on the road again (with apologies to willie nelson)

10:20 am.

van 1 ("chase 1") is really chatty. this is my second day in the van; tomorrow i imagine i'll be in chase 2.
the students doing their analyses this morning were talking over this and that and the other--what effect this field has, and what happens when this goes on.
it's very encouraging.
as i type this we're about 40 km east of swift current; the plan is to stop in medicine hat for a quick lunch, data stop, and hopefully to upload yesterday's selected pictures to the photobucket album (see the link on the right).are some i've never heard of. maybe **i**

it's certainly an alberta day if anywhere. the concerns are as follows:

1. is there enough moisture?
   
2. is there going to be too much forcing and storms go everywhere instead of an isolated one?
   
3. will they be in chaseable country (i.e. away from the forests of the foothills)?
   
4. will we get there in time? (north of calgary? red deer? not completely sure yet...)
   

there's a van from florida with which we've been jockeying for position, if you want to put it that way. i mean, not exactly, because it's 4 lane divided (very divided) highway. but wxdog is using the cruise control and the woman driving the flordia van is obviously not.

the crops out this way are really in good shape. we've seen plenty of flax since leaving regina earlier this morning. the blue flowers add an almost surreal touch to the already (but differently) blue sky, and the lush greenery (much lusher than southern manitoba is right now) make for a colourful pallette as we drive along.

i just talked to the ontario crew via text message, and they're right now in calgary. we've asked them to keep us updated, as our arrival time in the target area looks to be prime initiation time.

the cod guys are definitely on their way to calgary--they stayed overnight in moose jaw (did i mention that before?) and their target seems to be the same.

now that the analysis is done, the 4 in the back are playing crazy 8s, although some of the rules they're using are definitely ones i've never heard of. maybe **i** was playing with weird rules...

ahead of us now, as we pass waldeck, is an interesting cloud formation. it has both the look of a mountain wave cloud and some characteristics of altocumulus castellanus (also called either "acc" or "accas" {pronounced "ack-cuss"}).

let's see what today brings. hopefully not another sunburn. because i again neglected/forgot to get some afterburn lotion. (blush.)