Sunday 4th June - D-Day (Part 1)

Weather Outlook: HOT!
Start Location: London Heathrow
End Destination: Oklahoma City, Via Houston.
States Visited: Texas, Oklahoma

London

So finally it's Departure day. I am so ready for this.

Saturday was mostly spent getting my money's worth from the facilities at the Hilton at T5. A great way to start a "holiday" that usually ends up exhasting me :)

The afternoon was spent being educated in the ways of "The Spa" - an entirely new experience for me, but I totally loved it. This may become part of my routine now :)

Dinner was at Mr. Todiwalas, a Pan-Indian restaurant at the Hotel which was amazing. Mixed tikka starter for main (I'm not a big eater - I know, the states is so totally the wrong place). Venison in Mint and Coriander, Duck with date and tamarind, beef, salmon and 2 types of chicken. Washed down with a glass of Pinot... Delish.

Woke up early to news of yet more attacks on London which is a sobering thought, London Bridge used to be my haunt. I love that area of London. My thoughts go out to those injured and killed.

Early start - fine by me, as I am an early waker anyway. Packed everything up and checked out to wait for the hopper bus to T5. Getting very excited and giddy watching all the planes flying off to their destinations. It was finally all getting very real. I've had this trip booked for a year so it's been a long wait!

I met Dave (my friend and this year's "Chase Partner" who I know from my original and first Tornado Tour in 2014) and checked in, security and all that Jazz.

Wagamamas for Breakfast (that was a new experience) and a quick jog to the other end of T5 for the flight - somehow it closed really early so it was really a dash for the finish.

I'm writing this update 6 hours in to the 10h flight, so not long to go - I've always loved flying and really don't mind getting all this time to myself, a bit of a rare commodity at home. I've watched La La Land and really enjoyed it, although the ending really made me think about how things could always be different.

Houston

At this point, for reasons that will shortly become clear, I'm going to finish this part and move on :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunday 11th June - Tour 4/Day 3

Image
Start Location: Willmar, Minnesota End Location: Rapid City, South Dakota States: Minnesota, South Dakota Total States: 8 Distance: 508 miles The chasing started early in Willmar with a Severe Storm with some indicated rotation that passed over the hotel at around 7am. What a lovely way to chase, opening the curtains and watching it out of the window. I threw some clothes on over my pyjamas and wandered down to the Hotel lobby, as the storm was passing around the front of the hotel. I went outside to record some of the storm, but got fored back inside by strong winds and heavy rain! I held the front (glass) door to the hotel lobby closed for 10 mins as it was not lockable and was being slammed about in the wind. The lightning and thunder was incredible to watch and a very pretty shelf cloud structure to go with it. We had a nice proper breakfast in Perkins, which was next to the hotel, which was absolutely packed for a Sunday as some places had power out due to the storm. Some...
Read more

Thursday 8th June - Arrival Day

Today is Tour 4 arrival day. Spent the morning watching the James Comey Testimony. Popped out for Jimmy Johns (delicious sandwiches) for lunch and to find a USB adaptor as my travel adaptor had died overnight, leaving me with uncharged devices and a flat powerbank. Not good. After lunch the rest of the "Bisons" as I'm now going to call them started arriving on their various flights from around the US. After a couple of hours of naps and freshening up we went out into the car park to sit in the sun (30 Degrees) and have a jolly good catch up session. It was a lovely afternoon catching up on Chaser gossip, chatting about what we'd been up to over the last 2/3 years and sharing stories. We have a mixture of original Tours 6 and 7 from 2014 on this trip, so in one way or another everyone knows everyone. No first night nerves or awkwardness. At 7pm we all met for dinner and went out to watch some SPORTS and had dinner and drinks (3 pomegranatinis for me). After dinner...
Read more

Monday 12th June - Tour 4 / Day 4

Image
Start Location: Rapid City, South Dakota End Location: Ogallala, Nebraska States: South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska Total States: 9 Distance: 578 miles The hotel in Rapid City was really nice, attached to a water park, so it was sad to leave it behind without making proper use of the facilities. We left early to drive the 3 hours towards Lusk/Wheatland in Wyoming, to get there in time for a quick Subway for lunch and by 2.30pm storms were already starting to initiate. This is really rather early for storms to start popping, but off we went! We headed for a very good looking storm - "The Northern Storm" which was really moving with some impressive rotation on radar. We moved position a couple of times to get the best view, but road options in this part of Wyoming are limited at best. With the rain, the non-paved roads turn to mud soup so we had to abort a couple of options to try and stay out of the hail core. We got back onto the interstate and happened upon some "...
Read more