Day 16 of the Great Storm Chase!

Well, I don't even know why any of you are still reading my blogs, haha. Not really much to report about today except for another major bust. We left our hotel in Lexington, NE to head to Lincoln, NE and assess where the best spot for storms would be in that area. We figured things would fire up in that general vicinity and we were thinking of possibly finding something in deep southeastern Iowa.

I was the navigator today and I was extremely exhausted from yesterday and the fact that I haven't gotten more than 5 or so hours of sleep the past few days and have been going strong during those days was taking its toll on me. With that being said and the fact that I could barely keep my eyes open, I subjected myself to drinking an energy drink so that I could be alert and ready to navigate. It did the trick and navigating today wasn't that intense anyways.

We came into Lincoln and ate lunch at the amazing Cracker Barrel again and then we decided to head to Nebraska City and reevaluate again to see which direction we needed to head. When we got to Nebraska City, we pulled into a gas station that was near a hotel so we could get snacks, drinks, and tap into the neighboring hotel's internet. When we did, we realized that we should probably stay put in that area because it had the best chances for storms--if the cloud deck would ever move out.

We had a lot of trouble with cloud cover today and it was soaking up all of the sun's radiation and thus energy for our storms. The spot where we were stationed had a temperature of 94 and dew point of 70...it was miserable! I wore jeans today because it was 40 something in the city where we started and foggy. As we waited to see where we should go, if anywhere, some of us threw the football around even though it was horribly hot out.

The clouds weren't clearing very much and where they were clearing, it wasn't moving too fast. We watched for a little while and we sat in that parking lot for almost 3 hours! The NSSL probe stationed themselves there for a little while too and we saw Valporaiso chasers (also from Indiana) as well as several independent chasers who had the same idea as us. One of the guys got a chance to talk to the people from the National Severe Storms Laboratory Probe and he said that they punched the core yesterday that dropped baseball sized hail. Their van got damaged and they just got the windshield replaced because it got smashed out. Apparently, the majority of Vortex 2 was in western Nebraska for the day in the same spot where we chased yesterday because there were a few cells firing up in that area. They sent two vehicles to the area where we all were.

We finally decided to move on to Shenandoah, IA, which was only about 30 miles east of the Nebraska, Iowa border because it appeared that a few weak towers we saw east of us were starting to break the cap. We knew that it wasn't much and considering it was already 6:30 pm, if anything did actually fire up, it would probably happen either when it was dark or when it was getting pretty dark. We did want to give it a shot though and it was our only option to see anything for the day since everything turned out to be a bust. We got in the vans and headed east when we passed a few storm chasers on the side of the road looking at the sky; probably also trying to figure out whether anything was going to happen or not. We were getting closer to our destination when we passed an even bigger line of chasers looking at the sky, so we decided to stop and talk with them to pass the time, since any tower at all looked incredibly weak and incapable of producing anything more than rain.

We talked to them for a little bit and found out that they were from New York and had only been out for a week so far. Of course, everyone who we've ran into since yesterday has asked us if we saw the Wyoming tornado. Then they usually follow it up with some remark about how amazing it was, especially if they got there. They did the same thing ;/

It was pretty neat talking to them though and to hear their perspectives on things and learn that they've been chasing for over 14 or so years. We realized that we should just head to our hotel in Omaha and eat a decent restaurant for dinner so we left.

We got to Omaha and of course our Garmin GPS, which has been taking us to random places this whole time, got us somewhat lost in downtown Omaha and then died on us, haha. We had to try to charge it in the car and then it took us into a very bad part of town and got us lost again and then it finally got us to where we needed to be. Our joke of the trip has been that the Garmin is actually someone using it to take us into dark allies and dark truck stops, etc. and then somemone is there waiting to mug us. Yes, it has taken us to these places and for no apparent reason, haha.

We ate at a pretty good local restaurant and then we got to our hotel here in Omaha. a pretty lame and slow day fo sho.

Heather talked to WIBC yesterday and the guy asked her what the advantages were of being one of two of the only girls on the trip and afterwards we were thinking of things she should've said. I said that she should've said that we've learned a lot about farts, poop, alcohol, and women. Yesterday, my van spent over an hour talking about people who accidentally pooped their pants when they thought they only had to fart, haha. Today, there was a contest to see who could make the best farting noises with their mouths. Every girl we pass ever is rated on their scale of hotness and drinking stories are always shared and they often talk about which beer they like best. This is what we learn when we ride in the car with 10 other guys...haha. Also, we never stop smelling poo and feet and overall nastiness. Last night, all the guys were saying that our van smelled like a gerbal cage.

With all of that said, haha, I think I'm going to spare you the rest of the details about the awkness and nastiness of our times. Only two more days left so we're definitely getting extremely desparate and moody to see a tornado. Hope for the best!

Good night!