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Can't seems to avoid tornadoes!

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    Can't seems to avoid tornadoes!

    I'm not one to believe in magic, the acts of an angry god or hippie neo pagans that can control the weather. This riding season has been full of surprises and some of them have been downright dangerous! Last night was no exception.

    Last May I was camped out along the infamous Arkansas Pig Trail a.k.a. Highway 23. It's a gorgeous hilly and twisted road with a pretty decent USFS campground about midway through the twisties. It's in the bottom of a pretty steep canyon with plenty of mature tree cover so I wasn't to worried about severe weather. At that particular camp, a tornado was indicated on radar about four to five miles away, the wind blew from every direction at about 60mph for around five minutes then a good bit of rain. Got to rethinking my wisdom for staying in the tent and swore I'd at least get into the shower house next time!

    Since it was wet and quite windy in that part of the country I watched the weather reports and a couple of days later I made a mad dash for New Mexico knowing I had a couple of days of decent weather to work with. Ended up at a State Park in the high desert just north of Tucumcari, NM. Nice enough place along the edge of a reservoir but no trees for shade and just some scrubby brush to break the wind. Sure enough, a desert monsoon blew through the day after I got there spawning a tornado about eight miles away. Had the sense to take cover in the bath house for that one but my tent got completely wrecked. Had I been inside I could have held the poles well enough to keep them from snapping. Two tornadoes ridden out in about eight days!

    After the rain the desert bloomed seemingly overnight, unfortunately this woke up the fleas and I was dinner. Packed up and moved north into southern Colorado and found a nice spot along the front range. After making a ride through the high country and getting hit by golf ball sized hail I made it back to camp. A few hours later tornadoes where forming just overhead of camp and I watched them touching down about 20 miles to the east over the plains. THREE tornado events in two weeks!

    After a couple of weeks of cold but uneventful weather I headed back east. Just outside of Kansas City I rode out a severe thunderstorm that was strong enough to blow the bike over. No tornado but close enough.

    Since then things have been pretty calm with nothing more than a couple of cold (35°) nights to mention. That changed last night. After a gorgeous 75° day a line of strong storms formed over Oklahoma and moved into southwestern Missouri. Sure enough, a tornado touched down less than ten miles away. You could definitely hear it but all I saw was a lot of rain, not much wind at all. Dodged a bullet with this one!

    It's been a heck of a year and at just under six months on the road I'm only a couple of weeks away from moving into a dry, warm place near Branson, MO to sit out the winter. Supposedly Branson only gets an average of eight inches of snow per year, I haven't looked at the tornado average, maybe I should!
    1980 Yamaha XS1100G (Current bike)
    1982 GS450txz (former bike)
    LONG list of previous bikes not listed here.

    I identify as a man but according to the label on a box of Stauffers Baked Lasagne I'm actually a family of four

    #2
    Man, that's some kind of luck you've been having. Get somewhere soon where you can find safety and enjoy life.
    Larry

    '79 GS 1000E
    '93 Honda ST 1100 SOLD-- now residing in Arizona.
    '18 Triumph Tiger 800 (gone too soon)
    '19 Triumph Tiger 800 Christmas 2018 to me from me.
    '01 BMW R1100RL project purchased from a friend, now for sale.

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      #3
      Originally posted by alke46 View Post
      Man, that's some kind of luck you've been having. Get somewhere soon where you can find safety and enjoy life.
      Other than those close calls, I'm enjoying the H3LL out of it. A couple weeks back my stator went and I spent four nights in a decent place waiting to get a replacement. Had cable TV, WiFi, four restraunts within walking distance, the works. By the time I left I was glad to get out of there and back to a toned down version of survival of the fittest, living a minimalist and stoic life is the only thing that truly keeps me happy.

      I've got a kitchenette right on "The Strip" in Branson I'll be moving into two weeks from today and have mixed emotions about doing it. Maybe I could go to the gulf coast or Florida for the winter but it's awfully crowded and expensive in the winter. The desert can be nice during the day but brutally cold at night with not much to do outside of camp. At least here it's affordable with groceries, entertainment and the like close by and (hopefully) a chance to get a ride in on some warmer days, the roads are spectacular!
      1980 Yamaha XS1100G (Current bike)
      1982 GS450txz (former bike)
      LONG list of previous bikes not listed here.

      I identify as a man but according to the label on a box of Stauffers Baked Lasagne I'm actually a family of four

      Comment


        #4
        We're mostly devoid of tornadoes in this region, but I can never forget seeing the proverbial golf ball sized hail during a summer storm upstate when I was a toddler.
        1982 GS1100E V&H "SS" exhaust, APE pods, 1150 oil cooler, 140 speedo, 99.3 rear wheel HP, black engine, '83 red

        2016 XL883L sigpic Two-tone blue and white. Almost 42 hp! Status: destroyed, now owned by the insurance company. The hole in my memory starts an hour before the accident and ends 24 hours after.

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