05 May

Eventful First Day

Posted by in 2012 Season at May 05, 2012

Even though today wasnt the greatest day for chasing it was finally time to leave and get down to the States. We left at 5:30am EST from Georgina Ont. with the goal of reaching Southern Indiana.

Despite our sensible goals, a litney of highway obsticales blocked our path including;  a flooded Interstate 69 in Michigan, a overturned Semi that closed Interstate 74, and several other construction zones and rush hour traffic that combined for approximatly 3 hours of lost driving time.

In the end we reached Moline, IL and we are bunking here for the night before departing for North East Nebraska first thing in the morning. After driving some 1500kms in 17hrs, the Trailblazer is holding up well so far, however we discovered that the fuel gauge has ceased to function smoothly at least and we are now relying on the trip counter to ensure we are not left stranded (again) with no fuel on the side of the Highway but that is a story for another day.

 

3 Responses

  1. Brian Dillon says:

    Did you all check NWS sites on the way through Michigan? They clearly said that I-75 and I69 was flooded through the Saginaw/Flint area on Friday. Why didn’t you go to Des Moines, IA for the first night?

    • Brian@Mesoholics.net says:

      Hey Brian. Ya it wouldn’t been helpful to have looked at the NWS site. However, given that we had just passed over the border and just added our data plans, we weren’t really using he internet yet. Jay was still in the process of configuring our internet. But we have a CB and so could listen in to the truckers. That was very helpful and allowed us to avoid the worse of the traffic. So eventful trip already. Now on to some tornadoes!

      • Brian Dillon says:

        I’m from the States. Just was saying, not being mean about it. I appologize if it came out mean. Otherwsie…a little information to help. Some of the rest-stops have weathertap/DTN radars, and http://www.weather.cod.edu/text usually come out with MD’s about 5 minutes FASTER than SPC at times. NWS discussions also help to pin-point areas of concern. -11 LI’s and 4000/5000 Capes and #4 for 1km EHI. Looks like storms will blow in the next 2-3 hrs.

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