Hsterical Journey to Historic Places

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COMING HOME



Day 28: May 26, 2013



Much to my chagrin I had to pass through Memphis again, but this time I did not get hopelessly lost for an hour. I began looking for a motel in Checotah, OK but did not find one. The American Idol from 2005, Carrie Underwood, is a Checotah girl. When I was in the army I had a pal named Marvin Nichols who was also from Checotah. I made a few visits with him to that little town back in 1969 and 1970 and tried to find the home where his family lived back then. That little town has changed somewhat since then so I didn’t find it. Marvin can’t sing very well at all. There was a grocery outlet there called Nichol’s Dollar Saver; a cousin I suspect. “Say, you wouldn’t take a dime for those Nichols would you”?



The next little place up the road is Henrietta, OK. It was the childhood home of Troy Aikman. He owns a McDonald’s franchise there, but he doesn’t live in Henrietta anymore. The motels there were both run down and cruddy looking places.



I finally settled in to a room at the Day’s Inn in a little place called Okemah, OK. The sky looked a little funny when I went to get some supper at a nearby pizza outfit. Okemah is a little town where you would be better off with another cold pizza breakfast. As I was eating my pizza I noticed that the other patrons were all standing up gaping in wide-eyed terror at the TV set. An F4 tornado was ripping through the little town of Shawnee just a few miles further up the highway. It tore up a mobile home community on the outskirts of town and killed two of the upstanding citizens living there. Some trucks got blown over on the highway that I had just been in traffic with. That little piece of heavy weather was worrisome to me until I saw a storm chaser vehicle in the parking lot. Those fellows would not be staying in a motel that was in the path of a bad tornado. I took it as a sign that I could finally take my clothes off and go to bed worry free.

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Photos

STORM CHASER
This is some heavy duty gear. I have never seen a vehicle like this before. The canopy that sticks out over the truck bed is fairly thick metal but it has significant hail damage visible on the bottom side. It is meant to protect the storm chasers from hail stones and lightning but seems like it might act like a sail during high winds.

STORM CHASERS
The hood has heavy hail damage. That thing on the roof folds down to protect the windshield from flying tree stumps. Thee are little roadside places all over Oklahoma tat fix hail damaged cars. It appear to be a thriving sideline for a few people.