J.P.

No storms to chase today (everyone needed a rest) but I made my way from Ogallala, Nebraska to Liberal, Kansas via US Route 83.

I discovered a crack in the windshield that spread its way a good distance across the windshield as I drove today. I contacted the rental car company and they said to take it to the nearest location to swap out the car, but the nearest location was closed. So I’m driving with a cracked windshield. If it gets worse by morning I’ll take it to another nearest location.

Rural America is beautiful and I’m still a big fan. I stopped and wandered around whenever I saw a sign indicating “Business District —>”. It’s amazing what one can find in these small towns. They are far from forgotten.

As I stopped at a locally owned truck stop, I found this little bit of inspiration on the door handle of the men’s room.

I made my way up from southern Kansas to the Nebraska panhandle, as that’s where the Storm Prediction Center said they most activity would be today. They did not disappoint.

I ended up driving about 500 miles chasing different storms. There were storm chasing excursions abound and trucks with various weather related instruments mounted to the top, and me in a rental Subaru just following my instinct.

Outside of Sedgwick, Colorado the wind picked up and Mother Nature was trying very hard to give us a tornado. According to the National Weather Service, she did give us a dusty tornado, albeit fairly briefly, but long enough to trigger a tornado warning for the area.

I learned a lot today and I had the time of my life. A part of me wishes I had paid more attention to Mr. Besaw and his freshman Earth Science class in Room 212.

Tomorrow is predicted to be not as severe with the thunderstorms. I’m still deciding what part of the plains I want to drive to in search of some storm action.

The storm chasing trip across the Plains continues. Today I drove the High Plains south of Burlington, Colorado, making my way to Granada, Colorado before turning east and heading into Kansas. I made my way to Dodge City for the evening, as it was smack dab in the middle of the “slight chance” of severe thunderstorm activity area. The ride was quite enjoyable and I found my “zen” that I haven’t found in a while during a road trip.

I love this part of the country.

I’m spending the night a little farther west than I intended to stay tonight, but the room was available and affordable and clean so I’m good.

I spent most of the day chasing clouds along the Colorado and Kansas and Nebraska state lines. There’s a lot of open road in these parts, but my timing was a little bit off on seeing any thunderstorm action. I saw some lightning strikes but that was about it. We may get a light show tonight; I’ll keep an eye on things and see if there’s some chasing to be done during the hours after dark.

Tomorrow’s forecast has another round of severe weather predicted for the southern half of Kansas, so I’ll be headed in that direction. I’m having a blast discovering small towns all over this part of the country. I’m looking forward to continuing the adventure.

And so begins my solo adventure to the Plains states. My husband dropped me off at Tucson International Airport at lunch time; our flight departed on time and I’m comfortably seated in seat 2A. I’m not as close to a yoke as I want to be but I’m not rated to flying an ERJ-175. Maybe someday. That’d be pretty awesome.

The Storm Prediction Center maps look quite promising for the next three days. I’ll be heading due east from Denver and roaming Americana from there. Come Thursday I’ll start heading back to the desert southwest with my intent to return the rental car to TUS on Sunday afternoon.

There’s a lot going on at work this week but I have the utmost confidence in my team that all is handled. I have my work laptop in tow in case I have to jump on the network.

Right now I’m going to sit back, relax. and enjoy this flight on United Express.