Home Time - Home! (June 5)
We're home! We made it to Toronto... we survived another chase trip!
Like the years past, this chase trip did not disappoint. We saw old friends, made new friends, relived old adventures and had new ones. I can't wait to do it again next year.
Thank you all for following along whether it was through this blog, Twitter, Facebook or Youtube.
Home Time - Second Travel Day Home (June 4)
Well, we got a later start than planned. I think we're all exhausted from the amount of chasing and driving we did. We started off in Greenville, Illinois went through Indianapolis, Indiana, Fort Wayne, Indiana, through Ann Arbour, Michigan then through Detroit, Michigan into Ontario. The plan was to drop equipment off at Brad's home in Niagara, Ontario so we made it to Niagara late. We're currently at Brad's place in Niagara, putting equipment away, showering and eating real food. Good night all!
Home Time - First Travel Day Home (June 3)
Basically back where it all began we headed from Garden City, Kansas to Great Bend, Kansas to our lucky Subway with Scott, Dave, Chris and Dan. We had a deal that if storms didn't start to get going as of a certain time we would part ways. Well, the storms weren't cooperating so we said our sad goodbyes to our friends and left them to their storms.
In the end Scott and Dave said they saw a little bit of structure but nothing much so they headed home as well. We drove extensively making the 8 - 9 hour drive to Greenville, Illinois. Greenville is actually a nice little town and it has a really nice Super 8 hotel for future reference. Ok, to bed, a lot of driving to be done tomorrow.
Chase Day 16 - Hey, There's Always Campo! (June 2)
There's a new saying in the storm chasing community when there's little-to-no chance of storms, "Hey, there's always Campo!" Reference to the May 31, 2010 beautiful, low probability tornado in Campo, Colorado. Many videos of the tornado can be found here: Campo, Colorado Tornado.
So we woke up in Amarillo, Texas (again) and headed through the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles to southern Colorado. Conditions weren't all that favourable but hey ... there's always Campo! So we made our way through the town of Campo and stopped to take fun pictures in front of the sign (such as this one of Dave):
Well the storms eventually got going and we headed to the storms just north of Springfield, Colorado. The storms weren't overly impressive but they did produce some great lightning and a rotating meso then dissipated. The gusts were picking up as the storm collapsed so we headed back to Springfield, Colorado then east to Ulysses, Kansas. Then it was time for gustnadoes ...
As the storm was gusting out it was producing many gustnadoes. We stopped in Ulysses, Kansas and let the storm overtake us. It split around us and we ended up with just a bit of wind and dust and so ended our last chase day.
We headed to Garden City, Kansas, basically where it all began to spend the night.
Chase Day 15 - We Shouldn't Have Moved (June 1)
Woke up in Amarillo, Texas and headed to Gruver, Texas at the Texas/Oklahoma border. Saw a small rotating updraft ... and it's gone! That was it. As we headed back to Amarillo we heard that the motel we were staying at had golf ball sized hail! We should have just stayed there and saved gas money! Ah well, such is the life of a storm chaser. We were all craving Mexican food so I tweeted out the the Twitter-verse for some recommendations of good Mexican restaurants in Amarillo. We were recommended Abuelos which was great! If you're ever in Amarillo and want good Mexican food, head there it was delicious. We spent the night in Amarillo again.