May 1 - 7, 2004 "Chase" Summaries (Click any image to enlarge) Chasers: Dave Lewison, Chris Kridler, Scott McPartland, Pete Ventre, Brian Crean |
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 MAY 2: Sunday. Hanging around with Charles Edwards and George Kourounis of Cloud9 Tours. |
 We also went on a pilgrimage to see the now infamous "TAP2" brought to light by Blake Naftel. It DOES exist!! |
 Scott, Pete and Brian also arrived today, in Scott's decked-out Nissan Xterra, complete with removeable hail shielding. |
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 MAY 3: Went to visit the SPC/NSSL as is customary each year for us. Bought T-shirts, talked with some other chasers. They were in the middle of a 5-yr anniversary media frenzy of the May 3 1999 outbreak. Yeah...no such luck today! |
 MAY 4: Stayed over in Salina (my new favorite city in KS). Went to see the "Garden of Eden" in Lucas KS. |
 Pete & Brian were thoroughly amazed. |
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 Scott, demonstrating how far we've come since the first telephones. |
 "Where to next", Chris says? |
 Why, it's the EXACT geographic centroidal center of the contiguous USA! Yuppers, in all its glory! |
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 There were at least one picturesque shot. |
 Brian found it too. :-) |
 Some nice bug splats too. Is that one RED?? |
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 But can it get any better? |
 Oh baby, it's the largest ball of twine in the world! |
 Nuff said! So, we departed this most impressive collection of landmarks that northcentral KS has to offer... |
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 MAY 5: We headed north into Nebraska. At the Country Kitchen in York, we ran across this little treasure. Brian says, "If you're out pimpin' in Nebraska, this is the car to do it in!" |
 Ahh, feels like home (Orange County Choppers is across the river from where I live). Dunno what they were doing at this rest stop on I-80 in Iowa, but we couldn't find any signs of Paul Sr., Paul Jr., Mikey, Vinnie or Cody. |
 What do you expect to find in the center of Iowa? Why, it's a genuine Danish windmill of course! [What a stupid question.] |
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MAY 6: Are we having fun yet Chris? |
Another mild chance of storms in eastern Iowa along a quasi-stationary front. Mmmyeah...fat chance. |
I did get to try this stuff though. "Energade...the drink to power chasers through the ugliest of death ridges!" |
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We stopped in Muscatine Iowa to get data via WiFi. Seeing that it was utterly hopeless, we went sightseeing AGAIN. This is the mighty Mississippi river. |
Scott videographing scenic downtown Muscatine. |
MAY 7: Will there be storms today, Momma? NO!!! We ran into Cloud9 Tours again at a Sapp Bros. in Omaha. |
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The cap came close to breaking, but no dice. Same setup as before, but not enough of a kicker to set off the CAPE. Here's Scott & George reviewing their latest "infomercial." |
I introduced Scott to "AMP" by Mt. Dew. Oh yeah...they've got him now. |
Oh please, make it stop! |
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Another sunny end to a sunny day. Figures. |
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