For our final full day, we steamed north from near Chattanooga, TN to Staunton, VA. Along the way, we briefly checked one more state (North Carolina) off our list to complete a motivating total of 24 states (for the Class of 2024) in just 13 days! (I believe a SWIFT record!). After so much driving, it was nice to enjoy a long hike to the top of McAfee's Knob on the Appalachian Trail near Roanoke, VA in the later afternoon. Unfortunately, the fog obscured what would have been a quite nice view from the top!
After the hike, we enjoyed our final full dinner together at Angelle's Diner before heading to final overnight.
On Friday (day 14), we headed back into Annapolis with just enough time to clean the van and finish our travel paperwork before a line of severe thunderstorms plowed across the Naval Academy (and nearly disrupted the Class of 2022 graduation)!! At one point, as we were finishing our last debriefs, the "giant voice" system on the Yard broadcasted a tornado warning (thankfully, this did not verify!). Nonetheless, a fitting end to SWIFT 2022 to have severe storms from the same system we began chasing in Texas on Monday chase us back home!
Thanks to all for following our adventures this year, and be sure to check out each of our six interns' final blog posts and reflections on a successful chase season!
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