So trip no.12 gets underway, this year with Rory in tow.
I’ve added a few bits and bobs this year with a Nikon Z8/24-120 combo now accompanying the Z7. The D800 has served me well, but technology moves on apace and the mirrorless cameras are lighter and smaller so take up less space, the D800 gifted to Alex for astrophotography. I’ll still be using a couple of adapted lenses, namely the Tamron 15-30 f2.8 and the compact Sigma 100-400 which have proved their worth over the last few trips. I did consider upgrading to the small and optically superior Nikon 14-24 Z but baulked at the cost for a lens that wouldn’t see much use. I’ve also stumped up for a reconditioned Apple M1 MacBook Air which came with a 1TB SSD obviating the need for a separate hard drive to back up photos. It also has an actual word processor so no more using the text editor…Alex…After some fun last year with film cameras, I’ve brought an Olympus Mju ii and Nikon L35AD compact camera from the 1980s, the latter with a data back that can imprint the date on the film…that works up to 2007. Camera food consists of 3 rolls of Kodak Gold 200, and a roll each of Portra 160, Portra 400 and Ektar 100.
The blog is a whole lot easier to do these days, the photos being airdropped directly from the iPhone 16 pro and the blog uploaded on the hoof using the wireless hotspot. I’ve also got Photoshop so can process camera photos should I feel the need.
So this year’s base is La Quinta Inn and Suites in Denver, being later in the season this makes sense as the storm track drifts north, plus its within easy reach of the High Plains (essentially the flat bits that abut the Rockies), also a great place to chase being generally flat and away from the massed chaser convergences that have been prevalent this year, western Oklahoma being a recent example; zillions of cars on the roads is tedious and potentially very dangerous.
This year has been pretty active with higher than above average tornadoes including some EF4s and sadly significant destruction and fatalities. A cursory look at the Storm Prediction Centre (i.e. in depth fretting and pessimism over the forecasts which is standard) looks like a marginal risk in eastern Colorado and north eastern New Mexico on Day 1 (Wednesday) which looks like where we’ll start off with some uncertainty after that, nothing synoptically (i.e. big scale) that stands out in the next few days.
Denver is also advantageous as it’s much more straightforward to get to being Newcastle, Heathrow, Denver. No requirement for an overnight stay, a flight from Newcastle at a civilised 09:25 (thanks Liane for the lift), a 3 hour layover at Heathrow followed by a 10 hour flight to Denver arriving at 16:30 local (i.e. Mountain) being 23:30 BST…that 7 hours behind…
The flight from Newcastle was on time, but some congestion at Heathrow required a holding pattern over London and some unscheduled site seeing, spotting Lords and Oval cricket grounds, Wembley Stadium and the homes of Spurs, Arsenal, West Ham, Chelsea and Fulham plus all the tourist Meccas including Buckingham Palace.
Everything went tickety boo until we got to Heathrow. The flight was actually on time and our Premium Economy ticket would give us some version of priority boarding behind the diamond encrusted, platinum world travellers etc. Not so fast…Rory gets “randomly” selected for “enhanced” security screening and by the time he successfully navigated his way through that we are now at the end of a very long queue, Rory cursing this long line of queue jumping economy passengers as “work shy peasants” a statement steeped in so much irony I’m not sure where to begin…
Anyway we eventually board, and my adroit online check in seconds after it opened has paid dividends as we are right at the front with extra legroom, small victories and all that. We are with BA (on an Airbus A350 to be exact) and I’m reminded of a previous fellow chaser who waited 6 hours on a plane on the runway at Heathrow before it was deemed unserviceable, was deplaned for an overnight stay in a hotel and then bumped from Business to Economy the next day, arrive late in Dallas too late for the last connection to Oklahoma City, endured another night in a hotel before finally catching a flight the next morning…that got most of the way before it did an about turn back to Dallas, clearly not fancying running the gauntlet of a line of storms. He eventually made it the next day.
While entertaining Rory with this cautionary tale (and why we arrive a day early), it became apparent that we were going nowhere fast. The ground support equipment that provides power to the plane while it sits being refuelled could not be uncoupled from the plane, necessitating a long wait for engineers to arrive. Finally sorted, we taxied for 20 minutes finally taking off 90 minutes late but are somehow still on time. Go figure.
Finally landed, negotiated immigration and, using the powers of Google AI found the hotel courtesy bus which went to the wrong hotel….A 15 minute Uber later and we’re checked in and properly knackered, 20 hours door to door.
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