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dolariSo. It was the 4th of July. There's was a 40% chance of rain. I had nothing to do for my last day of vacation. So I packed up my Sidekick, my book of county maps and decided to turn that 40% chance into 100% chance.
Storm Chasing Road Trip!
Back when I was younger, and I wanted to kill some time and knew it was gonna rain, I would look at at the Radar Channel on TV, figure out where the rain was and where it was headed and go meet it - and then follow it home. It wasn't like the storm chasing you see on TV though - first sign of trouble, I'm outta there. :) I just want the light show, not the full sensurround experience.
Emily and I did this by accident on her first trip here. We were having dinner in Boerne when a huge storm passed over us. Heading back into San Marcos, we ploughed right back into the storm over took at and when we got home, the storm slammed back into US. Lots of fun.
However on the 4th, the showers were these little pop-up tropical showers. A blast of rain, dissipate and pop up somwhere else. So I found a larger storm, in Kingsbury, TX and aimed for it.
Follow along in your books, children....
But not before spending $15 in gas, and a cherry limeaid drink from Sonic. More about the gas later.
After some wrong turns and a late start, I aimed toward Kingsbury, but I'd waited too long at Sonic and gas. By the time I got there, the storm had dissipated, but not before leaving a lot of steaming puddles of water behind.
So...what to do now?
I like to call this part, Reason #109825 I love my sidekick. Not only does it have internet anywhere you can get a phone signal, but it has a weather radar application:
With an up-to-date weather radar AND my knowledge of Texas backroads, I should be able to find the pop up storms easily. And according to the radar, the nearest storm was right down the street in Seguin.
I made headed out to Seguin, checking out the old Highway 90 on the way in. Again, I missed the storm, finding nothing but puddles evaporating off the road. I pulled into a side street, and refreshed the radar again. Another storm popped up in New Braunfels so I took off for New Braunfels.
About halfway there, I saw the raincloud on the horizon - big dark shadow of rain coming off a cloud. So I put the radar aside, and just aimed for the big black cloud. And as I got closer and closer, the cloud got lighter and lighter, and then I couldn't find it anymore. I was kinda disheartened by missing another cloud, before I realized - the cloud hadn't gone away - IT WAS ON TOP OF ME. And then the skies oipened up on me and I got a nice good long shower. I pulled over just to enjoy it. :)
About ten minutes later, the cloud had dumped all the water it was going to and faded out of existence...a radar refresh, and I found another cell in Wimberely. I made for it, but made the mistake of going through Gruene. When I first discovered Gruene in the late 80s, it was a ghost town. A Real honest to goodness ghost town. Gruene Hall was there, old shells of the general store and an old building across from it. There wasn't anything more there...but somehow, it got "discovered" and turned into a horrible horrible tourist trap. And I was driving through it on the 4th of July...I got stuck in the town for 15 minutes...it's so small and so congested you can't get through it easily. Shoulda gone around. I refreshed the radar, and the cell was dissipating, but once I got on the road, I figured there was still time to get to Wimberely...
...till I began to run out of gas. I pulled over, put in another $15. I shouldn't have made this trip with dad's pickup. He's got a maasively huge V8 engine, and the truck is VERY heavy. My pickup gets about 20/22 miles to the gallon, with a 30 gallon tank. Dad's.....not so much.
So I got some gas, and picked up some Fredericksburg peaches and peach/strawberry preserves from a tent nearby. Turns out the Frederickburg peaches are in season till the end of July. I picked up a basket of peaches and preserves. By now, the storm cell had dissapeared in Wimberely, so I refreshed the radar again, and saw some storm cells forming up near Blanco. So I headed off to Blanco.
JUST about there, I found saw two cells ahead of me. On to the left, and one to the right. I cut off to the left and slammed into another rainstorm for another 20 minutes or so. With the small rain over, another cell popped up in my sights, and I aimed for that...
...but I overshot it and missed. Once in Blanco, I got signal for the phoen, refreshed the radar and found that the cell was in a town called Kendalia. So I put myself on the aptly named Kendalia Road and got rained on one more time. From Kendalia, the sotrms were pulling me farther away from home, the gas ws going down fast (damn that V8 engine), so I went home...getting rained on two more times on the way, and picking up a fresh watermelon from a Luling seller. :9
Then I got on SL and saw one of Mari's huge fireworks shows (the worlds best six year old munitions expert!), talked with Emily a bit, and went to bed...I had work in the morning.
Storm Chasing Road Trip!
Back when I was younger, and I wanted to kill some time and knew it was gonna rain, I would look at at the Radar Channel on TV, figure out where the rain was and where it was headed and go meet it - and then follow it home. It wasn't like the storm chasing you see on TV though - first sign of trouble, I'm outta there. :) I just want the light show, not the full sensurround experience.
Emily and I did this by accident on her first trip here. We were having dinner in Boerne when a huge storm passed over us. Heading back into San Marcos, we ploughed right back into the storm over took at and when we got home, the storm slammed back into US. Lots of fun.
However on the 4th, the showers were these little pop-up tropical showers. A blast of rain, dissipate and pop up somwhere else. So I found a larger storm, in Kingsbury, TX and aimed for it.
Follow along in your books, children....
But not before spending $15 in gas, and a cherry limeaid drink from Sonic. More about the gas later.
After some wrong turns and a late start, I aimed toward Kingsbury, but I'd waited too long at Sonic and gas. By the time I got there, the storm had dissipated, but not before leaving a lot of steaming puddles of water behind.
So...what to do now?
I like to call this part, Reason #109825 I love my sidekick. Not only does it have internet anywhere you can get a phone signal, but it has a weather radar application:
With an up-to-date weather radar AND my knowledge of Texas backroads, I should be able to find the pop up storms easily. And according to the radar, the nearest storm was right down the street in Seguin.
I made headed out to Seguin, checking out the old Highway 90 on the way in. Again, I missed the storm, finding nothing but puddles evaporating off the road. I pulled into a side street, and refreshed the radar again. Another storm popped up in New Braunfels so I took off for New Braunfels.
About halfway there, I saw the raincloud on the horizon - big dark shadow of rain coming off a cloud. So I put the radar aside, and just aimed for the big black cloud. And as I got closer and closer, the cloud got lighter and lighter, and then I couldn't find it anymore. I was kinda disheartened by missing another cloud, before I realized - the cloud hadn't gone away - IT WAS ON TOP OF ME. And then the skies oipened up on me and I got a nice good long shower. I pulled over just to enjoy it. :)
About ten minutes later, the cloud had dumped all the water it was going to and faded out of existence...a radar refresh, and I found another cell in Wimberely. I made for it, but made the mistake of going through Gruene. When I first discovered Gruene in the late 80s, it was a ghost town. A Real honest to goodness ghost town. Gruene Hall was there, old shells of the general store and an old building across from it. There wasn't anything more there...but somehow, it got "discovered" and turned into a horrible horrible tourist trap. And I was driving through it on the 4th of July...I got stuck in the town for 15 minutes...it's so small and so congested you can't get through it easily. Shoulda gone around. I refreshed the radar, and the cell was dissipating, but once I got on the road, I figured there was still time to get to Wimberely...
...till I began to run out of gas. I pulled over, put in another $15. I shouldn't have made this trip with dad's pickup. He's got a maasively huge V8 engine, and the truck is VERY heavy. My pickup gets about 20/22 miles to the gallon, with a 30 gallon tank. Dad's.....not so much.
So I got some gas, and picked up some Fredericksburg peaches and peach/strawberry preserves from a tent nearby. Turns out the Frederickburg peaches are in season till the end of July. I picked up a basket of peaches and preserves. By now, the storm cell had dissapeared in Wimberely, so I refreshed the radar again, and saw some storm cells forming up near Blanco. So I headed off to Blanco.
JUST about there, I found saw two cells ahead of me. On to the left, and one to the right. I cut off to the left and slammed into another rainstorm for another 20 minutes or so. With the small rain over, another cell popped up in my sights, and I aimed for that...
...but I overshot it and missed. Once in Blanco, I got signal for the phoen, refreshed the radar and found that the cell was in a town called Kendalia. So I put myself on the aptly named Kendalia Road and got rained on one more time. From Kendalia, the sotrms were pulling me farther away from home, the gas ws going down fast (damn that V8 engine), so I went home...getting rained on two more times on the way, and picking up a fresh watermelon from a Luling seller. :9
Then I got on SL and saw one of Mari's huge fireworks shows (the worlds best six year old munitions expert!), talked with Emily a bit, and went to bed...I had work in the morning.
