Day 7 - On the Rebound…

Yesterday’s long and amazing day required a celebratory Shiner Bock or three and an Allsup’s something and cheese sandwich all consumed after 10pm. In retrospect this was not a good idea, my kingdom for a bottle of Gaviscon. A severe warned storm rolled in after 1 a.m. which further disrupted proceedings and caused an undiagnosed clattering noise from the bathroom…seriously, it was like sharing a room with Cosy Powell. Next thing the alarm was going off at 6.15 a.m. So glad I sorted everything out last night, just need to get up, shower and figure out which article of clothing I carefully laid out goes where…

So today we’re returning to Colorado, a cursory check on Google Maps suggests it’s a mere 517 miles to Lamar where we were the other day. 

On the road at 7 a.m. and off to McDonald’s. Avoiding the horrific McGriddle, Alex orders two sausage McMuffin “meals”, a barely edible affair which included an oily hash brown. Dreaming of Gaviscon we say goodbye to San Angelo and head north on Texas 208. It’s raining, then sun breaks through; we reach the I20 at Loraine and continue north on county road 139. 

Today is an double anniversary, first an all time day at Campo, Colorado and the second, El Reno, Oklahoma and the sad deaths of Twistex team members Tim Samaras, his son Paul and Carl Young. 

A small tortoise randomly crosses the road. We continue north. The SPC update is fresh out, a slight risk with an associated 2% tornado risk in eastern Colorado up on the High Plains. Perfect. 

We have a pit stop at Stripes at Snyder, politely turning down the two tacos for $4 special. A hearse is parked next to us; I hold the door open for the smartly attired, elderly undertaker, and I get a “thank you sir” delivered in typical Texan style. Back to our northern safari on US84, popping an indigestion tablet as we go.

A minor issue: a good 4g signal and this blog updates like a charm, but for some reason the occasional 5g signal is positively pedestrian. We stop in Lubbock, the morning sun shining and the sky blue; even the KFC looks great. We head up I27 towards Plainview.

Amarillo rolls into view for the third time on this trip, one of my most visited cities in the Plains. A quick stop at Walmart and we head west past the Cadillac Ranch then up farm road  2381 north. The plan is to have a picnic in Boise City in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Me and Alex have already scoffed ours, another chef’s salad disappears. it’s amazing how much groceries are in the US. Alex got a small pot of mixed olives for $5. A similar size in the UK is £2. I had to Google that; I went into a supermarket once back home, didn’t like it and never went back. 

We eventually stop for lunch in Dalhart at the Rita Blanca Park, very green, leafy and well kept. It also has a disc golf net so out comes the frisbee. Arron thinks it’s a rubbish bin. Some innocent play followed by Alex going into pro mode, launches one in my direction, it hits a boundary layer causing a downdraft redirecting the missile which smacks me straight in the eye nearly destroying my specs. While assessing this potentially serious head injury the dozy arse manages to deposit the oily contents of his olives all over my suitcase. Doyle. Turns out he’s also covered himself in oil, to the extent that he has to change his shorts. It’s actually all over the place with several other things now displaying a glossy sheen. Mega Doyle. And the frisbee can’t be found either. The criteria for getting left behind is reviewed, some how he’s still with us. We head north up US385.

We drive into Colorado, through Campo and have a pit stop at Springfield before resuming north. A severe warned storm has bubbled up to our south west. It’s 16:00, 9 hours since we set off.

It’s 17:00 and we’re sat in the Days Inn in Lamar, Colorado having gone through the most unnecessarily, painfully long check in process. As we’ve got time to kill we cross the road to Tavern 1301 for food and a drink. I was going to have a salad but as we’ll be chasing late I force down most of a burger.

It’s 18:20 and we head north towards Kit Carson with a severe storm in our sights. 

We head west at Kit Carson. There’s a bowl like lowering and a 84 knot rotation marker.  We head west on Co94 and are looking straight at our storm with a clearly defined wall cloud with intermittent lightning. It was rotating, then an outflow boundary from the south arrived, kicked up another small cell in front of ours and put paid to a tornado.  So close again. We retrace our steps back towards Kit Carson, it’s dark and there’s plenty of lightning so a couple of stops are in order. We get back to the Days Inn at Lamar at 22:15 mountain  

A long day, 16 hours but that’s 7 for 7 storm days. Out at 8 tomorrow. 

Total miles: 710

Day 6 - Back to the Lone Star State…and a Tornado Emergency..!

After yesterday’s fun we have a slightly later start after a decent night’s sleep. Alex voted with his feet and insisted on his own room (he owes me), the Super 8 in Liberal was not as modern as some hotels but was a bit cheaper…”Super 8” = “Super rate”. Didn’t realise that for years. 

Breakfast was at the Pancake House which is on East Pancake Boulevard. Which came first the southern fried chicken or the over easy egg? I had Canadian bacon, expecting UK style back bacon. Instead it came as thick round slices. Tasted good overall and the service was great and funny too. As good as I remember from my last visit in 2019. We give Dorothy’s House a miss…

Today we’re back into Texas. This morning the SPC upgraded the slight risk to enhanced, and the nader risk to 5%. That’s the 6th day of severe weather on the bounce with more to come. By day 9 we could be up in South Dakota facing a long drive back on day 10. We head south on good ‘ol US83 towards Perryton where me and Rory stayed last year; sadly a week later a tornado came to town and killed three people. 

A long drive south with a quick Subway stop in Amarillo, past Plainview on I27 and onward towards Lubbock. It’s just gone 15:00. At Lubbock we head south west on US62 toward Seminole and stop in Brownfield for a pit stop and a reassessment of the weather. Donald J Trump is found guilty on all 34 charges of falsifying business records; no doubt that will further polarise US politics if that is even possible. Our vehicle has New York plates so we keep a low profile. We drop south east on Highway 137 towards Welch with Big Spring on our sights. It’s 16:30. 

The severe storm to our south has just gone tornado warned at 17:05. 17:18 echo tops showing it’s height at 63,000 and a tornado is on the ground! We’re not far away. A 126 knot couplet shows up on radar.

Jesus…a Tornado Emergency has been declared with Midland somewhere near its path. That’s the most serious thing I’ve been involved in all my years of chasing: damage threat CATASTROPHIC with four inch hail.

We continue south east past Big Spring. Everyone has gone quiet, conscious of what might be happening in Midland. We drop down south on farm road 33. At 18:00 the current tornado warning expires and a new one is issued. We turn right on to farm road 2401. Echo top is showing our storm at 64,000 feet. Huge. At 18:45 a tornado warning reappears with a tornado confirmed, we’re in good position.

We continue down farm road 2401 and onto 3035. The structure is amazing, a huge corkscrewing updraft. Somewhere in there is a tornado, rain wrapped from our position. We’re in the routine now: stop, photos, get out of the precep (don’t get smacked on the head by half inch hail Alex), jump in the Suburban, spread mud everywhere, move on, repeat. We stop at several places, go south on farm road 2401, then east. then south on Texas 349 eventually reaching Rankin where the sun is lighting up the decaying storm. 

We stop at Rankin for grab and go at Allsup’s. There’s a whole pile of beige stuff, who knows what it is…we get a sandwich. Alex insists we get 12 bottles of Shiner Bock for our hotel in San Angelo which is an hour and a half away. It’s currently 20:20. 

We arrive at the Hawthorne Suites, check in and have an impromptu lobby party with beers all round. Somehow Alex is in his own room again and looks suitably smug. My cash card works today, just as well really…

Tomorrow we have to be in the Surburban at 7 a.m. for a loooong journey to Colorado. Magic day.

Total miles: 610

Day 5 - Campo Redux…High Plains Magic..?

A half decent night’s sleep and yet more unsubstantiated accusations of snoring and it’s time to get up for an 08:00 start. For the first time in this trip the PhD in showerology fails to deliver. Neither I nor Alex can figure out how to get the bath tap to divert to the shower. No idea. So we took it in turns to roll around in 2” of luke warm water in the bath like demented seals. Even Andy who can debug spaceships had to resort to Google. 

Breakfast was at Lubbock’s Breakfast House. Decent  and came with four pieces of bacon and sourdough toast. 

Plans to visit the Jack Sizemore RV museum in Amarillo, always worth the trip, go west; they’re closed today so we visit Ransom Canyon and The Steel House by architect Robert Bruno. See last year’s entry when I went with Rory. We head north on Texas 400. 

So today the SPC has a slight risk up against the Rockies and a 2% tornado risk up in the High Plains in SE Colorado, across the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and NE New Mexico.

In 2010 I saw 5 tornadoes in this region including the legendary Campo tornado which was also on a 2% tornado risk day. I’ve been through there a couple of times since then, it sure does bring back memories. A repeat of that day would do very nicely, thank you. 

Alex has been “on it” with the drone and GoPro and made some cool footage. He also sent me a cracking photo I’m now using as my profile picture on social media. 

One of the irritating things about Blogspot on the iPhone is justification. Sometimes it just won’t left justify (see top paragraph) and the double space for full stop stops working. Like now. Grrr…and photos are not loading into the place I’ve selected either, necessitating cutting and pasting further messing up the formatting.

We have a pit stop Allsup’s at Plainview. Apparently the Allsup’s taco is a chaser staple. Will have to try one at some point. We continue north on US87, stop at Amarillo for some picnic items and head north. Irritatingly my prepaid Mastercard is declined (for the second time on this trip) this time at the self service till at Walmart. We continue north on US87. The 2% tornado risk has been updated and has drifted north west covering more of eastern Colorado.

We roll into Stratford in the north of the Texas Panhandle for our first picnic of the tour. The fridge in the back of the Suburban has gone U/S so we need to eat up quickly. The picnic area is shut but we sit in the bandstand in the city park. 

We’re right in the bullseye of the dust bowl of the 1930s; settlers were offered 160 then 640 acre plots to farm to encourage western expansion. Several years of decent rains led to successful harvests, however this was atypical, and when the usual semi-arid conditions returned was when the problems started. The virgin ground was held together by deep rooted native grasses, when this was ploughed up and dried out the earth turned to dust and blew away creating huge dust storms. Many people went bust and left in droves. 

The land in the Texas panhandle is very flat, and to a none expert looks prime farming territory. We cross into Oklahoma…on Donald J Trump Highway…A quick stop at Loves in Boise City and we’re underway again. 

A short snooze later and we cross into Colorado, and through the aforementioned Campo. A very small town with a big legacy. An amazing day 14 years ago on Friday. See 2010 for details and the 5/5 tornadoes captured. 

We stop in Springfield for a Subway and a there’s a custom truck in the car park with a hail shield and array of cameras. You’d get pulled over in the UK, “is this your vehicle sir?”

A severe warned storm has popped up to our north west, so it would be rude not to. We continue north and past the Two Buttes (pronounced “beauts”). We’re now on mountain time which is -7 vs back home. Sloshing between mountain and central can get very confusing. 

The severe warning has gone but there’s a nice base and then a sudden down burst with some mammatus. The Chaser Chicks are right behind us 😜. We’re south of Lamar and the severe warning is back with a 3” hail marker and some rotation.

We head south and have a stop at Wiley for photos. We’ve crossed the boundary back into warmer air. We head south. 

18:04 - tornado warning!!! Funnel!!!

Head south. Stop. Photos. Repeat. This storm is playing with us, on and off tornado warnings. At 19:10 clear rotation is visible, as close to getting a tornado as you will ever get.  Alex got a hailstone right in his ear 😂 and I got to chat to the Chaser Chicks 😁

We finally know it’s time to stop, the day ends with an amazing sunset. The air turns cold as we get enveloped in outflow and we’re off for our 2 and a half drive to Liberal Kansas. An unbeatable 2% day, High Plains Magic indeed!

We turn off left at Colorado 116 east. Our storm is to our north and has a nice wall cloud, a small hook and is still severe warned. It’s getting dark so time to say goodbye, it’s been fun. Oh go on then, we’ll take a lightning display of you insist.

Total miles: 557