Places to go during downtime

[Paul Lemery]

Whenever I end a day of chasing I'll look for a good place to eat and a beer. I personally will go out of my way to go to the Texas Rose Steakhouse in Pampa, TX or JB's Steakhouse in Woodward, OK. During the daytime I like to check out ghost towns. Bavaria, KS comes to mind. Anyone else like to share their secret hotspots? It would be nice to have a short-list of places to go when not chasing.

 

[samuel stone]

Paul I love your ghost town idea, The best thing about ghost towns is when you know the story behind them, there are some cool ones in the plains.

Well what I do personally is bring my fishing poles and if there is extended down time ill pull them out and try for some crappie or bass if a lake is nearby, or just drop a grasshopper off a pasture creek bridge, But then again I am a fishing addict so its hard for me to go too long without wetting a line. my poles stay in the bed of my truck

 

[Todd Lemery]

One very important tip. Don't get so caught up in sightseeing that you don't get to your target area in time.
For instance, you don't want to be sitting in the middle of the Palo Duro Canyon while a storm blows up in your target area two hours away and starts dropping tornados one after the other. Oh wait, that happened last year!



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[Quincy Vagell]

One very important tip. Don't get so caught up in sightseeing that you don't get to your target area in time.
For instance, you don't want to be sitting in the middle of the Palo Duro Canyon while a storm blows up in your target area two hours away and starts dropping tornados one after the other. Oh wait, that happened last year!

This.

Also, don't go out of your way to sightsee or check out a restaurant if you're getting ready for a chase! You don't know if storms will pop up earlier than expected or if the target moves a couple of hundred miles...

I've had close calls before because I thought to myself "hey, this cool place is only an hour away, maybe I should check it out," and then almost botched a storm chase because of it. On the Pilger day, I was lured east across Nebraska due to morning convection and decided to go to Omaha for lunch. Luckily I got out of there real quick once towers started going up to the west, but if I had stayed in Omaha maybe 15-20 extra minutes, I would have completely ruined that chase.

 

[Ethan Schisler]

I'm not a big fan of lingering around in the morning or early afternoon for food because of the aforementioned reasons above. If I do pick a place to have some leisure time or a nice dinner, its for supper after I know that any quality chasing is likely done for the day. However by that point, as we all know, many places are usually closing for the night.....so unless its a bust day or an extremely early ending chasing, its most likely fast food for supper...or whatever is still open lol. Otherwise I always enjoy Texas Roadhouse if I have time to stop there, some pretty food if I say so myself.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Since I don't generally go on extended trips, a true down day in the Plains has really been a rarity for me. I go out when a trough gets things active, and come home when it's quiet. There have been times during a multi-day trip where I wake up close to (or in) my target area and don't have to drive very far. In those cases, I grab an extra hour or two of sleep in the morning (usually much needed). If I have even more time after that, I work on photos/video or do a blog post. If I'm passing near a landmark on such a day, I might stop and shoot a few photos - but I generally never deviate much from my drive to the target.

A chase day is for chasing. At least for me, especially chasing solo, there is so much to do in terms of forecasting and trying to stay on top of what the atmosphere is doing that there really isn't much time for anything else. Taking your attention away from the weather on a chase day will make you miss things. Again, sometimes you have those nice mornings where you wake up an hour from your target - but even then, I can't take my eyes off of how things are evolving for very long and not have it impact my chase.

 

[JamesCaruso]

I take two-week chase vacations and find that down days are few and far between; even when there are no storms, there is usually a long repositioning drive to take up much of the day.

In my early years of chasing (I started in 1996), I used to like to explore the Plains. Now the novelty has worn off (I still love it there, but see enough serendipitously in normal course), so I don't try too hard to find stuff to do. I have a demanding job where my responsibility does not stop just because I am on vacation. It is tough to be gone two weeks, so I use downtime to catch up on work. I tell my clients, bosses and colleagues that I am "working a reduced schedule, remotely" as opposed to making myself totally out of touch for two consecutive weeks. Usually on down days I am also still spending a few hours forecasting, trying to put a plan together for the next two or three days.

I do love exploring non-chain restaurants with local character. If we have a few down days in a row, we will try to stay in a city, downtown at a nice hotel. OKC and Wichita are favorites, where we love hitting the bars and restaurants of Bricktown (especially along the river walk) and Old City, respectively. One of my favorite non-chasing memories out there was hearing a band called Lip Survis (sp?) in Wichita doing covers of the Stones' "Gimme Shelter" and Adele's "Rolling in the Deep." Another fond memory was checking out the Wichita minor league baseball team, and staying at the hotel right behind the OKC baseball stadium and watching the college tournament. (All with a backdrop of sadness that days were passing like sand through an hourglass without chase opportunities...)

As for specific restaurant recommendations, here are a few favorites from the last three to five years' trips; hopefully they are all still open!

Thai restaurant (can't remember name) in Lamar CO. We hit this almost every trip. Really quality Thai food. Almost missed Campo jerking around having lunch here on what seemed like a marginal day! Last went 2015.

Martinelli's Little Italy - Salina, KS (downtown Salina) - last went in 2013

Gutch's (wood fired pizza, etc.) Hays, KS - last went 2013

Gella's Diner and Lb. Brewing Company - Hays, KS (too long of a wait one night in 2013! Then returned another night, awesome, city quality brewpub!!! great atmosphere, great Yelp reviews). Last went 2014 or 2015, can't be sure.

Salt & Pepper - Mediterranean in Wichita Falls, TX. Last went 2015.

Thai Kitchen - Childress, TX (not as good as the one in Lamar, but a place where you can get a good meal; menu omits some standard Thai fare but has other Asian dishes as well). Last went sometime in last three years...

Open Range Grill - Ogallala - north of town, on the main road up toward the lake; local flair, great specialty burgers. Last went 2013 or 2014.

287 Roadhouse - Dumas TX - sports bar with good selection, clean, quality food. Burgers, steaks, good seafood selection. Last went 2015.

This is not a complete list, sadly I only started keeping it (on Evernote where it's accessible while chasing) a few years ago, although I probably have others buried in individual days' chase journals...

Jim








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[Bob Schafer]

Thai restaurant (can't remember name) in Lamar CO. We hit this almost every trip. Really quality Thai food.

Thai Spicy Basil. They're easy to find, because they're adjacent to the RR tracks on Main St. Yep, good food. Another place that really has good food in Lamar is the restaurant at the truck stop as you're picking up speed leaving town headed west.

After spending countless nights in Dodge over the years, I found myself stuck there last November because of the blizzard here at home after the night of the long-track tornado. So, I FINALLY went over to the Boot Hill museum. Wow. For anybody who likes museums, it is an absolute, 100% must-see. Jaw-dropper.

On a more somber note, try spending some time looking around in a cemetery out in the boonies sometime.

 

[Bill Hark]

While on the way to a target area, I try not to stop unless there is something immediately interesting by the road ie an old abandoned house. I blew one chase day by dawdling too long looking at the largest prairie dog in the United States near Oakley, KS. On true down days, I am always looking for something to explore or a new restaurant to try. A very good source of interesting sights and restaurants in Tornado Alley is the Storm Chasing Handbook by Tim Vasquez. The current edition is fairly outdated but a new one one is in the works and should be out this April or May.

Bill Hark

 

[James Gustina]

My current favorite stops when having some time on my hands tend to be historic in some way or another so if that's your thing, read on.

Black Kettle National Grassland - A national grassland in Roger Mills just west of Cheyenne. Not a lot to it, but the Washita Massacre site is interesting and there are some neat info bits about the Arapaho/Cheyenne removal to the area.

Antelope Hills - These series of buttes in northern Roger Mills in the last bend of the Canadian River have a lot of history. They have a great view from the top (yes they can be climbed and no you won't get shot for going on them) and have been the site of Comanche encampments, Spanish/Anglo camps while on the way to California and are across the river from the site of the Battle of Little Robe Creek between Texas Rangers/Tonkawas and the Comanche in 1858. Some US Cavalry artifacts can be found around them.

Caprock Canyons State Park - Pretty out of the way for most people but right on the edge of Llano Estacado in the Texas Panhandle. It's southeast of Silverton and northwest of Turkey, a spot most chasers are familiar with. It has the largest public bison herd in Texas and a lot of cool, less-traveled trails compared to Palo Duro.

Blanco Canyon - Another Panhandle stop. It's located south of Floydada and northeast of Ralls. It was the first site in the Panhandle where Spanish artifacts from the expedition by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1541 were found. It was also the site of the Battle of Blanco Canyon between the US Cavalry and Quahadi Comanche. There's a cool little albino mind called "Mount Blanco" that has been a landmark in the canyon for quite a few centuries that's right next to TX 193 on the west rim.

Those are just a few of the cool places in my favorite part of the Plains. There are a lot of other recreation areas in the Panhandle (Rita Blanca Nat'l Grassland, Battle of Adobe Walls site, etc.) that I'll add in later.

 

[Dan Robinson]

A few roadside places of interest - maybe not worth a special trip, but a short 15 minute stop "on the way":

- Windmill museum at Shattuck, OK
- ATSF steam locomotive and "halfway between San Fransisco and New York" road signs at Kinsley, KS
- "Hot/Cold" water towers in Pratt, KS
- Red mesas near Mooreland, OK
- Giant cross along I-40 at Groom, TX
- World's biggest McDonald's over I-44/Will Rogers Turnpike in Vinita, OK
- Flint Hills landscapes in eastern Kansas
- Great Platte River Road Archway over I-80 near Kearney, NE
- Union Pacific locomotive display (Big Boy and DD40AX, largest steam and diesel locos ever built) Omaha, NE
- Keeper of the Plains monument, Wichita
- Big Well in Greensburg, KS

 

[Jeff House]

I agree no sight seeing on chase days, even if it is not forecast until 00Z. Down days with no long repo allow sight seeing. On chase days I do try to have a sit down lunch. It may be the last quality meal because dinner/supper time is also tornado time. Of course eating after the chase works but I do not like to eat that late. A celebratory drink is in order though in the case of a successful tornado intercept.

Wichita has some great mom and pop restaurants. Saigon is fast healthy Vietnamese food just north of Downtown on Broadway. For sight seeing in Wichita the Old Cow Town museum is an authentic recreation of a Great Plains town 120 years ago. Characters add realism and it is not touristy at all.

 

[Paul Lemery]

Wow, there are a pile of great spots I wouldn't have know about. Thank you. I am sure I'll be seeing some of them soon.

 

[Willoughby Owen]

Some cool spots we've come across...

Maybe the best steak I've ever had can be had from Ken's Steaks & Ribs in Amber, OK - small town north of Chickasha. Very cute small place with a great atmosphere.

Plum Thickett Inn - Kiowa, KS

The Diner / Pioneer Auto Museum off the I-90 in Murdo, SD. Timeless Americana.

Rosemount museum. - Pueblo, CO. Very well kept huge mansion and a look at how the super-rich of Colorado once lived! One of the owners from the 1800s has a very interesting world travel journal all written up for the local newspaper.
https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attr...Reviews-Rosemount_Museum-Pueblo_Colorado.html

Carhenge near Alliance in western Nebraska kinda ruined a good chase for us in 2013. Mucked around here too long and we even had a long drive in the late morning/early arvo from RAP. Don't know why we stopped here with limited time. So easy to say in hindsight now!