featuring Connor Mockett
Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another week of Life with Connor the Weatherman. Last column, I talked about my upcoming chasecation to Tornado Alley in the United States, and what the plan was to get out that way from New Brunswick. I finally left this past Monday after work, so here’s the story of the first few days of travel.
To get some extra work hours before I left for vacation, I worked on Monday. I typically don’t work on Monday’s here, but every cent is worth it, so I offered to my manager that I can work for them on Monday. I started at my usual 6:00am, skipped my lunch, and left at 2:00pm. I changed out of my work clothes, and hopped onto the Trans Canada Highway in Moncton, and hit the road back to Ontario!
I wanted to drive as far as I possibly could after I left work, so I could spend as much time in Ontario as possible before heading down south from there. I ended up driving about 9 hours, and stopped at a really nice Best Western in Drummondville, Quebec. A little bit more expensive than I’d hoped for only being there for about 6 hours, but it is better than driving sleepy, which can be really dangerous with micro-sleeps behind the wheel. I’ve had my fair share of sleepy drives (unintentionally), so I knew driving an extra 3 hours to home wasn’t really the best idea.
I checked into the hotel and was fast asleep. It was short and sweet, as I said above I was only there for about 6 hours. I set my alarm for 5:15am, and was out of there by 5:45am to continue the rest of the drive home. I got back into Winchester by 9:00am, so just about 3 hours from Drummondville to Winchester, stops for gas and bathroom included. I wanted enough time to go say hello to friends that I haven’t seen in ages, so that’s why I arrived so early in the day. I spent the rest of the day hanging out, and I also got a new auto starter put into my Escape. Best $350 bucks I’ve ever spent, that thing is amazing.
On Wednesday, it was time for another long haul drive. I left Winchester at 6:00am that morning, and made my way to Terre Haute, Indiana where I stayed the night at a Drury Hotel & Suites. First time at a Drury for me, and it was quite nice. Nothing better than a clean hotel with nice people. The drive itself was a bit long, about 13 hours because of the border crossing being a little bit slow at Gananoque and I-81 in New York State. I had to drive through a few cities as well, Buffalo, Columbus, Cincinnati just to name a few.
I slept a little bit longer in Terre Haute because my drive the day after was a little bit shorter, only about 9 hours, which is a walk in the park for me. My final destination to get into Tornado Alley was Norman, Oklahoma, which lots of chasers use as their general sitting area as it’s kind of right in the middle of everything. And that was the end of the drive to get there!
I haven’t been on any chases yet, as the weather has been calm here for numerous days. That will likely change past May 20th, as new systems come into the US. Realistically, it’s good this region had a break, because the last days of April and first half of May were absolutely crazy for tornado outbreaks across the Plains.
You will all see my photos on Facebook and chase updates as well when we start to get rolling. And, a reminder, I’ll be chasing with Manitoba Storm Chaser Jordan Carruthers, Twisted Brothers Chasing Tom Smetana, and Weather Chaser Braydon Morisseau while I’m here, so there will be plenty of content!
