Transitioning Back to "Real Life" After a Chase Vacation

[Josh Murfield]

I have never taken full blown chase vacations, but I lived for a few years up until 2009 in Nebraska. My wife and I would get out as often as we could for chasing when events occurred within about a 100 mile radius of us. My feeling was similar, though, in that sure I lived there and had access to the events all season long, but those in reality were spread out enough that the mundane life that is found in that area outside of chasing really got to me between chases. Whenever we'd be out going somewhere I'd think of how sad and boring it is compared to when we were in that same spot during a storm event x number of weeks or months ago. Even very small things, such as going past a gas station in a tiny town and feeling so sad thinking about the time we stopped there to use the restroom and pick up snacks while we were on a chase and ended up bagging a nice tornado just a half hour later.
It was just an entirely different world being in the car with our equipment, radio tuned into breaking severe weather coverage while out on random county roads with nothing around us but corn fields was like a high- there was nothing more exciting to me than that. Going home afterwards and getting up for work the next morning on a "normal" weather day just was a different world- might as well have been a totally different dimension, even, considering how differently it felt to me.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Bumping this quite-old thread rather than starting a new one, which should please the MODs (BTW, I was unable to find this by searching on “transition”, I had to page back forever through my own content to finally find it...)

....Anyway, now that many chase vacations are coming to an end, I wanted to revisit this topic... Maybe some that responded before have new perspectives or coping strategies... Hoping to get many others to participate, now that the ST forum has been revitalized...

Also, to add a new perspective (but feel free to comment however you like on the original question) - is the “transition” easier or harder spending on whether you had a:

1. Great / successful chase vacation with some excitement, adventure, or intense experiences
2. Bad chase vacation but only because the weather just didn’t cooperate
3. Bad chase vacation that was your own fault, i.e the weather did provide opportunities but you didn’t see anything because of your own forecast and/or execution errors

Personally, I would rank them from most difficult to easier transitions as follows: 1, 3, 2. They are all hard transitions, this is just a relative ranking.

I call #1 most difficult because, although a successful trip may be satisfying, settling back to real life of “volume 5” after a couple weeks of intense experiences at “volume 11” - coming down off the high, so to speak - I have found to be a very tough adjustment. It’s hard to concentrate on any routine, mundane personal or work stuff back home.

#2 is not easy either but is easiest of the three for me; the itch is not scratched, it’s tough to wait another whole year to satisfy the craving, but it’s also aggravating when the weather doesn’t cooperate so it’s easy to say “screw this, I’m outta here!” You go home knowing you didn’t see anything, but you didn’t miss anything either. Of course, if it’s just poor timing and you miss good stuff before or after your chase trip, this may become a more difficult transition.

#3 is me this year. It’s a close call in ranking this as an easier transition situation than #1. In some ways #3 should be the hardest transition of all: the added sense of failure, regret, frustration and disappointment over bad decisions and “what might have been” should make it more difficult than #2, where the lack of success was due to the weather and out of your control. And #3 lacks the sense of satisfaction that #1 has. With #3, you have to wait a whole year for the next possible opportunity for success. But while the transition still sucks, I find it a little easier than #1 because the frustration still leads me to say “get me the hell outta here, this is BS and the aggravation just isn’t worth it!” (Mind you, that’s just a coping mechanism!)

 

[Jeff House]

Good stuff. I might add a semi-satisfied category, which was us this year. End of the last day is sad. Unless it's a grand finale wedge-fest, which this year was not. In 2008 the last day was our best day, 3-4 cycles of mayhem.

You know what I feel when I have to leave the Plains? I feel like I just spent a week with that long-distance siggy other. Then the good-bye for who knows how long is just awful. I sure don't miss the single days lol!

But yeah, end of chase-cation is that feeling.

 

[Kem Poyner]

Thanks for bumping this old thread. I enjoyed reading old posts from like minded people. We are a unique bunch of crazies! At least here in Arizona the Monsoon season is not far away. Not the same, but it helps the post chase blues a little.

 

[Todd Lemery]

I made the difficult transition back to real life and it didn’t take long for me to want to chase rain showers to cure my thirst. I’m tentatively planning on heading back down late next week when the moisture might return. It’s weird for me because after about a week or so of chasing I really feel the tug of home and then when I get home it takes me a few days and the plains start tugging me back. I think I just need the plains being home...

 

[Warren Faidley]

The withdrawal use to be really difficult when chasing involved photography as a very profitable living. It was also a lot more enjoyable without the convergence. I would often spend 40+ days tornado chasing. I once turned around about half way back to Tucson, deciding I was not done and it payed off about 3 days later. I was single then and had no reason to come home. There was a withdrawal period that took a couple of weeks. Fortunately for me, the monsoon season kicked in during the first or second week of July, followed by the hurricane season. By the end of September, I was ready for a vacation, but could not wait until spring.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

Monsoon is a nice transition period. Sort of helps to slowly bring down the high as we transition into having a regular people's summer filled with BBQs and tending to the garden.

And in CO...anything can happen all through the summer into fall, so sometimes there's a nice little severe treat to keep the blood pumping.

 

[Kem Poyner]

Upgrading equipment, vehicle mods and looking at new technologies help keep one "connected" for awhile. I myself will be researching and building a retractable hail shield for the F 150. I lost my windshield AGAIN this year on the Fort Stockton storm.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Upgrading equipment, vehicle mods and looking at new technologies help keep one "connected" for awhile. I myself will be researching and building a retractable hail shield for the F 150. I lost my windshield AGAIN this year on the Fort Stockton storm.

I hear ya’, but personally the only coping mechanism that works for me is to try to completely *disconnect*.

Apparently, I am not doing that successfully, or I wouldn’t even be on here...