Day Three!

Yesterday, we departed Weatherford, OK at 10:30a.m. We went south toward Gainesville, TX. We ate at a Braum’s Ice Cream place. Awesome milk shakes. We, then, headed east toward Sherman, TX, and then on to Paris, TX. We ended up in Denison, TX (Loy Lake) while we waited for two cells about 30 minutes north to form. Quick side note: Denison, TX is the birthplace of Dwight Eisenhower. There was a statue (of his head) as a landmark to honor him. Check out the cool picture we snapped…

While we waited, we took pictures, played Frisbee, listened to music, skipped rocks, and had a friendly encounter with a local sheriff deputy and the historian of the park (an old cat woman).

Inside joke of the day…“old people smell like a mixture of cats, kitty litter, and expired perfume.” Once the cells developed, we began to travel north toward Antler, OK (switching states once again). We decided to punch through the core of the cell because there was no significant surface rotation. The storm split because there was anticyclonic rotation and cyclonic rotation, but there was not enough low level rotation to produce tornadic activity. By punching through the core, we experienced 1 inch hail and heavy precipitation. Trees posed a problem with seeing parts of the storm, but there were breaks which helped.

We, then, made our way north to McAlester, OK in hopes of tracking a developing cell; however, that did not work out needless to say. Therefore, we called it a night, and checked into a Holiday Inn Express. We ended the night with dinner at Chili’s and a late night Wally World trip.

As for the next four days, it looks mighty quiet; however, the models are predicting more storms early next week for the Northern Plains region. This area includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Colorado, and portions of Kansas. Therefore, this means we will be sightseeing over the next few days. As for what we see or where will be going, that is all up to our copilots. It should be a fun, eventful few days despite a lack of stormy weather.

Our first stop…Amarillo, TX! Today was mostly a driving day. It took us 8 hours to get from McAlester, OK to Amarillo, TX; however, we did make a few stops on the way. One stop in particular was at the Cracker Barrel in Shawnee, OK. This was the first Cracker Barrel experience for one of our storm chasers; so needless to say, it was an experience! We even racked up on some childhood candy! And we even got tatted up...

Although my zebra looks a little blurry...Don't worry, it is just a stick on from my bubble gum wrappe, but Zelda would be proud! Our car quickly went from a sugar rush to a sugar crash! We passed through cities like Oklahoma City, OK (again); Shamrock, OK; and Groom, TX.

There were some pretty nice sights. I have only been to TX twice… Once, when I was a child, we went to Houston, but I barely remember it. And, second, I went on a mission trip to Henderson, TX, which was so close to LA that there wasn’t much of a difference. Therefore, this explains my excitement to see the difference in terrain and way of life in the heart of Texas.

As for tomorrow, we plan to go to Palo Duro Canyon State Park; and we will be eating at a BBQ place for lunch and the Big Texan: Home of the 72 oz. steak for dinner. YUMM!! I wonder if either of these places can beat the half and half roll, or as we like to call the interracial roll...

Stay tuned for the stories and adventures of an MSU storm chaser!

Inside Jokes…”Old people smell like a mixture of cats, kitty litter, and expired perfume,” “Soooo…Scarryyyy,” back seat tweeting, eye candy, and…

Megan: “Is there a Walmart near by?”

Mike Brown: “Maybe. What do you need?”

Megan: “Hmmm…stuff…”