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Friday, May 21, 2010

Not what you want to see parked near the art festival!


I'm writing this from my hotel in Ridgeland, Mississippi. I will be showing my work at the Renaissance Fine Arts Festival this weekend. They had some storms here yesterday but it is supposed to be nice weather on Saturday and Sunday for the show. That is good because the show is outside. Last weekends show in Midland, Texas was inside but it was affected by the weather just the same. While looking for a place to park at the Midland Center so I could check in and begin setting up, I noticed one of those storm chaser vehicles with all the instruments on top drive by. Hmmmmm! Several hours later I found out why they were in the area as all the artists were sent to the basement for about 30 minutes because a funnel cloud had been seen about a mile away. The streets became flooded and water came right up to the front doors of the Center. The attendance at the VIP Party that evening was definitely lighter than normal because of the rainy weather.
 On Sunday morning while driving to the show I noticed an armada of storm chaser vehicles parked in a lot about three blocks from the show. I decided I had time for some photos so I pulled into the lot and took a few. Most vehicles had noticeable hail damage. Several of the radar vehicles were from the Vortex 2 research that you see on the Weather Channel. Glad to see that they were in Wyoming today. The last vehicle looked like a homemade tank. I don't think they were too concerned with getting hail damage.




I also worked in a little photography at nearby Odessa and Monahans. Since the show was over at 5 pm on Saturday it gave me time to drive over to Monahans Sandhills State Park for a sunset shoot. I got a break in the cloud cover but not a sky full of pink clouds that I had hoped for. Nice ripples in the dunes though. On the way back to Midland, I photographed the Ector Theater in Odessa. I got there a little late to capture a deep blue in the sky, but still some nice neon.