I, too, am a member of the Kewanee Wall Cloud Club.
I began the day somewhat pessimistic about chase opportunities; I made sure to not get my hopes up any more than they already were. Nevertheless, I monitored the SPC Mesoanalysis page closely, watching the parameters come together much better than any of the models had anticipated in the previous evenings' runs.
At about 12:45, I filled up the gas tank and departed for a spot near Knoxville, where Highways 150 and 97 intersect Interstate 74. I spent much of the drive on the phone with Scott Kampas, who, at the time, was not expecting to chase and who gave me invaluable updates on new radar returns forming along the MCV arc near Macomb. He told me that this would be a cell to watch, and sure enough, he was correct. I had been sitting at my perch near Knoxville for about fifteen minutes when NWR sounded, passing along the news of the severe thunderstorm warning.
I took I-74 West from there, planning to exit onto Hwy. 34 West towards Monmouth, where this storm was projected to pass. Then...I didn't. Instead of going west on 34, I missed the exit. Mistake of the day. I had to drive another ten miles before I could exit, and now needed to go east to stay ahead of the cell. At Woodhull, I took IL-17 east towards Galva, and dropped southwest a little on 34 until I could get a better view of the storm, which now had a ragged and low contrast, but still discernible, wall cloud, on the other side of Altona.
After taking a couple of pictures and watching for about five minutes, the wall cloud dissipated, and the cell moved on to the northeast. I went back through Altona and went east on IL-17 again, this time planning a route to Kewanee and IL-78. I went a few miles north of Kewanee on IL-78 to view the cell, which was now rapidly approaching from the west. I pulled off on a small farm road with a good view to the north, west, and south, and watched as a new wall cloud formed within a half-mile of me, and watched another, smaller, yet more mature one a few miles to the north. The new wall cloud was ghostly white in color and provided for a beautiful sight juxtaposed with the dark core and green fields, while the older was less of a spectacle, but reminded me of the wall cloud over Deerfield on 6/10/04 in shape, size, and color.
In a few minutes, they both were gone, and, although I knew of the Whiteside tornado warning, I did not have time to get there, nor did I have the patience to deal with the road network (or lack thereof) and hilly terrain of that area. I went into artsy-mode and took a few photos of the arcus going overhead, then began driving south on 78, hoping to get as far as I could before the wind and rain hit. I got about ten feet. Nothing was severe by NWS standards, but I did get about 45mph winds and rain heavy enough to keep me grounded for a little bit.
I began the trek home on IL-78 around 4:45, and planned on keeping my eye on a new cell in SW Fulton County that had good shape and was intensifying. As I traveled home, it took a few cycles of strengthening and weakening until I got to near Farmington (it was near Canton at the time), when it was clear this one wasn't going to last. I, again, pulled off on IL-78 to get a few pictures of a newly formed rainbow. A couple of the pictures turned out really well, and I began the final ten miles home.
Wall cloud north of Kewanee, IL
Arcus north of Kewanee, IL
Rainbow near Farmington, IL
Slept through the Muscatine tornado event and found myself literally chasing the storms into Illinois and Wisconsin (never caught them) and to top it all off got a friggin speeding ticket!!
Can win them all I guess!
