5:50 am – Woke. Could not get back to sleep
8:00 am – Packed. Showered. “Urrrr, morning sure comes early around here”
9:00 am – Checked out; ate breakfast (all bags are with me in the breakfast room). Chatted with Eric, Georgia, Evelyn, Helwig and Petri (Peter).
10:00am – Intros, safety lecture, weather briefing
11:15 am – depart hotel. Head west on I-40
11:57am – exit WB I-40 for Watonga, OK
2:00pm – Ate a salad for lunch at Gambino’s Pizza
3:35pm – continue on US281N into Kansas. Stopped at Kiowa, KS, home of the Kiowa County Museum.
Pit stop. Fuel stop. Sky stop.
4:08pm – depart Kiowa.
4:20pm – back in Oklahoma
4:55pm – pass south through Cherokee, OK (Gateway to the Salt Plains and more!)
5:29pm – shade stop. Almost 100°F! Towering cumulus clod to our northeast. We have stopped to observe.
6:00pm – depart Carmen, OK
6:34pm – Major County, OK
7:25pm – Return to Carmen, to keep on our severe-warned storm. Losing our daylight!
11:30pm – We arrive at the Northwest Inn, Woodward, OK. Right now, a comfortable bed and free breakfast mde-to-order in the morning sounds pretty wonderful!
(Daytime photo, obviously!)
[Revisions and cleanup to come later]