I have just finished one great adventure and am heading into another. In a few hours I will be leaving for Folk Fest to enjoy a few carefree days of music, sun and relaxation. Folk Fest, however, is an experience I've had before. I know it will be amazing as it has been years previous. But, last week I had a most unique experience. A few months ago my friend Jeff phoned me up with an opportunity I couldn't refuse. He was filming a documentary on the U of M storm chasers and needed another person on the crew. The work experience alone would have convinced me, but to be chasing storms as well, I told him yes without even considering what else might be going on that week. Nothing would be more important than this. So last thursday morning at 4 am I arose bleary and cursing the darkness to start on the path to adventure. There were storms of wind, lightening and hail, 1000s of kms to drive, an ever changing landscape dotted by small town after small town and an endless soundtrack to accompany it all. We saw Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and it's northern counterpart, but no tornados. A great trip with lots of good footage despite the lack of weather based funnel destruction. To recount everything that happened would be near impossible. A task made difficult as many things started to blur together because of the flurry of activity separated by long stretches of driving. Here are some of my favorites points.
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I was in charge renting the vehicle. (This is the day before we left). I trusted that the details were taken care of and all I had to do was show up with my licence and credit card. When the clerk named the three options of cars my lack of car knowledge left me floundering. Knowing that we had a lot of stuff to pack I asked which car had the largest trunk space. On that piece of information we agreed upon the Dodge Charger. Little did I know that I had chosen a rather luxury and sporty vehicle. A vehicle that we would glory in driving and be very thankful for in the long run. It did have just enough space for us to pack everything, but it was also very comfortable to drive ( a plus when you end up driving 6000km in 6 days.) Its' shape was surprisingly stable in strong winds and in the need of a pass by shot I pushed the car up to almost 180 km/hr with little effort. It looked sweet as well and had a beauty of a sound system (the essentials of course).
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We stopped for a gas up in a reserve town named Poplar at a Casino/Gas station. We ended up staying a while as one of the storm chaser vans was accidentally filled partially with diesel. There was a pack of dogs wandering around unleashed. One rather small and timid dog caught my attention as he was hiding behind a gas pump away from the rest of the group. I tried to entice him to me by pouring a little water of a bottle into my hand and offering it to him. He approached very cautiously and stopped about a meter away from me. I refilled my cupped palm with water as it leaked out hoping to draw him in. Untrusting he circled me trying to get behind me, myself turning to keep up with his postion. We continued this dance for a few minutes until a boy about 8 or 9 screeched up on his bike yelling, "What are you doing to my dog? What are you feeding him?" I explained I was only trying to give him some water. The boy told me the dogs name (which I have forgotten as it wasn't english), and without skipping a beat held out a pinwheel he was hold and began his sales pitch. "Do you want to buy this for your kids?" I told him I didn't have any kids chuckling a little at his unexpected bravado and opportunism. "How about your girlfriend? Do you want to buy it for your girlfriend?" Unable to get a sale he biked off. Our convoy of cars was on the road again a minute later.
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We had amazing luck finding unique experiences on the trip. One of the happened the morning we were to leave Hot Springs, South Dakota. Everyone but Craig (my constant driving and doc companion) had left to meet up with the rest of the group who had stayed in a different hotel from us. If we had left with them, we would have just sneaked past the Miss South Dakota Beauty Pageant parade that blocked off the only main street in the entire town. We were privy to a very small town scene of decorated convertibles and trucks slowly cruising past small groups of people collecting the candy tossed from the parade. We made the best of our time filming the South Dakota flavour. After the parade had passed we joined the second parade of traffic that had been corked up waiting for the street to clear up. Our car drew attention from the still mostly gathered crowd since our storm chasers sign was attached to to our rather flashy vehicle. The best response we received was from rather white trashy looking man who raised a drink to us in salute as he cheered out while reading our sign, "WOOOO! University of ..... WHATEVER!" Come now, is Manitoba that hard to pronounce? We laughed much at his expense.
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Our cars only radio contact was with Jeff, so he was our only life line to knowing our direction and plans. So when the often speedy Chase 1 and Chase 2 left the rest of the group in a muddle of traffic taking Jeff with them we were a little aimless. To our benefit Chase 4 had a large antenna on its' roof that acted as a good traffic locator. Our orphaned group pulled over for a hurried bathroom stop / where the heck are the others gathering and I took the opportunity to ask the others of our direction in case we got lost. We were heading for Sydney, Nebraska. I told Craig in hopes that one of us would remember in our flustered state. The moment we got in the car we both forgot. I threw the car into drive and instinctively turned the stereo back on as I asked Craig, "Where are we going again?" The stereo uttering its first sounds of start up sang out "Sydneyyyyyy". We both looked at each other silent for a second and then began to laugh hysterically over the blind chance of the moment. A good laugh that was only rivalled by our good 10min tear induced laugh over an NPR gardening show reminiscent of SNLs Schwetty Balls.
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There were many more experiences, but you will just need to see the documentary when it comes out this fall. The post is already long enough to demand more patience than I expect of you. Enjoy these photos from the trip as I head off for a week of dirty feet and wide smiles.
