Waking up to Lucky Charms in the morning, mmmm mmm. Becca and I blasted oldies satellite radio style as we trecked north I-25 to Douglas area. Our forecasted area around Lusk was our target for structure and possibly a quickie tornado :) Reaching just south of Douglas hwy 20 intersection, we pulled off watching a severe warned cell pushing off the mountains. The base was lowering way in the distance but these were scuds giving us teasers. Looking north though did not look good as it was beginning to show signs of shelfing. This was not helping support the main show. Otherwise we watched the impressive shelf beginning to dominate and drop strong cg's. We began to start driving east as towers from convergence showed its face in the distance towards Lusk area. As the shelf chased us down, Becca noticed it was beginning to break down a little bit and weaken. We were nearing Lusk, Wyoming and Becca looked back and saw an impressive green colored meso nearing this bluff. Quite beautiful. Will post timelapse later. We watched it slam into us bringing a gust front, than I gave the camera to Becca and as she was recording out the window, I was beginning to the windows up...thankfully I stopped when she was yelping and screamin. Poor girl. She was all good though, she just laughed. Continuing east this storm continued on into Lusk. Becca and I grabbed some quick Subway waiting for some new cells to blowup in our target area, but the shelf was reformulating. Funny moment, Becca was like hey wanna eat outside on this picnic table. I was like ok. The minute I said ok, a bolt a mile away made us look at each other and talk in our heads and agree with nodding to get in the car instead, lol.
Becca made a great nowcast decision to continue taking hwy 20 to Chadron, NE. Along the drive which is quite beautiful, we were able to enjoy more attempts at mesos with bluffs to make the view memorable. Just short of Chadron, we drove south to punch the core as it would plow right over us from west to east. We headed into only pea sized hail and lots of rain. My favorite was the greenbluish color sky. We arrived in Scottsbluff. At this point we started talkin like rednecks and had funny accents from bein in the south. Becca kept sayin we needed to get to the river. Very hilarious. So we stopped at the river. Becca knows her Hydrology :) The North Platte River if I'm correct was definitely overflowin, flooding was prominent in the Scottsbluff area. Lastly, we reached Kimball, a cop pulled over to my vehicle as we were watchin the storms developing. They searched the vehicle for drugs and weapons, was a big scene. I was clean of all of it. The reason for the whole thing was the Kimball police department had a huge drug bust right in the area that I was in. My car is pretty ghetto and so I could see their reasoning. But all was clear and good. I was angry cause I got into the situation, but now that I look back on it. I was thankful for their politeness and respect even if it doesn't make sense. All in all Becca and I drove back with a beautiful glowing pink sunset. But I kind of wished we hadn't left cause when we got back home their was a tornado warned storm headed for Kimball, NE. I guess I did know something, but that's what happens when you get distracted. Oh well. Next.....
