On checking out of the hotel this morning one thing was apparent: it was HOT.
We make our way over to the Our Place Family Restaurant for a good breakfast and with plenty of time to kill so travel to Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose. The Paluxy River flows through the park and under the water are well preserved dinosaur footprints which are very cool. What is not cool is the weather, the extreme heat forces us back into the oasis of air conditioning in the Suburban. We have one more stop then exit the park as the heat is just too much, passing by the Creation Evidence Museum..I kid you not...so it's off to the DQ for ice cream. I have a chocolate sundae, Rory a Blizzard Pecan Cluster.
There's still a pile of time to kill before there's any weather to consider so we head back east on the US67 through Alvarado with Waxahachie in our sights. The mercury passes through 100f and the prospect of doing any kind of outside tourist stuff has disappeared with the heat.
As for the weather, the SPC has upgraded the forecast to an enhanced risk, with a slight risk in our area. Bearing in mind today is our last chase day, the enhanced risk is much further east and is out of reach; we need to be back in Oklahoma City tonight so we'll play with the slight risk. We'll have a punt on McKinney which is north east of Dallas and will see what happens. Just before 16:00 we get to Waxahachie and stop at Stuckey's, another cultural reference from a Dead Kennedys song (Winnebego Warrior). The chain is a shadow of its former self; I've never been to one before, so itch scratched. It's still stupidly hot...Rory insists we get some beef sticks but we decide against getting a bumper sticker...We enter Dallas...and a change of plan, heading west on I30 as a mesoscale discussion has been issued by the SPC with the potential for a severe weather watch. We pass the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum...
We pass through Fort Worth and sure enough at around 16:45 a severe thunderstorm watch is issued, and shortly after a cell pops up to our west.
We stop at Weatherford for the team photo, and while that is getting sorted out a cell explodes to our south west. Cripes...game on! We dart south on Highway 171 then on to Granbury Highway, Texas 51 south to Fairview, stopping at various points for photos, trying to keep ahead of the rain and hail then moving on. This now severe warned storm is spectacular and is all around us, even the 15mm full frame lens on the Z7 barely makes a dent in it, the 13mm equivalent lens on the iPhone is not much better; this thing is huge. There's CG lightning, a billowing updraft, two and a quarter inch hail in the core and it has topped out at 59,000 feet. There's also a rain foot as the outflow blasts rain outward in a huge gust. Spectacular!
We then do an about turn and head back north, retracing our steps. We need to punch through the core, now weakened to get back to Weatherford; the rain is torrential with the characteristic twang of hail on the roof. We get on the other side and head north through Weatherford, which is a nice, quaint town with square and courthouse. Just north of town there are police lights and a really nasty road traffic collision between two vehicles. It's now 20:00 and Google maps says it's 188 miles and 2.50 hours to our base hotel in Oklahoma City.
What a spectacular end to the tour, a final day promising little other than a punt on the way back to our base hotel. Hopefully the bar will still be open when we get back. It isn't. And to add insult to injury EE decided to cut of both our roaming packages at 21:30 tonight despite telling the idiots we land back in the UK on Tuesday which is two days away. And they don't open until the morning, so that's to be sorted out tomorrow.
Last thing...after a 14+ hour day...we have both been bitten death by various bugs, Rory has about 15 bites, I have 8 and both my ankles have swollen up.
Total miles: tbc
