because it is more helpful to drivers, as a rule — and I roll off to check two of my bags.
0700 – After a bit of fumbling and stumbling, my bags are checked in. I was so tired I almost left my boarding pass at the check-in kiosk! The upside: I got a TSA pre-pass. Not having to unpack my laptop, remove my shoes, etc. is really helpful in the pre-coffee hours of the morning.
0930 – we board the plane for OKC.
1015 – Tons of cumulus humilis are bubbling up to my west.
1115 – We lower to 5,000 feet, where we get a good look at the read clay soil of Oklahoma. The haze to the west clearly shows lot of moisture in the air.
1120 – Wheels down at Will Rogers Airport in OKC.
1200 – I arrive at the Holiday Inn as the local tornado sirens blare under blue skies. Is this a typical Saturday lunch signal, a personal welcome, or wild coincidence. I choose to take it as a good omen that our chase team will have a successful journey. I text Louise to alert her to her arrival; she replies that she’ll be down to the lobby in about ten minutes.
1210 – Louise Anderson and I meet for the first time. She is a quiet person with a bit of a Mona Lisa smile and a gentle demeanor. We chat for a moment. She’s had lunch already, but I’m famished. She decides to tag along while I grab a bite to eat at a nearby Subway sandwich shop to the west.
1254 – I grab a quick BLT footlong, thinking we will be going out toward El Reno to find the Twistex Team Memorial. When I mention that I also want to stop at a good camera shop Louise suggest we doubled back to the hotel so we can get her camera. I gladly agree, because it makes good sense to have your camera along with when you go shopping for accessories. We double back.
1320 (est.): We depart the hotel for El Reno, cameras in hand.
1350 (est.) – We exit I-40, southbound. We wander around just within a 2 mile radius of US 81 sticking mostly so the roads west of US81. We based our advice on a news article on channel 9, which as it turns out had east and west mixed up. We spent probably an hour wandering around looking for the memorial. We finally mosied up to a Days Inn and ask for directions.
1505 (est.) – We finally find the memorial, just east of the corner of Reuter and Radio Roads (approximately N35.479035, W97.898345).
Louise and I feel a strange mix of emotions. We’ve successfully found this treasure (despite a bit of misdirection from the Channel 9 video about the location being two miles west of US81, when it is east of that highway). We are also on the most hallowed ground of the storm chaser community.
Three of the most respected storm researchers to ever tail twisters lost their lives here. This location is somewhat desolate, with only the hum of tires from I-40 (a mile and a half to the north) to tie the place to civilization; it seems like an especially lonely place to die. Here, there are wreaths, flowers, a “pocket tornado” novelty, various chaser knick-knacks and some jagged pieces of automotive plastic that hint at the brutal pounding the chase team’s Chevy Cobalt must have endured. It is a very sobering reminder of how dangerous it is to chase storms. It is a tribute to the dedication of Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young to better understanding of severe weather.
Team Twistex Memorial (approximately N35.479035, W97.898345)
1520 (est.) – We depart the Team Twistex Memorial.
1545 (approx.) – We arrive at Yukon. After a few minutes of wandering about, we visit Hank Baker at Baker Photo & Video. Hank runs a really well-equipped Canon/Nikon photo store (though he carries a few other brands). It has become my new Oklahoma home for photo equipment, to cover lost or damaged equipment, and hopefully some new gear someday soon. Hank always greeted us as if we were his long-lost friends or best neighbors, which is another good reason to shop there. Louise and I only picked up a couple of small items (lens cap keeper, UV filter, and various odds and ends). We may not spend as much money as some of his best customers, but he always treats us is if we were his #1 customers walking through the door. Such is the camaraderie amongst storm chasers.
1617 – We depart Yukon, re-entering eastbound I-40. While looking for the location of the Sam’s Club, I look down at the wrong moment. Suddenly the car is centered on an exit ramp for the Kirkpatrick Turnpike. Embarrassed, I ask Louise if she has 35 cents change. After the first convenience store stop of the tour, I’d already have an inconvenient supply of quarters and dimes, but it’s too soon. Fortunately, she has change. A quick Jordanesque dunk shot at the toll gate, and we’re off! We wander east on US66/OK66 (“The Mother Road”) and duck south on McArthur Boulevard to the Sam’s (which is a block south of I-40 on the frontage road). I wonder, “Do they have big box stores in Australia?”
1722 – We pick up some protein bars and a $13 tub of single use laundry soap packets to cover everybody’s laundry needs on the trip. I savor the 90-degree temperature, as it is so welcome to me after the brutal 2013-2014 winter in Chicago. “This Chicago winter was the 3rd snowiest and coldest winter on record,” I explain as we put our purchases in the car. We do a bit of mental math: this would be about a 32C temperature. Hot indeed!
1830 – Louise and I meet Owen in the lobby. After a few minutes, we arrive at Charleston’s a favorite American-style eatery just a few blocks south of the hotel. Owen orders a huge, inviting full rack of ribs, Louise choose a nice beef filet, and I opt for the prime ribs (medium rare, if you please!). We order an artichoke and chips appetizer plus the nacho/queso/salsa combination, not realizing what generous servings we’re getting. The appetizers arrive and we dig into them enthusiastically. Good eatin’! Once we start the tour, a sit down dinner will be a rarity, so we seize the moment. It is “the last supper” that most chasers embrace before a string of dinners at small town McDonald’s and gas station sandwich displays.
2026 – Depart Charleston’s. Man, am I stuffed! We carry several styrofoam — or polystyrene, if you’re British , like Owen — buckets of left over chips, queso and salsa. We head to a Super Walmart to pick up some provisions for the trip. Once we reach the tiny town motels along our journey, the last trace of big city luxury might be the travel size bottle of a favorite shampoo (versus the bland generic shampoo at the motel).
2119 – We depart WalMart. We arrive at the hotel, decide to gift the third shift desk clerk of nacho leftovers, and head off to our rooms for a good night’s sleep.
SOUTHERN/GREAT PLAINS CHASES: early MAY: 3,362 miles
Tempest Tours #2013-2B:
Jim Reed Photo Tour
May 2013 chasing with Jim Reed, Bill Reid and friends
in the Southern/Great Plains.
Tempest 2013T2B Gang (minus Bill Reid, behind the camera)
Our team was from all over:
USA
AUS
Jim Reed (KS [KD0TVZ]) – photo guru William Reid (CA [KG6FWX]) – lead Danny Gonzales (CA) – guide/driver Ron Riemersma (WI) – guide/driver
Martin Lisius (TX) – CEO, Tempest Tours (5/1) Jenna Blum (KS) – media guest
Lisa Beal (IL [KC9BST]
Kristin Heil (OH)
Stacy Williams (CA)l
Patti Schulze (TX)
Nathan Chester (Brisbane)
Belinda Cripps
Lee Cripps
Michael Thompson (Shellharbour)
Priscilla Yeo
DATE
DAY
START
END
MI.
REMARKS
29 April
Mon.
Bolingbrook
IL
PROLOGUE
30 April
Tue.
Bolingbrook
IL
Oklahoma City
OK
60
TRAVEL: Flight + 60 miles around OKC
01 May
Wed.
Oklahoma City
OK
Breckenridge
TX
230+
DAY 1: Spider lightning as a monster cold front passes
Today is a travel day, as we need to get everybody back to Oklahoma City by morning.
I’m feeling pretty sad about the trip being over. We have a really terrific group on this tour, and I will miss them all very much when we go our separate ways.
We’ve had a very discouraging weather pattern for storms, but Bill Reid had put us on the best ones whenever they were available (that is, days 1, 8-10)
Today’s USA TODAY seems to be rubbing our noses in the fact we saw no tornado in ten days in May:
______ – We stop at Austin for a lunch at Fuddrucker’s
______ – We jump off I-35N at West,TX. We grab a snack at the famed Czech Stop And Wander East into town. We cannot see the blast site from the recent fertilizer plant explosion. We see houses with boarded-up windows and crumpled aluminum garage doors from blast, even from 14 blocks away from the temporary chain link fence protecting the disaster.
19:10 – We cross the Red River on I35N, returning to Oklahoma for the last time during the trip.
25+ hours of classroom training on weather
DuPage OHSEM
Naperville EMA:
