This is one of those days where each little frustrating event that took place played a part in us scoring the first ever images of a tornado on a Cinema Red Camera. First of all had been sick for the past 3 days and I think this was one of the worst mornings that I felt bad. We wake up and Annette knocks on the hotel door, I open it, the conversation starts out ok until she explains we have a flat tire. So, here we go, myself and Ted Keller going out to read the manual on a 2010 Yukon to change a tire. This is something I hate doing because I am really fealling like crap. Trust me they make it pretty darn complicating to change a tire on these rides. That obstacle is hurdled and we are off. One of those days where you have a 10% hatch over NE Co./SE Wy./SW NE/NW Ks. and everyone, his brother, and 2nd cousin half removed is chasing. I don't think anyone truly knew where to go. We drove out to Holyoke passing Reed who headed back west on the Denver cell. We figured that might be a bit elevated due to the temp spreads, so we decided to head south on the road construction mess of hwy 385. We detour west down hwy 34 in the town of Wray to go after a southern super cell that fired out ahead of the initial line. Well. . .that cell puked out and we continued west after a dynamic cell hooking like a beyatch and I wasn't watching my speed. You know how you wish you had a star trek transporter to get you to the cell like a.s.a.p, but instead you forget your foot turns to lead. Well. . .I get pulled over by the state patrol and that is part 2 of our crazy day, fortunately he gave us a warning and also said "I don't think any tornadoes will happen today guys." After he said that, we knew that he jinxed himself, so we were pretty confident on seeing a tornado after that point. We arrive on a beautiful tail end cell near Last Chance, Co. with an unbelievable lowered base. As we approached we could clearly see amazing rotation with a RFD gust front tail cloud that tailed back every bit of 100 miles to the SW out over the front range, (never seen anything like it before). We stopped to the east of last chance and decided to film and shortly after we shot the 1st high contrast tornado with pinkish backlighting, we then moved within 3 miles and shot #2. There were several points where it appeared as if there may have been 2+ ground circulations on the ground at any given time. I counted 2 high contrast tornadoes, a 3rd not condensed but funnel with ground circulation, and multiple low contrast tubes. The story of our luck didn't end there because near the intersection of hwy 71 and 36 we were filming the approaching "insane RFD push" and we got into some large hail. Annette was trying to get into the vehicle and hail had pelted her pretty good and while buckling she had dropped her IPhone on the side of hwy 36. We had a developing funnel to our west with a surge of 3" hail moving our way so we bolted to the east. After a few minutes Annette sais "Oh No! I can't find my phone!". Yup, part 3 of our crazy day we had this happen and couldn't turn around. We continued to the east ahead of the push for about 15 miles. After things stabilized we decided to head back to the west to see if the phone may have survived the hail and possible circulation crossing the road. Believe it or not, after driving for 15 miles very slowly we spotted the Iphone on the shoulder. I think we were just as excited to find the Iphone as we were to see the tornadoes, ha ha. So, the day ended on a good note. On another side note, that trooper that said it wouldn't happen. . .well, that cell tracked into his area continuously putting down tornado reports, and I am sure he ate those words as the caravan of chaser convergence flooded him. He was a very nice guy, and treated us kind by giving out the warning so I hope he stayed safe. Just goes to show you how a chain of not so good events can all be a part of the big picture and eventually great things will happen. Below is video of our account, and pics.
Tornado #1 near Last Chance, Co.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOiBl9RiGCw
Video Of Finding Phone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKFCF0_mevg
We ended the evening at the Village Inn in Sterling Co. Everyone else decided to eat at the same spot. We enjoyed a great conversation with Reed, Joel, Chris, and Terry and checked out their awesome ride. We also found out that we made a good move reserving our rooms one more day because V2 and everyone else had booked out our hotel and those nearby that night

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SRV Photo