2012--Day 7
Day 7
We’ve reached the halfway mark. Today is a travel day, but already
interesting for reasons other than weather.
A late (yay!) briefing confirmed our worst fears (boo!), in that the Ridge
of Death is setting up across the central U.S.
This means a wrench has been thrown into the severe weather machine, and
will require several days to repair.
While in Arkansas (Fayettville, I think) we drove
by a teeny little store called Walmart Express.
Isn’t this just a bit ironic, seeing that the Walmart world headquarters
is about 20 miles up the road?
The current plan is to travel west back into
Oklahoma, then head north on I35/135 through Wichita, and cut west on I70 to
reach Colby, Kansas, a place we bedded down on last year’s trip. If all goes according to Hoyle, it should be
about 8-9 hours of driving. It looks
like Rocky Mountain National Park is tomorrow’s destination, which will take
about five hours to reach from Colby.
Parts of our travel route through OK and AR had
markers indicating we were on the Trail of Tears, the route taken by the
Cherokee (and other tribes) when they were forced out of the southeastern U. S.
toward what is now eastern Oklahoma.
More than one out of four Cherokee died along the way. I imagine there are native Americans today
who, out of sheer principle, never carry $20 bills, and I can’t say as I blame
them in the least.
Weatherwise, there’s plenty of sunshine here in
eastern OK, but it’s accompanied by high humidity (dew points in the mid-upper
60s—ick). Typical for this area at this
time of year, which makes me glad I live where I do. Although, gas is certainly cheaper here (the
lowest price yet: $3.179 per gallon somewhere between OK and AR).
We just passed a white van painted with black cow
spots. It’s always fascinating ro me to
see the extent to which people are willing to make personal statements,
especially idiotic ones.
The van undergoes a natural cycle of lulls and
excitement when we’re not in chase mode.
Right now is quiet time, aside from Adele setting fire to the rain (she
must be in Ohio). Many of the children
are napping (it’s afternoon, after all).
A little while ago, however, things were much different. Somehow I got involved in a discussion about
the dynamics of male-female friendships.
I guess this makes sense, as I teach dynamics. Unfortunately I couldn’t use any equations or
diagrams, so I felt a bit out of my depth.
Nevertheless, I was able to reference the great philosopher Crystal (from
When Harry Met Sally), who claimed
that men and women couldn’t be friends with each other because of the, well, dynamic involved. We further surmised, however, that this
statement was made when the wise sage was perhaps not so wise (during his early
20s), and that perhaps men and women in this age group would indeed have a
difficult time maintaining a close friendship, and that it likely gets easier
with age.
We’ve seen a remarkable number of cars in
accidents and ditches, the latest a minivan pointed in the opposite direction
of the highway just east of Tulsa. It
would be understandable if the weather was bad, but the highway is bone dry,
which means they had to really work to get it that way. Never fails to amaze me how the simple action
of getting behind the controls of a 1+ ton shell of metal and glass makes one
invincible and immune to the laws of physics (and the road in many cases).
It just occurred to me that it’s very likely that
we will not set foot in Iowa or Missouri on this trip—sorry, Pat. However, we did do New Mexico, Texas,
Oklahoma and Arkansas, and will most likely get one of the Dakotas if not both,
Wyoming, Montana, possibly Nebraska, and at least one Canadian province.
Had a quick load (gas and supplies) and unload (no
explanation necessary) stop just west of Tulsa at a QT station
($3.189/gallon!). QT is one of the
better watering holes (in either direction, so to speak) in the Midwest, as
their food and drink selections would rival that of the Cheesecake Factory (no
Arizona teas, however—shame on you!).
One of the stranger items of fare were these things called cheeseburger
rollers, which appear to be cylindrical hamburger patties with the cheese rolled
inside. They were cooking alongside the
hot dogs and sausages on (what else?) rollers.
They looked, to put it mildly, disgusting. Being a scientist who received a significant
portion of his professional training in the Show Me State (as well as naturally
curious), I decided that this needed empirical testing. Given the nature of the subject matter, I
decided that a visual-only experiment would be more than sufficient.
Research question:
are cheeseburger rollers gross?
Hypothesis:
yes, they are.
Data and methodology:
cheeseburger rollers, eyes. Use eyes to
determine whether to accept the null (not gross) or alternate (gross) hypothesis.
Results:
upon visual inspection, they look pretty damn gross, at the (at least) 95%
confidence level. Therefore, we reject
the null hypothesis.
Conclusion:
Cheeseburger rollers are gross. QED.
Since my experiment was so convincing, no further
testing will be required. Please feel
free to forward any experimental results to the contrary. We have yet to stop at last year’s group’s
favorite gas station (Kum n Go), but if we do I’ll try to devise some appropriate
experiment.
Shortly after entering Kansas on I35 from
Oklahoma, I caught sight of a sharp Kia sedan (never thought I would ever
string those three words together) with Kansas plates that read ‘ROCKNDD.’ I thought it was a free-wheeling father driving
the car, but when we passed it a woman was driving. I’m guessing she borrowed her husband’s car
for the day, as hers must be in the shop.
And it seemed like they could have squeezed in the ‘A’ for ‘dad,’ right? Right?
Made a rest stop near Belle Plaine, KS. The first pictures of the day were taken
here. There is a tiny storm about 20
miles west of Wichita, and we were about 20 miles south of Wichita, which means we were about…wait a
sec…carry the 3…28 miles from it as the crow flies (thank you Pythagoras and 9th
grade algebra). It’s quite bizarre, as
it’s moving toward the southwest, basically the opposite direction most storms
go. On the other hand, this morning’s
Dodge City sounding had fantastic forecasted instability but north and
northeasterly winds (including aloft!), so this makes some semblance of sense
(note the direction of right-moving storms on the hodograph). I’ve included some upper-air analyses from
this morning as well—northeasterly winds at 300 hPa! It shows up on the Wichita radar, but it’s
not warned so we’re not entirely sure what to do about it. Quick update…the storm seems to be petering
out, so no chasing. At least we got some
decent shots of it. According to Gustavo
it has a big enough anvil to be classified as cumulonimbus incus, even though
it’s in Kansas and not Peru. Oh wait…incus, not incas.
At the same rest stop (see the picture for the
name—further evidence that Kansans have great senses of humor), the men’s room
(and the ladies too, I assume) had the coolest hand dryer, a Dyson Air
Blade. It was so cool that I did
something I’ve never done before in my life (at least that I’ll admit to,
anyway): I took a picture in the men’s room.
Gustavo should be honored that I chose to document the moment with his
hands—you’re welcome.
License plate update (and further evidence of
funny Kansans, Bob Dole notwithstanding): Kansas, old green Dodge Caravan,
‘CARTMAN.’ Apparently Eric grew up, left
South Park and moved east. Wonder if
he’s a motorcycle cop….
We just passed a sign for the Kansas Underground
Salt Museum. If only there were time to
do it all….
On the drive up I135 we passed the small town of
Elyria, KS (population around -13). I
was tickled by this because my Dad’s family lives outside of Elyria
(Ohio). I mentioned it to Gustavo and he
wondered if the Kansas town was named by former Ohio residents who moved
there—apparently he was right. He’s the
man in my book.
We just turned onto I70 west. We just saw a sign for Colby (‘Oasis of the
Plains’), advertising Eden is now JUST THREE HOURS AWAY. Not sure if we’ll set a mileage record today,
but we’re gonna come mighty close.
Bizarre moment of the day: passing a coach bus
towing a Hummer on I70. Apparently the
bus gets better mileage.
Stopped in Russell, KS (home of Bob Dole, but
nowhere to be found this evening) for much longer than we’d hoped at a
relatively well-known Italian chain restaurant with a red roof. While they ground the wheat and separated the
curds and whey for the cheese, I snapped these pictures of the sunset looking
west. About two minutes after getting
back to the table the brightness dropped dramatically. Finally got back on the road around 10 pm,
meaning that a midnight arrival is a fading possibility. Thank God we’re not doing night briefings
this trip. Tonight might also be the
first night of the whole trip that we didn’t see lightning while on the road.
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