I stayed on the relative western side of Nebraska today. Mother Nature looked like she might kick up her heels a little bit today, but alas, she’s saving her strength for the rest of the week.
Since the weather was relatively quiet… who am I kidding, it was dead silent today aside from some breeziness… I walked around some of the charming downtown areas I encountered along my route.
This afternoon I walked around North Platte after grabbing my typical storm chasing lunch: a 6-inch Sweet Teriyaki Chicken Sub on wheat as shown with baked Lays from Subway.
There wasn’t a lot going on at lunch time in North Platte, but a few people were out and said hello.
Today, as I drove along US 30 from Sidney to Ogallala, Nebraska, I noticed a few power lines following along the route anywhere from 1/4 to 3/4 miles north of the highway. The largest of the lines is a 345kV high voltage transmission line providing service to this part of Nebraska, officially known as the Keystone-Sidney line, operated by the Nebraska Public Power District. I stopped and took the third in a series of my photos in tribute to this 1950s photo above.
If you follow my Pixelfed or Instagram feeds you’ll notice a post a lot of infrastructure photos, and probably more powerlines shots than most people. My mom will tell you that I was fascinated with powerlines as a very young child, and that fascination endures 50+ years later.
So many men of my vintage post selfies and party shots and the like. I’m too busy being a Geek in Awe.
The first photo was taken in May 2016 in Upstate New York, about 50 miles of the Capital District.
The second photo was taken in May 2020, southwest of Chicago.
The last time I was in Sidney, Nebraska was in June 2022. I was chasing a storm through the area and it was awesome.
June 2022.
Today I drove from Gillette, Wyoming to Sidney, Nebraska under mostly clear or partly cloudy skies. The reason I chose Sidney was because some of the forecasting models suggested there might be a thunderstorm of some sort in these parts before sunset. This was the closest I got to seeing any sort of non-sunshine related weather activity today.
I’m OK with this.
The drive through eastern Wyoming was wonderful. I started the day with a walk around downtown Gillette. Being a Monday morning, it was quiet, but pleasant.
Like most cities in these parts, Gillette is situated on railroad tracks that do a lot of the heavy lifting of goods.
As I made my way down along the eastern margin of Wyoming, I stopped here and there to take some photos, which can be seen in the other entries from today here on the blog.
I go out of my way to avoid the Interstates whenever possible. I’m thankful that WYDOT has such good rest areas on the U.S. routes.
Tonight I stopped into a local bar and grill for supper. All eyes were on me as I walked in. It was a very local place, but everyone seemed friendly.
Afterwards I walked a little over two miles on a recreational trail that seemed to stretch on into the fields surrounding town. I was able to enjoy the sunset while I was out there. It was a great way to end the day.
I was enjoying this landscape along US Route 85 in eastern Wyoming today when I realized something. The view reminded me of the default wallpaper on Windows XP, nearly 25 years ago. That wallpaper was known as “Bliss”. I’m calling this “Wyoming Bliss”.
Wyoming is one of my favorite states in the Union. And plenty of open land like this is one of the reasons.
To jog your memory, here’s the original Windows XP wallpaper.
There was another version of the Windows XP wallpaper that came out in a later service pack that has more of the vibe I captured in my shot from today. For the life of me I can’t find it on the Internet (because search has become all weird in the past year), but the palette was closer to what I captured today.
I’m not one for algorithms, but when I originally posted this entry, WordPress suggested I read this blog entry from 2011 again. I’m really glad I did. It fits perfectly with the vibe and sense of discovery I’m feeling on this solo trip in the middle part of the United States.
With Mother Nature continuing her quiet mood today, I haven’t done a lot in the way of storm chasing. Not to be deterred, I’ve been taking photos as I made my way down through Wyoming and into the Nebraska panhandle.
I’m really pleased with how this photo came out. It was taken along US Route 85 south of Lusk, Wyoming. Everyone was just hanging out at the local watering hole.
Well, I finally chased some storms today. Mother Nature has been exceptionally quiet for this time of year, but the Storm Prediction Center and other models suggested storms might pop up in northern Wyoming and Southeast Montana, so off I went.
Leaving Rapid City, South Dakota after walking the downtown one more time for morning exercise, I made my way up through Sturgis to Belle Fourche, South Dakota. I walked around one of their town parks for a little bit to stretch my legs, and then made my way along US Route 212 through a quick corner of Wyoming and then into Montana. Earl and I had driven that stretch through Wyoming about 20 years ago, it was fun to reminisce about that drive in our first Jeep.
I then turned north on Highway 59 with the intent of spending the night in Miles City, Montana. When I got up there I just couldn’t, for the lack of a better description, find the vibe. There’s nothing really wrong with Miles City, it just wasn’t my thing. A small storm cell was coming through and it threw out a couple of quick flashes of lightning and a bit of rain, but it wasn’t that impressive. So I decided to head back south and spend the night in Gillette, Wyoming.
About 15 miles north of Broadus I saw a storm cell forming and knew this would be a little more impressive, even though there was little hope for a tornado, conditions just weren’t right for that. I pulled over to grab some pics, drove a little further, and pulled over again, although when I pulled over I started getting bonked with some impressive hail (I estimated dime sized hail and reported it to the National Weather Service). My report didn’t go into until I did a 180 on Highway 59 and got out of the hail. I’m glad I did. I then turned back around and snapped a couple more photos of the impressive rain and hail show that was coming down in a very centralized pattern.
Once the storm passed and, while watching radar, I figured out how to get around the remains of the storm without getting bonked with hail, I drove through Broadus and took a shot of the storm from the opposite direction as it moved to the northeast.
I then continued my trek down Highway 59 and came across a small storm near the Wyoming border.
Winds were whipping up impressively when I snapped that last photo.
Both storm cells were tagged as severe thunderstorms by the National Weather Service, since the winds exceeded 50 kts, and the first storm had hail (another report indicated 1/2-inch hail).
I got one more photo before heading into Gillette, Wyoming.
Overall it was a fun little storm chase. Tomorrow’s forecast has a chance of thunderstorms in the general vicinity and to the southeast a little bit. I’ll probably head in that direction.
With Mother Nature being so quiet, this was a little bit of excitement that I needed.
Well, I did not have Billings, Montana in my original plans for this storm chasing trip, but I’ll take it. Tornadoes are doubtful, but I’m hoping to get some good lightning shots while avoiding hail.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
