This was a loooong chase day, beginning with all of us meeting for breakfast at T.C.'s Restaurant in Shallowater, Tx. We (meaning David and I, hehe) were really giving it to poor Scott, as you will see below. Included in our group for the day were Barb & Joe Grunow in their chase van, and we met up with Kevin in Brownfield on our way to our target area for the day.

As always with a group of people, there was chitchat and joking going on. This was Scott's first chance to meet the others. There's Barb, then Joe...then both. Scott and David wait for our orders while listening to Barb tell a story.

 

David dared me to tape Scott eating (man, can he put food away! LOL), and Scott caught on rather quickly. We left T.C.'s, and I got another pic of Barb & Joe...I think they were already getting tired of me and that camcorder, hehe. Scott rode shotgun, and assumed navigational duties. David drove, of course, while I rode in back. That's Barb & Joe following us to Brownfield in their chase van. We were on our way to meet Kevin.

 

Hey, there's Kevin, taking Chase 2 position in our little caravan. We stopped for drinks, snacks, and restroom breaks, then saw the first towers of the day going up. Woohoo!

 

Ah, time for a data stop! David and Kevin set up the DirecTV satellite dish to get some radar, while the rest of us, including Scott, watch more towers going up.

 

David's looking rather put out, but we finally start seeing a bit of hope. It took a lot of sweet talk, but this storm blossomed out for us.

 

I was doing okay with the camera here...nice back sheared anvil, some shots of mammatus forming....

 

And then I went and messed up! It was getting dark, so, newbie chaser/videographer that I was, I switched the camera to 'night shot'. Don't do that, okay? Hehe.

 

Even with that, we still captured some great structure. The first two show a beavertail (inflow band), as do the 2nd two pics, a few minutes later.

 

Lightning started flaring...and then we were discovered by the hail core. Scott was getting a kick watching it from under our shelter of the moment.

 

We followed along a bit further, and came across a damage path, which narrowly missed a farmhouse by about 100 yards. After that, we took an Allsup's break, talking with another chaser we'd met, before heading home.