Day 1 of the Great Storm Chase!

Wow! It's been such a long day of driving (about 9 hours) and we've set up for the night in Waverly, IA (about 70 miles or so northeast of Des Moines). I was still pretty aprehensive when we first started out and our drive seemed to be dragging on and on for awhile. We took a short lunch break at Subway in Crawfordsville, IN and then drove straight until a little east of Peoria, IL where we got out to stretch, use the bathroom, and throw the frisbee and football around for a few minutes.

Our next stop wouldn't be for awhile until we got to Walcott, IA where we stopped at the world's largest truck stop! It truly was a sight of beauty and it was massive! We went in for a little while and looked all of the hilarious bumper stickers and all that.





Our next stop was in Iowa City, IA where we stopped for dinner at a local pizza restaraunt called...get this...Bob's Your Uncle. We thought it was the only option for us to eat, of course! We couldn't pass up the opportunity to eat at such a great place that also had a dinosaur right outside of the gas station next door!



We're now resting up for the night for our next 10-hour day of driving! We're looking to head into Rapid City, SD and will likely hit up Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands on Sunday. We decided to make the most of the sights on this trip for right now because the weather patterns are horrible for chasing!

I'm partnering with another one of the 10 students to lead our 2nd day weather discussion tomorrow about what the weather will be doing on Sunday--likely nothing! There's a huge ridge over the west with a high pressure system right behind (clear skies) and not really a single storm of any worth in the whole country! There is a little action in Florida but we obviously can't chase there. There was a few popup nothing storms in northeastern Colorado and also in northeastern Nebraska today but nothing of worth to us either.




There's a stationary front that's chillin along that ridge in the west which doesn't bode well for the next few days as far as any type of weather. We're going to "waste" a few days in South Dakota and hope that the weather patterns start to work out the kinks to give us some chaseable storms. Let's hope for the best!

Good night!