My friend, Jeff, called me yesterday to talk about moving from California back to Pennsylvania. The rough idea is that I would meet him out there and we could drive back together. It would be no straight line shot however and we would probably make a several thousand mile detour up to the Cascades and the Rockies. It's his car after all...
Since I really need to be saving money for my methadone treatments and my Slurpee addiction, I thought it could be more economical to ride a bike out there instead of flying. There may have been just enough time to do it between when I would first be able to leave and when Jeff's lease ends. I even allowed myself to get a little excited about it. I went so far as to planning a route too.
That's when I noticed my route would unavoidably run through either Kansas or Oklahoma. My apologies to those who live in Kansas because I'm sure that you love living in your state and I don't mean to offend you, but I have no desire to bike the length of Kansas. Regardless, I explored a hunch and found out that May is the month with greatest tornado activity in the mid-West. Incidentally, May was also the month that I was planning to spend riding across the US.
A week ago, I gave no thought to tornadoes. Now they threaten to destroy the very house I am living in and effectively destroyed my travel plans. Guess I'll start checking the airlines...
As a card carrying midwesterner I wouldn't worry about tornadoes too much. You'd probably be fine if you carried a small weather radio with you. T-storms on the plains aren't exactly the same as T-storms in the mountains. You get a lot of warning and there are usually plenty of places to take shelter. Kansas is empty, but not THAT empty.
ReplyDeleteAaron