I nearly screamed like a little school-girl today.

Woke up at 9:15 A.M.

Went to a grain elevator to apply for a part-time job.  I had called to verify that they were hiring part-time, and they said yes!  I went in, and it turns out that part-time means 5 months full-time.  hmm.  No good.

Bought some motorcycle insurance.  $112.44 for one year.  Sweet action.  Was picked up by Joann, and we headed out to the farm.  Ended up goin' with her and John out to their old farmhouse in Fredonia.  We explored the old house, the huge property, and ended up clearing out some old junk from the house.

And then I had the experience of a lifetime!  We decided to go walking through some tall prairie over to another old house.  The prairie is pretty thick.  Uncut.  Unburned.  Up to our chests at times.  Well, we're walking through several acres.  Kind of fun, too!  Forrest Gumpish...a guy and a girl walkin' through the country!

Well, we get to the very center, and all of a sudden, I hear something.  And it's hard to explain, but my body reacted almost instinctively.  There was a constant hair-rising sound for about two seconds, and even without knowing what was goin' on, it's like I did know deep within!  It happened so quickly!  So so with the rising fear from foot to the top of my head, I look down, and about one step ahead of me is a rattlesnake coiled back ready to attack!  And no joke, I almost screamed!

"Oh sweet mo-uhTHER!"  Just like that.  The first couple of words came out easy enough, but by time I got to the last word (very quickly, I must say), I was almost grunting!  It literally freaked me out!  One more step and I was no doubt bitten!

And this was a venomous rattlesnake!  It's Kansas!  Not cool.  Needless to say, my eyes were on the ground even moreso after that.

Well, we made it to the other farmhouse, and we explored that.  I have learned that I just love old barns.  Explored one of those, too.  Then we headed back.  Threw rocks at telephone poles, skipped rocks across a pond, threw rocks at each other.  Just country stuff.

But seriously, I was scared!  haha.

Headed back to the farm, and I was watchin' a storm come up from the southwest on the drive back.  More on that later.  Ended up eating with the Knox's again.  But my heart was elsewhere, I'm not goin' to lie.  A nasty storm was brewin', and it was tornado-esque.  It was killing me to be at that supper table!

Van had called a couple of times, asking me if I was chasin'.  grr!

Ok, I had to.  This is what I do!  I love this stuff.  He was down in Independence, and he was headin' out.  I was in Altoona, and I was eating.  How to leave without being rude!  ha!  Well, I finished my food, but I just had to go.  Joanna gave me her car, and I left around 7:30 P.M., right after eating.  ha!  I left from the table!  I was goin' to have only 45 minutes to chase, but she was already pretty close.

So I went out, and I watched one of the most beautiful textbook storms come across the prairie.  I positioned myself about 10 miles ahead of it, and I stayed ahead of it to take some sweet pictures.  The pic up above was the northeast side of the storm...I was keepin' a close eye on that.  The front cloud was rolling...capable of producing a tornado at any time.  And the wall cloud was absolutely immense!  I was too far out to get the entire breadth in my camera, so I took two pictures!  One of the left side, and one of the right.

I had to stay ahead of the storm.  Once I got into the rain, it would all be over.  Van had called and said that he was in the rain.  That's when the chasing stops.  You just can't see.  Not to mention the hail would soon follow, too.  And I had Joanna's car!

So I kept heading northeast.  The storm was still strong, but my problem was the daylight...it was quickly fading.  Once I stopped just southwest of Chanute, the tornado sirens starting going off.  Sweet action.  I was taking pictures of the clouds that were causing the tornado warning...no touchdown confirmed at that point, but dangerous rotating clouds capable of producing one at any time.  That's just some exciting stuff!

I stayed out about an hour and a half, taking pictures even into the night.  I love this stuff.  Ended up headin' back to the farm and then played cards with the fam until 11:00 P.M.  I was sooooo tired from my previous six-hour nights.  I need eight!

Headed back to the airport with Joanna.  She had to drop me off.  The roads were flooded...we had to cross three areas where the road was covered with small streams!  A lot of rain had gone through.

But she wasn't over.  Another strong line was coming...with more tornado qualities.  So I stayed up to wait and watch once back at the airport.  And around 1:30 A.M., I took Jesse and Travis out for some more storm-chasing.  This was pretty nasty.  Lots of lightning!  And your mind plays crazy games with you!  You have just a split second to focus on the clouds, and everytime you see a low-hanging cloud, you wonder if it's a tornado or not.  It's pretty intense!  Travis was hilarious...a New York boy havin' his first real taste of a Midwest storm.  He loved it.  "Now you're sure your car is working good, the alternator is charging, the battery is good"?  haha...his question from the side of a road as we were watchin' it roll in.  The front of the storm had some very, very cold winds.  It was 70 degrees before that part came through.

I drove further into it to see some sweet lightning and clouds.  Ended up gettin' stuck in some nasty hail, so I retreated quickly.  I had to head back east and stay out of it.  I knew the rain was going to be nasty.  And it was.  I had my worst experience in terms of visibility.  I went from total VFR to IFR in a split second.  I literally could see NOTHING out my windshield.  The worst I've ever encountered.  I couldn't even pull off the side of the road, because I didn't know where it was.  And the hail was nailing us.  I was just waiting for a busted windshield!  And the hail increased!  aggh!  Pretty intense.  Real intense, really!

Finally was able to make it out.  And we then headed back to Chanute trying to stay ahead of the downpour!  The rain soon followed about 20 minutes after we got back.

A fun night.

Went to bed at 2:00 A.M.