Day #1 – July 7th

Well the tour is officially under way.  After our mini exploration tour last night, we are up and on the road early heading north to Wyoming, South Dakota or Montana.  There is a supercell that we are hoping will produce some nice photographic shots.

Mid morning we make a quick stop at a welcome center to visit the rest rooms and to switch drivers.  I am totally blown away by the vast wide open areas.  Being a small inner  city dweller with suburban towns surrounding me, you just don’t see space like this back east in New England.  The hills are rolling green with cows and horses grazing and an occasional deer or two.  The hilltops are studded with pines and other trees, and rolled hay bales dot the terrain around each farm or ranch.

Close to noon we stop in Douglas to pick up lunch – today’s menu a Subway Club with chips and iced tea.  We check the models and which indicates a change in our plans!  Of course it dose – this is storm chasing!!!  We head of in the Northeasterly direction to chase a supercell.  This little baby will take us through Wyoming-Montana-South Dakota- Wyoming- South Dakota—–I don’t know how many times we went back and forth through each state… it became a little comical as Mike would say “Now entering Wyoming!” etc…. etc…

We drove through the Black Hills Forest, Boulder Canyon, Spearfish, Deadwood, Sturgis and every where in between.  We had the most incredible rainbow that seemed to follow us all afternoon.  Sometimes it was a double rainbow and sometimes it seemed to  be three dimensional beside the van as we drove.  I now know why the black hills is know for gold…All those rainbows are leaving a pot of gold behind!  Dang who has the skittles!!!  We were treated to three generations of the storm.  During the first development, we were treated to a short lived funnel cloud which quickly made it’s way back to it’s Mama!  You would think it was done and it would regenerate.  And each time it did we would get pea sized hail.  At one point we stopped at the Wyoming welcome center near Sundance figuring we had a great view and could watch it for a bit.  No sooner had we left the van then the hail started.  It may only have been pea sized but those little boogers sting!  LOL…  We saw all the cows, horses and deer  being pelted by hail.  Those poor creatures must have pretty thick skin.  Can’t imagine what larger sized hail would do to them.  Yikes!

All in all it was a really fun chase.  I never felt that we were in any danger.  Just like driving through a sever thunderstorm on a windy road…you just stay focused on where you are going.  Mike is an extremely skilled chaser.  He scored us some wonderful rainbows, a great little super cell, hail and some awesome photogenic opportunities.   We drove on to Rapid City, SD to spend the night, stopping at Denny’s for our dinner where the oddest thing happened… we heard Christmas music!

Monday morning Mike wants to head out about 9 am so we have a little time to catch up on rest.   I am a very happy girl!