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Day 12 (25-5-2002) Click on any of the the Photos to Enlarge
We left Abilene, Texas heading south, as soon as we got onto the US-84 we could see a lovely cu building. It was one of the sharper clouds we had seen and things looked good, we were in a hurry to catch it up incase we missed something, otherwise it would have been a nice time for a 35mm picture.
We turned off near Santa Anna, Texas and then turned onto what the map calls ranch roads, I think the road must be waiting for tarmac but I get the feeling it will be waiting a long while!
Stopping at some cross roads to admire the cloud for a while, deciding we are too close to get a good view. I call it cross roads, but it could equally be called two flatish lines of gravel crossing each others path.
Relocated a few miles down the road and now back on tarmac, after looking at the cloud we pull into a gate of a field. Rotation is definitely happening in the cloud and it does start to drop a small funnel, but that was as far as it got. However the local bugs had more luck and found 3 stupid tourists standing around looking at clouds to feed on, so a quick get away was in order. After we had got back in the vehicle and down the road a few yards we noticed a water hole where they must have come from 'note to self, check for water nearby before stopping'
This is where we had an urge to see some hail, so we went down the road to Coleman, got a pizza and picked our spot and waited (notice we positioned the car under shelter). This is another lesson, storms don't always keep in a straight line and instead turned and missed us. Listening to the weather radio it seem there were three cells all going in different directions, one was nowhere near us, the other we would never catch, so we picked the third one.
	We drove down into Goldthwaite, Texas and waited. Time to grab some more junk food sit down and wait for the storm to come to us again.
Although we wanted hail and that was the reason behind parking under the garage, all we were treated to was loads of rain and a lightning storm. However it was close enough to trip the garages lights out for a while and by the time we left the rain was running down the street. The roads were flooded in places on the way back to Abilene, Texas.
Map of route