"Holy sh*t"

I'll explain the title of this post in a moment, but I'm happy to report that I'm back home.

After the storm chase day, we arrived at the motel in Amarillo at 2AM. Checkout was 11 the next morning, and it seemed earlier than that when it arrived.

My sister and I drove the 1000 miles back to the Pensacola area mostly in a long push, driving until 2AM the next morning (partly to eat miles, and partly because we'd both forgotten it was Memorial Day weekend, and all the Gulf Coast area motels were packed). We stopped at or called maybe 8 diferent motels before we found an available, suitable room.

We got back to her home at 7PM Sunday and copied the 2.47 gigs of photos and videos we brought back to her home system. We then had a very pleasant evening in a first-ever reviewing of a few of the photos and videos over pizza and beer with some family members.

I was surprised at how hard the whole "almost eaten by a tornado" experience was to put into words.

I left West Florida the next morning at about 9, heading home. I made it to Maryland before I started to feel tired enough to matter, so I pulled into one of the Interstate's service plazas and slept in the car until I woke up, using no alarm. After about 3 hours; I woke as dawn was lightening a showery overcast.

I made it home at about 3PM today, including an interim stop to pick up my accumulated mail at the tiny local post office. The postal worker, a pleasant, gray-haired lady, had to make two armload trips to bring it all to me. Yikes!

But it's now 5pm. I'm sitting here on my sofa for the first time in 2 weeks. A laundry is churning away, cleaning my accumulated clothing. The mail's sorted, and I'll be spending a chunk of the evening wading through the "must open" mail. The house is quiet and clean. I have a cold beverage handy. I'm showered and feeling fresh. A warm breeze is blowing through my living room, the outdoor air fresh and clean from mild afternoon thunderstorms.

Feels good.

I do need to sleep sometime soon. In two weeks, I personally drove 5230 miles, and the actual storm chase tour covered 2569 more, for a total of 7799 miles (12600 km). I already have a long, aerobic walk planned for tomorrow.

I also have a ton of catching-up to do, but I'll have something posted here in a day or so, and I'll try to make it worth your while.

This video (BELOW) is from the chase I was on. It was shot by Steve Carey, the guy sitting in the seat directly in front of me in the SUV. It's real-time, shot live and unedited, just as it happened. This is almost exactly what I saw when we realized the tornado was headed for us, and the tour leader, on the CB, ordered our driver to escape: "Put it in 4-wheel drive and go for it."

It's an intense moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC7U-i5i5eM

Please remember that the tornado never got closer than probably a full 60-90 seconds away. (It's longer than it sounds: Go ahead--- count from 0 to 90 by seconds, and imagine how much ground you could cover in a large vehicle in that time.)

In short, this was an excellent adventure: Like committing to a sharp turn on a motorcycle, or sighting a large carnivorous fish while you're snorkeling, or camping deep in the wilds where humans aren't automatically at the top of the food chain; we got to experience something rare and amazing and, yes, dangerous; but the planning and execution prevented the potential harm from being realized. The illusion of control is a wonderful thing, isn't it? :-)

More to come!