Whew!  What a hell of a road trip!  I’ve got a 20 minute mini documentary of my trip ready to go but I’m having some encoding issues and hope to have it up by tomorrow.  In the meantime I thought I would at least post my write up of the trip and put all of my photo’s up.

The Off:

I woke at 5am and took a quick shower anxious to get a good jump start on the day.  At first I had decided to bring as few items as possible.  Basically, just my camera and an iPod.  Of course that turned in to 3 cameras, my laptop, lenses, tripods, etc. and next thing you know, my back seat was full of stuff.  I figured it might be a good chance to test some new equipment out before the chase season gets going.  I was in my car in front of my house ready to leave at 5:40, but didn’t leave my block until 6:25.  Why?  I couldn’t get my cell phone to tether to my laptop.  I was using PDANet (which worked perfectly fine the night before when I tested it!) and for some reason I was getting Windows errors left and right when I tried to run it that morning.  I was hoping to GPS track on Spotternetwork but I finally got too frustrated and hit the road.  I hit I-70 and was still in the morning darkness.

Sunrise on I-70

Rarely ever seeing the sunrise myself, it was a pleasant experience.  I still don’t think it’s worth getting up early for but I can see why some people think they are neat.  I rolled into Limon and started to make my way south on 287 toward Kit Carson.  Still frustrated with my laptop tethering situation, I pulled over for a brief minute in Aroya to tinker with it again.  I rebooted Windows and it connected just fine and I had internet service!  That is when I logged into Spotternetwork and was able to GPS track.

“…And The Law Won”

I’m not trying to sound like a BMW fanboy when I say this, but damn that car is smooth!  Normally when I’m out on the road for long road trips, I’m in my Pathfinder on a chase.  When you are going 80 mph in it, it feels like it.  My BMW though is the opposite.  There were a few times I caught myself going VERY fast not even realizing it.  Well, the CHP also caught me going a little fast.  I’m not bitter or anything.  At least she was nice.  There ya go Cheyenne County, I hope you use my $169 in a productive way.  Of course it made me paranoid the whole rest of the trip and I didn’t speed again which was tough because I had tons of people passing me left and right.  At one point an elderly couple pulling a camper trailer whizzed by and gave me the “get off the road tortoise” look.  Humiliating.

In Car Entertainment

One of the most important parts of a successful road trip is having ample in-car entertainment and my trip was no exception.  I did a massive filter sweep of my iTunes library for any song, album, or artist name that had the words “kansas”, “green” or “burg” in it.  Well, I didn’t think that out very well because it pulled every “Green” Day album in existence and of course multiple hits on the band Kansas.  So I’ve listed below some of the songs that I will remember this trip by.  Music nerds unite!

Gil Scott-Heron – Billy Green is Dead/Gorillaz – O Green World/Green Day – Having a Blast/Green Day – J.A.R./Hum – Green To Me/M83 – On A White Lake Near A Green Mountain/Mark Ronson – Pretty Green/Memory Tapes – Green Night/Neds Atomic Dustbin – Grey Cell Green/New Order – Everything’s Gone Green/Quasimoto – Green Power/REM – Stand/Real Estate – Green River/Rolling Stones – Not Fade Away/Squarepusher – Tensor in Green/Kansas – Carry On Wayward Son/Kansas – Dust In The Wind/The Get Up Kids – Campfire Kansas…uhh you get the point.

I was also turned on to a new 80’s DJ mix done in a turntablist fashion that I was promised would be a “fun road trip mix.”  Lots of cuts and scratches and hopefully some good blends.  It was hit and miss.

The Dodge House Is No More!

During the chase season of 2008, some friends and I chased western Kansas and blue sky busted in a big way.  We ended up bunking the night in Dodge City and were feeling pretty down.  We went to Montana Mike’s and got a nice steak dinner and then decided we wanted to find a local, Western style bar to go drown our sorrows in.  Well, we found the Dodge House Saloon and drowned our sorrows in an epic, “I’m never drinking again!” kind of way.  It was bad.  It involved 7&7’s until I couldn’t see straight.  We drank and drank and drank and somehow managed to find our way back to our hotel rooms.  How we didn’t get kicked out of there is still a wonder.  Anyway, I was hoping to re-visit the bar on this trip and exercise my demons.  It took me damn near two years before I could drink a 7&7 again.  To my dismay, the Dodge House is no longer.  The building is still there but it’s been turned in to a bingo parlor!  The slaughterhouse just east of town is still there and it still smells really bad.

4:47PM – Greensburg, KS

Finally, as the sun was starting to get low I rolled into Greensburg.  The progress they’ve made was immediately seen.  On the outskirts of town, the temporary trailer style hospital was still there.  Across the street though, the brand new hospital looks like it was just completed.  A tremendous step up as you can see:

I was losing light pretty quickly so I then proceeded into the main part of town and went back to some of the places I had been before.  The stripped trees was the image that really struck me the last time I was there and I was actually kind of relieved to see that most of them were still there.  I’m not sure if they are still there intentionally or if they are going to be removed eventually but I think it’s a reminder of what happened.  My favorite photo from the trip is below which is of a new house built right in front of the old one.  Also, stripped trees are still there along with newly planted ones.  Life goes on, but we will never forget.

Next I drove down main street looking at all of the new buildings that have been built.  It’s tremendous to see how many new buildings have gone up and are open for business in the year and a half since I was last there.  When I was last there the only thing open was a Kwik Stop gas station.  That’s still there but so are all of these:

Above are all brand new buildings that were not even started when I was there the first time.  Knowing I had an insanely long drive home, I decided I better get to it.  I took one last shot of main street at sunset and one other shot because I’m a dork:

The Quick Way Home

Although the mileage is less by taking some of the smaller highways and state roads, it is definitely not faster!  I found this out the hard way as I was almost 3 hours behind schedule of where I thought I would be on this trip.  Time to take the longer but quicker way home so I bolted to the 183 North and passed through Kinsley, and LaCrosse finally emerging back onto I-70 in Hays.  By now I was driving in the dark.  The moon was in either an early phase or late phase because it was a sliver for about 10 minutes and then completely disappeared altogether.  It made the I-70 drive home a dark and lonely one yet I found it peaceful and relaxing at the same time.  Fortunately it was a much quicker drive than the route I took to get to Greensburg.  After a gas up in Oakley, I was able to make it back in to Denver without another need to stop.  I walked in my door at 11:35pm wrapping up my long yet very relaxing day.

Conclusions

Road trips to me whether they are storm chases or not, always end up relaxing me.  Even if its just for that day, they take the stress out of my life which I need.  Some people see road trips (especially to Kansas) as boring and mundane.  They certainly can be.  But it’s what you make of it.  Some of my fondest memories have come on road trips or storm chases whether they are with friends or I am by myself.  I’m not sure what I was really looking for out there but I returned home after an 18 hour driving day feeling relieved and refreshed.  A lot of people would be pissed about getting a $160 ticket but to me it’s really not that big of a deal.  In fact, I think it adds to the memory of the trip.  Honestly, it makes me laugh my ass off now when I think about it.  And that’s how I know that this trip was a success.  I was out there trying to relax and get rid of the daily stress I feel and the fact that I got an insanely costly ticket and my first thought was, “Cool!  I got it on film!” lets me know that it was mission accomplished.

Again, I hope to have the video up by tomorrow.  I think people will get a laugh out of it and probably end up thinking less of me…hahaha!

Popularity: 9% [?]

Oh man, I really need to chase something!  I know my SDS (Storm Deprivation Syndrome to my non-chasing friends) is bad when I start having multiple tornado nightmares.  I rarely remember any dreams that I ever have, but the one last night involving a tornado in Parker was extremely vivid.  I dreamt that I was in Parker (for some reason) going to a movie with a girl I dated when I was a freshman in college (not sure what that’s all about…yikes!), and as we were walking in to the theater, she says “Wow, there’s a tornado!”  I flip out and start searching for my camera or camcorder or something to photograph it.  I rush back to my car and I have none of the above items.  Wait a minute!  My phone has a camera on it.  And of course, in my dream the cell phone I have has the worst camera of all time on it.  I kept trying to take pictures of it but none of them would come out.  I did however remember to phone it in to the NWS!  Jesus.  So anyway, I tell the girl to get back in the car because we needed to get closer to it.  Then what happens?  We hit a bumper to bumper traffic jam and cannot move.  I roll down the window and I’m yelling at everyone to get out of the way because a tornado was coming.  Everyone just looked at me and waved and all had these very toothy, clownish grins on their faces.  Every person had the same creepy smile and just kept waving non-stop until about 100 or so people were just waving and smiling.  Some people even got out of their cars and just stood next to mine smiling and waving.  What the hell?  I woke up terrified.  I shuddered and then want back to sleep, but damn I need Spring to get here.

Parker, CO tornado from 2008...Tornado in my dream was eerily similar.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Whew, this has been a doozy!  The snow has finally stopped for the moment.  The trough that dug in and brought this prolonged snow storm has finally started to show signs of moving out.  My ruler to measure the snow totals got buried so it’s well over 12 inches here in Englewood.  My guess would be about 15″ or so.  Is this the start of a long winter, or just the usual October dumpfest followed by a mild few months of cold weather?  I’m hoping for the latter of course but we shall see.

A table in my backyard from last night...

The snow finally stopped this morning

From my front porch

Popularity: 25% [?]

At first I thought the media calling this kid “Balloon Boy” was pretty funny.  I mean, how could that not make you think of the “Bubble Boy” from Seinfeld?  And sure, the media coverage of this story is finally dying down but what does strike me as concerning is the fact that this guy is constantly being referred to as a serious ‘Storm Chaser.’  That couldn’t be further from the truth!  But not all is lost as finally an article appeared telling our side of the story.

Times Online Story

I’m glad they used quotes from my blog as well as Tony Laubach’s because this guy is a joke, fraud, and a bad parent.  I hope charges are filed and the actual storm chasing community can move on without this tarnishing our reputation any further.  Let us never speak of this guy again…

Scott

Popularity: 20% [?]

Phone Geek Scott here and all I will say is peep the MLB game tonight and you’re sure to see a new aggressive ad campaign from Verizon about their new Android phones coming.  The phones in question are the HTC Imagio (called the Hero on Sprint), and the Motorola Droid (which is the one I’m salivating over).  Supposedly these ads will be focused around what these phones can do and what the iPhone can’t; what Verizon is now calling the “iDoesn’t”  I guess those ‘iPhone coming to Verizon soon!’ thoughts are no longer.  Also this is very unlike Verizon to actually promote a phone instead of their network in their ads.  Just one other bit of info regarding this; is it just a coincidence that if you visit http://www.droiddoes.com it takes you to the Verizon homepage?

**UPDATE**

As usual, I was right on the dot!  Hahaha…here’s the commercial: Youtube

I gotta admit, it puts a smile on my face…

Popularity: 24% [?]

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a...storm chasers experiment gone awry

I thought my eyes were deceiving me, but all of a sudden breaking news confirmed that there was a runaway weather balloon out near Hudson.  Apparently, an avid storm chaser had been constructing this balloon to launch in to storms but today it got loose and up it went.  Some thought the family’s 6 year old kid Falcon (irony) was in it as it soared away but when it landed, he wasn’t to be found.  The thing looked kind of like a UFO and was designed to be a foil type of craft.  I know nothing about airplanes and the such, but it made a pretty soft landing.  After it landed, authorities moved in and started pitchforking it to deflate it.  I thought if that kid was in there, he was going to be terrified!  He wasn’t in there.

UPDATE: I’ve been at work all afternoon and didn’t get to see this thing play out, BUT it sounds like it was a hoax the whole time.  I’m not even really sure if this guy is a storm chaser as I’m familiar with or know most of the Colorado chasers and I’ve never heard of this dude…ever.  Anyway, the family did an interview on CNN and the kid even says “we did it for the show.”  Hahahahahahaha!!!!  Duped everyone, myself included.  Now that the kid is okay, I can fully admit I was laughing my ass off the whole time I was watching this go down.  Oh man.  Absolutely made my week.  I just pictured some X-Files nerds freaking out that their homemade UFO got loose somehow.  Plus it was airing on every national news station in the country!  Everyone must think we are a bunch of lunatics here in Colorado.  Very entertaining television today.  Thanks again Heene family!

Popularity: 23% [?]

Season 3 of Storm Chasers premiers this Sunday at 8pm MT.  There is a 2 hour Storm Chasers “Greatest Storms” airing before that as well.  My guess is that it’ll be a 2 hour recap of the previous 2 seasons before they start with the new season.  Be on the look out for the TWISTEX crew in the new season which is a Colorado based team with some people on it I know.  Also there is supposedly another show called Tornado Road which was going to be airing on NBC at some point but they canned it.  Turns out now that NBC has bought TWC, they are rumored to have brought the show back and are going to be airing it on Sunday night as well on The Weather Channel.  I really know nothing about this show but will look out for it.  Like most chasers, these shows to me are part good, part bad but I’ll be watching nonetheless.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Well, today didn’t amount to much in the way of tornadoes and after a hectic night at work of NHL games, a brief glance at the reports doesn’t show anything too substantial.  Kind of disappointing because I thought this was going to set up for a pretty nice episode of severe weather.  Timing is everything and we didn’t get the right ingredients to mix at the right time thus only yielding a squall line, hail and wind.

10/05 is starting to look like a possible chase day.  Plus, it’s on a Monday so I could make a run on it as I have the day off.  I admit to looking at Mondays models for literally 2 minutes so I haven’t really done any forecasting on it yet, BUT western Kansas looks like a very preliminary target to me.  We’ll see as the weekend gets closer and I get a chance to sit down and have a serious look at the models.  I’m super desperate to get out at least one more time before winter is here for good!  Wish cast ahoy!

***10/03 UDATE*** Things for Monday are starting to look like a no-go for me.  Models are starting to get more consistent and unfortunately, they stall this system out too far south for me to make a 1 day trip.  Plus the areas with the best shear have almost no CAPE to work with.  Like Thursday, the right ingredients aren’t lining up, so we will see if anything changes over the next day or so, but currently its looking like a wash for me.

Scott

Popularity: 20% [?]

Thursday October 1st has the potential to be a decent chase day in the central plains.  A nice cold front will move through CO on Thursday which will ignite some severe weather out in front of it.  There are a lot of positives working for this episode including strong wind shear, plenty of moisture return, and CAPE near 3000 j/kg.  If I were heading out I would be targeting the I-35 corridor between Wichita and Oklahoma City where the dry line should be.  The moisture returns from the Gulf look damn impressive I will say.  Possibilities also exist north in eastern Nebraska/western Iowa however, the most unstable air will live down on the southern target.  Unfortunately, I have used up all of my time off from work which doesn’t recharge until the day after October 1st!  Damn!  So I will be keeping an eye on this from home/work on Thursday.  Tony Laubach will be chasing this event possibly with a few others from the Colorado crew, so check his page on Thursday for updates as I know I will!

And speaking of Tony’s page, it’s brand new and it’s impressive!  A few other chasers I know have done re-vamp’s of their blogs/websites and it’s motivated me to start putting something a little more comprehensive together for myself.  So, I’ve started looking around at some other Word Press type sites and will be moving this website some time during the off season.  I like the idea of having a few more options and widgets when I post blogs or chase re-caps than is possible on the current page.  So, that’s mostly going to be the big project during the off season.  Also on the docket for the off season are a few minor upgrades in equipment.  I’m still looking to shoot in all HD next year which will be great if I’m ever going to try to put a DVD together.  Also, the Pathfinder is in need of some better tires for those muddy roads.  Lastly, I’m looking to invest in a new dash mount for my streaming camera.  Something that easily pans would be a seriously nice addition!  So that’s about it from my end of chasing these days.  If anything else looks promising during the Fall and I have some time off to play with, I will be on it.

Scott

Popularity: 19% [?]

Looks like a long drive to Oklahoma on Monday is not in the cards for me personally.  In order for me to dedicate a multiple day chase, there would have to be a significant tornado threat.  Looks like wind/hail will be the primary threat down there.  Yup, MCS city.  So I’ll leave that to our Oklahoma friends where no doubt, there’ll be an outbreak since I’m not going.  Hahaha…

Locally, there might be something to be had up in Wyoming on Sunday.  I’m keeping my eye on the models and may decide to head out since I haven’t chased in a long minute.  Also, a few of us are going to watch the Man United/Man City match at the British Bulldog Sunday morning at 7am, so man up and come drink some beer!  Anyway, we’ll see what happens Sunday afternoon…

Scott

Popularity: 17% [?]