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.
I’ve never really had an interest in going to St. Maarten, but there’s a part of me that really wants to experience this beach that’s right up against the airport.
The desert is so beautiful. I’m still getting used to the aviation experience in the desert heat. The desert is beautiful, but her airspace is quite bumpy.
I’ve been watching episodes of the 1970s version of “Match Game”. I do not remember Penny Marshall being on the panel, but there she was in 1974. She was in a show called “Friends and Lovers”.
I wrote this on Facebook this morning. I don’t do much on Facebook these days, but it had to be said.
When I was a kid, at this time of year the side doors at Lura Sharp Elementary School near the gym and auditorium were often wide open to let the breezes blow through that majestic building as students and teachers made their way to the end of the school year. Inviting the spring weather into the building reminded us that summer vacation was just a few weeks away and it added that special element necessary to get us through the last chapters of our books and our final exams.
I understand that Lura Sharp Elementary is configured a bit differently today, and that gates and buzzers and ID badges and reinforced walls and bulletproof glass and all that are necessary because our schools are no longer safe for our students, teachers, and administrative personnel. I keep hearing “times are different”. Yes they are, and it makes my heart ache.
I hope the time comes when we start addressing the actual issues and not just the symptoms. Children should never feel unsafe. Our elected officials, on all sides of the aisle, are failing us. When nothing was done after Sandy Hook is when they gave up. We knew this would happen again. And I can’t even begin to count the number of times we’ve lost children to an active shooter in a school. No one wants to talk about solutions. “More guards!” “More barbed wire!” “More gates and buzzers!” Again, addressing the symptoms, not the problem. Oh don’t worry, there’s always tweets of condolences but in a few days time the politicians will start grandstanding and blustering about something idiotic again. Then it’ll be more students in another school, rinse and repeat.
Our children should never feel unsafe.
Jinx has decided that my eccentricity is a good eccentricity and now actually comes up and socializes with me from time to time. She made this decision over the weekend. Her brother Lucky has always been quite friendly and always has a dog smile on his face when he sees me. It’s good to see Jinx warming up to me a bit.
It’s been over two years and at least two time zones since we stepped foot in a movie theatre. Our favorite theatre chain in Chicago, Arclight, has closed. We always liked Arclight.
Not too far from us here in Tucson in Galaxy Luxury+ Theatres. Many rating apps in Tucson rate the Luxury+ experience as the best theatres in the city, so we decided to venture down to the movies to see “Downton Abbey: A New Era”.
The theatre is very comfortable. Reserved seating. Reasonably priced tickets. Moderately priced concessions. Barcalounger style seats with plenty of room and a convenient tray that swings aside. And most importantly, Maria Menunos!
We haven’t seen Maria Menunos in the pre-movie clips in a long while. In fact, I thought she’d given up the silver screen and was now only to be found on our gas pumps, but there she was looking lovely and bright and cheerful during the pre-movie clips.
I have been very much looking forward to this second “Downton Abbey” movie and I was not disappointed. Seeing the Crawleys and their staff do their thing on the big screen felt very comfortable. I shan’t give away any of the details of the story; I rated the experience a 9/10 and I liked this movie a slight bit more than the first movie. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I may go back and see it again.
In Luxury+.
Jamie found an older roll of film and had the pictures developed earlier this week. This may be one of my favorite photos of recent times. My best guess for the date is right around when we moved to Chicago in 2017.
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.
Weird? Eccentric!