Final thoughts...

You never know what these trips will be like. You’ve got no idea what weather you’ll see (if any at all like on the infamous “sunshine tour”), where you’ll end up or what your travelling companions will be like.  Folk are folk, which is fine unless you are stuck in a vehicle with them in very close confines for 14 hours a day. On previous trips the pressure has been on at the start of the trip to choose the vehicle containing the people with whom you think you’re mostly likely to get on. This is a bit of a gamble but I’ve always been lucky or had good enough judgement. The first two trips had one or two very strange and annoying characters one of whom ended up in Liam’s van. It can ruin the whole trip.

So how about this year? Thankfully we were all multi storm chase veterans, knew what was expected and everyone was really fun. Peter’s philosophy of a single, nimble vehicle and flexible, consultative approach was just the ticket. The 3000+ miles passed quickly with Jock at the wheel and without any problems as we all shared our stories. Camille had us transfixed with her journey from childhood to award-winning photographer with 100+ country travels and A list contacts. I’d share it here but…you had to be on the trip ;o). Anne and Liam are a good craic and Jock is at least 6 funny guys rolled into one. I couldn’t go with another “tour” company again.

We chased in very familiar territory adding only Lubbock, Texas, to where I’d been before. Iowa and Missouri would have been nice, but that asymptote stayed strong bar a visit to Lincoln. You go where the weather is after all.

As for the weather it was a curious affair. On previous trips there have been no more than 3-4 chase days in total, yet during this week we have woken up to a Storm Prediction Centre slight or moderate risk every day and have chased all but one when we had to reposition across 4 states; each chase day also finished with something to talk about.

The one thing that was lacking was serious rotation especially during the hours of daylight. We just weren’t going to get a tornado to video and photograph. If you chase, a tornado is a bonus. If you look at it any other way you’ll spoil your trip. So let’s see what we ticked off on the checklist:

·         Great structures

·         Amazing sunsets

·         Mammatus clouds

·         Fantastic, primeval lightning displays

·         Torrential rain

·         Drove through a gustnado

·         Hail (though not large)

·         Hail fog

·         Wall clouds

·         White knuckle chases (and chased) through extreme weather

·         Celebrity chasers including the Dominator

·         Decent food (only 2 burgers)

·         Hopefully some decent photographs and video

Will I go back? It’s an expensive, arduous and time consuming hobby and means being away from the family for the best part of a fortnight.Tomorrow we face the very long journey "the jet lag direction" back to the UK. which takes a week to get ove. It’s also not without risk no matter how well it is managed. Right now, and after four trips I’ve seen a bit of nearly everything. A big fat wedge would be nice, but I’m not losing any sleep over it. I used to dream of tornadoes (insert comment if you like…) but haven’t really since Campo so it might finally be out of the system. Liam won’t be back any time soon as he has other stuff to do and I’m feeling the same. I think. my boys will want to go when they are old enough so we’ll see. The only thing I can’t resist is temptation ;o)

Grand total miles: 3162

Thanks for taking time out to read this ramble :o)

Cheers
Adam