Tuesday, 21 May 2019

Day 3 - Repositioning again...


It was a long day yesterday which doesn’t end when arriving at the hotel. Blog to finish, photos to back up, photos to choose for the blog, upload all to the blog and publish, do any facebook updates, charge batteries, clean cameras etc. etc. I still cannot get the laptop to connect successfully to WiFi.

Went to bed at 00:30, slept through the bowing line and was awake at 06:30. Should be fully acclimatised by tomorrow. On the road by 09:00 and travelled the short distance north to Moms Diner at Hawley for breakfast which was distinctly average.  

We’re heading north today rather than the anticipated play in North East Texas. SPC has revised today’s forecast so we’re heading north into Oklahoma and possibly Kansas on US277. It’s a good 6-7 hours’ drive but will put us in a good place for the some upcoming severe weather days expected in Kansas. We pass through Anson Tx and drive towards its courthouse which looks uncannily like the one in the first Back to the Future movie…charge the flux capacity, accelerate to 88mph…

We head north, through Wichita Falls and have a pit stop near Geronimo on the I44 then cross into Oklahoma across the flooded and aptly named Red River then through Lawton and across the even more red and flooded Canadian River before stopping near Guthrie for a Subway.

Being a health fanatic…I ask for “a bit of everything” on my foot long steak and cheese sub from the salad bar. This translates into the local vernacular as “a lot everything”. The guy could only close it and get it in the bag by jumping on it several times. It took three of us to carry the bloody thing back to the van.

We’re off north again heading for Kansas and a slight risk with a 5% tornado risk so hopefully we’ll have a good chase in the late afternoon and early evening before retiring to our hotel in Wichita.

We eventually arrive in Wichita and join US77 northbound. Small storms are firing but charging eastwards at 50 knots. Doesn’t look too promising, in fact it’s a total bust so we’re off for dinner at the Redrock Canyon. This proves to be very nice and to finish of a healthy day I order the house salad from the very switched on and knowledgeable waiter - chicken, avocado, dates and other nice stuff; the only issue is that it comes in a bowl about three feet deep and I can barely make a dent in it and reluctantly have to leave most of it.

We head back to the Baymont Hotel in Wichita for the night. As we travel through the city I have to say it looks very nice, a cut above most places in the Mid-West, there's clearly some money here as we pass the BMW and Porsche garages. 

We get to the hotel and this too is a significant step up from the usual fare, very nice and it has an elevator(!) so no lugging the cases up the stairs and...blow me the laptop connects to the Wifi first time. What luxury!

All is not lost on today's bust as we’ll be in prime position tomorrow for a slight risk in eastern Kansas.

Total Miles: 543



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