Day 18 - Bust (there's got to be one) - 04 June 2013

Another slight risk today in roughly the same area as yesterday, around the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and south eastern Colorado. We started in Canadia in the Texas Panhandle. Our first thoughts were wouldn't it be nice to spend some time in Springfield in Colorado. That was in south eastern Colorado and one of our favourite places here in the US. But looking at the models, it seemed this may be a bit too far out of the main risk zone, so we hedged our bets with Perryton, a bit further north in the Texas Panhandle, where we had picked for a spot of lunch the day before. It was a hot day but we occupied ourselves for 4 or so hours in the park having lunch and practising spanish, writing the blog etc. By about 5pm, we were once again getting a little didgy as we always think the action will start somewhere other than where we are! We saw storms starting to develop 20 miles south or so, so headed that way. Unfortunately however, they weren't amounting to much and the heads were falling off all the storms that were appearing to anvil. Either there wasn't enough moisture or there wasn't the support in the upper atmosphere to give the updrafts the vigour and strength they needed to keep going. The area it was kicking off however, was Springfield Colorado. Grrrrrrr! We rode out another couple of hours watching heads fall off anvil clouds and retired to the Walmart up the road for the night.

We tried to remain positive. Going to Springfield would have been like putting a hefty bet on an outsider horse and it romping in first - going on a name rather than the form. Lucky if you follow it through, but more often than not it doesn't work out. This can be a bit like storm chasing. You win some you lose some. We had some beer instead.

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