Whew...after 23 1/2 hrs. leaving at 12:30am Fri....made it to my
hometown in Central Iowa -- 1,366 miles from Jax! Not bad
considering my wife & I had our 4- & 6-yr. old with us.
Some state-by-state highlights:
Florida: Drove through pounding downpours & some
lightning almost all the way to Tallahassee. Nothin' like a
little hydroplaning to speed up your trip!
Alabama: Nice sunrise...big traffic back-up for some
reason south of Birmingham about 6am. Stopped at good ol'
reliable Cracker Barrel for b'fast.
Tennessee: I slept through most of the Volunteer State
but woke up just north of Nashville in time to turn my wife around
after missing our exit (by only 2 miles) for I-24.
Kentucky: We have a special place in our hearts for
Kentucky. My wife & I camped in the Land Between the Lakes in
our "young years". Boy, it sure is dry here -- the grass &
crops are clearly suffering.
Illinois: Hot! "Land of Lincoln" -- love
Springfield & all their Lincoln history though on the this trip we
were well south of Springfield. Didn't realize there was a
Nashville, IL. too. We stopped for a quick lunch at a rest stop
& ran around with the kids. We think at this point we're
making pretty good time. Back into the car as thunderstorms
develop just about right in front of us. They were hard to see
until we were about 10 miles from 'em because of thick haze.
Unfortunately our winding interstate kept us inbetween -- rather than
in -- storms. But I enjoyed looking at the towering cumulus &
cumulonimbus clouds &, of course, pointing them out to my wife
& kids...& we enjoyed that wonderful sweet smell of rain.
Missouri: 98 degrees in St. Louis! I was worried
about rush hour since it was 4:30, but we drove by the arch with no
problem. It was the urban sprawl on the west side of the city
where traffic got bad, & we spent a good 45 minutes or so traveling
just 10-15 miles. Once the traffic cleared we stopped for a quick
dinner figuring we were down to about 4 hours to get home to
Iowa. So we jumped in the car with renewed vigor & enthusiasm.
Iowa: We crossed the border into the "Tall Corn State"
with a beautiful sunset painted with altocumulus clouds. It was
about here when we had our only "blow up" of the marathon road
trip. It didn't last long & the girls settled down as we
drove on...and on...and on(!). We could smell the sweet odor of
freshly cut hay. Then all the sudden it was a smell of a
different sort. And the conversation went something like
this...my wife: "that's the smell of fresh country air". My 6-yr.
old: what's that smell?". 4-yr. old: "I farted." 6-yr. old:
"something stinks." 4-yr. old: "I'm tellin' ya' the problem is
me. I farted. I farted!" And that was that!
We soon realized the drive from St. Louis was to be much longer -- not
much interstate now & lots of construction. We finally rolled
into "home" about midnight (11pm CDT). So we've done more
relaxing & recovering than anything else today...visiting my spry
91-yr. old grandmother & enjoying a nice downpour this morning from
a "decaying"
mesoscale convective comples (MCC).
It's only about 70 degrees this afternoon but near 90 a mere 75 miles
away in Des Moines -- we're set up for some big storms late this
afternoon/tonight. Fantastic!
My daughters are running around the small-town neighborhood picking
wild flowers, looking at cows across the street & feeding them
grass, riding their bikes & climbing dirt mounds. People
often ask me what I did growing up in such a small town in the
midwest. My reply is...first of all, I didn't know any
better...but I also couldn't have had it any better. It doesn't
take long to start to daydream about my youth while I'm here...about
why it's such a great place to raise a family...and the people are
nothing but kind, caring & helpful with that distinct Northern
Midwest accent.
As for the weather on the First Coast...say good-bye to the rain & hello to the heat.
Afternoon temps. should make it well into the 90s for at least the next
5 days with heat indices 100+. Indeed a large ridge of high
pressure aloft is going to rule. There still should be a few
afternoon storms near the sea breeze -- especially by late next week
but many spots will now be dry for at least 4 up to 6 days in a row (or
more).
No surprise in Friday's Dr. Gray/Klotzbach seasonal hurricane forecast update
other than I thought they might drop the total number of storms a bit
more -- maybe in the 12-14 range. Realize we've only had 3 so
far, so an active late Aug., Sept., Oct. seems to be in the offing with
perhaps 7-10 named storms in a matter of 6-8 weeks. Then it all
comes down to where & if the storms make landfall & how strong
the storms are at landfall. It still looks like the season will
not be truly taking off 'til at least mid Aug. when our large area of
"upward motion" moves from the Pacific into the Atlantic Basin.
Now, that does not preclude a storm or two prior, but the majority of
this hurricane season will be the last 10 days of Aug. through about
the first 15 days of Oct.
o.k.....stay cool! Time for me to relax some & watch our late day storms develop.
