May 21, 2013 blog
LAST CHASE DAY BLOG!!!!
We began our adventure in Gainesville,
Texas at the Comfort Inn. After a
splendid breakfast and beautiful weather brief we hit the dusty trail through
the Texan terrain. The cold front moving
air over Texas showed promise of squall line thunderstorms. We set out for the southern end of the storms,
traveling further and further away from home (aka mother B). We tested the vans limits today by holding
off on gas for as long as possible to try and catch our storms. We enjoyed a quick lunch at the local gas
station and hopped right back in the van.
After a short 4 and a half hour drive we quickly saw the possibility of
tornadoes quickly diminish. We stopped
again at a gas station to empty our bladders and test our luck. We each got a $1 scratch away lotto ticket
and hot hands Jackie Chimiak won $17! We couldn’t live with the regret of not
pushing our luck so Brian went in to get more tickets. Jackie won again with a $5 ticket! However our fearless firstie blew it with
both the $10 scratch away ticket. Next
our radars lead us to a new location; being the only storm in 100 miles naturally
we follow it.
The
storm had close to 0% chance of producing a tornado very early, but that did
not stop team SWIFT! We followed the storm for a few more hours before it was
decided to give up on it and head home.
Home for this night was Texarkana, TX.
We stopped for dinner at another gas station, but it had decent
BBQ. The SWIFT van then got to travel
through the busy streets of Dallas… without any traffic! Five hours later we
managed to arrive at our Hampton Inn hotel, ending our final chase day.
The
last chase day was definitely anticlimactic for Command SWIFT. It was one of those days where we spent about
13 hours in the van to end up only 2 hours to the east of where we
started. But those status clouds sure
did look grey! Regardless of
frustration, just being in the van with this team was worth it. Personally feel extremely blessed to have
this opportunity on this internship. Not
to mention how great it was bonding with the other mids on this team. In reality it has only been 11 days since the
beginning of SWIFT, but I feel like we have been together for months. Trying to think back to the first day seems
like a lifetime ago. I am so lucky to
get to spend time and get to know these mids more. They have helped me learn so much about the atmosphere
that surrounds us. More importantly they
have been a blast to be around! I am
excited for the journey home and the future adventures that await us. I know I will miss everyone; luckily we won’t
be apart for too long!
Thanks for everything team SWIFT!
-2/C Parks
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