Howdy!
My name is Lisa Beal. I’ll be touring with Tempest Tours for my 17th trip this year. Where has the time gone?
I’m nearing retirement, but still have plenty of energy for storm days. I’ll need it: I usually carry a hefty assortment of gadgets, earning the name Gadget Girl on tours past.
I live in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and I work as an IT middleware engineer (that means I make big servers go, go, go). Like my buddy, Owen, I’m tied to a keyboard most of my waking hours — and sometimes those hours run really long.
To maintain my sanity, I will NOT be answering calls from work on vacation. Would you?
My typical chase-cation starts with a drive to Oklahoma city, usually with a stopover near friends on the way. And I take about 3 days to get home afterwards, if severe weather is around for chasing.
I have a dedicated chase vehicle (“Gadgetmobile III”, as the first two were gracefully retired in 2007 ans 2018, respectively).
See more information about my chase vehicles here.
I like chase in groups, with a friend or two, or solo.
I’ll be arriving in Oklahoma City on the Saturday evening before the trip so if anyone is wanting to explore locally, let me know! Usually, I make a trip to WalMart on the Sunday before departure, and it is pretty usual to have 2-3 others with me for that store run. Let me know if you need to do that. Text me … to connect for that store run, a lunch or dinner on Sunday, etc. I welcome the company.
I cannot say enough good things about the Tempest Tours crew, especially Bill Reid. He is the storm whisperer, and has put me in front of at least 30 of the tornadoes I’ve seen, among the 50 total I’ve seen. Bill is also an excellent photographer. Don’t be shy if you need camera advice. His is very solid advice.
I will be blogging each evening (or early the next morning) after each chase day. Look for updates athttp://www.underthethunder.org/blog/2018/05/(once I set it up, in the next few days) . I’ll also be posting (after the fact) to Facebook &/or Twitter. I’m user polarpal99 on both.
See you soon!
LisaB