May 29th - San Antonio back to Vidor via Austin.

We woke up and hit the road, we decided to drive back to Vidor via San Marcos (large outlet shopping malls) and Austin, where we toured the campus of the University of Texas and saw the Capitol building. After leaving Austin we drove back to Vidor, and stopped and ate in Bastrop Texas, where we saw a nice thunderstorm (not severe, but alot of lightning and heavy rain.) On a side-note while we were in San Antonio, parts of the Beaumont TX area received up to 15 inches of rain in less that 24 hours. So on our way back through Beaumont we saw a lot of flooded fields, (one of which housed an Alligator farm, and some of them escaped due to the flooding). We finally arrived home, and went over to another friends house for a meal of deer-wraps (Deer-meat wrapped in bacon, cheese and peppers and soaked in honey, mmmmm).

May 28th - Travel to San Antonio

We got up and made our way to San Antonio Texas (about a 5 hour drive from Vidor). It was a fun day, we saw the Alamo, a lost battle for the Texan army but inspired a turn in the war that saw Texas win its independence from Mexico in 1836. We also ate a very good Mexican food place in the Market, and walked around the Riverwalk that night. San Antonio is a fun place.

May 27th - Crawfish Bowl in Vidor TX.

A much needed rest day, (NO CAR TRAVEL).

We decided to stay near my house and had a swim (in which I got a severe shoulder sun-burn). After that we had a crawfish bowl and played some pool.

May 26th - Galveston Texas

We decided that since the weather wouldnt be exciting we would make the most of our vacation time. We drove from Vidor to Galveston via Crystal Beach Texas taking us on the ferry that carries cars from the Bolivar Pennisula to Galveston Island. While in Galveston we tested the waters of the Gulf Of Mexico, (warm enough to swim), and had some food. From a weather perspective we visited the Great Storm museum which catalogs the events of Sept 8-9, of 1900 when a hurricane swept over Galveston Island killing an estimated 6,000 people, still the worst natural disaster in US history. On the way home we at some good sea-food at a resturant along the Inter-coastal Waterway which is a protected in-land canal that carries barge traffic from south Texas to Florida.

May 24th - night in Wichita Kansas

Well after an exhausting 24 hours of driving we had a nice rest in Lincoln NE before what we hoped would be another chase day through parts of south-eastern Kansas, however, it wasnt to be. We tracked the dry-line across much of Kansas through the day, but the cap was just too strong, no storms fired along the boundary, and it was a quite day. After the spending the day hanging out with some old friends that were with the Mississippi Storm chase group in Gas, Kansas, we decided to follow them back to Wichita, Kansas to hang out. We had a few drinks and a nice catch-up that evening. It was becoming pretty obvious that our storm chasing days were number (well up). So we decided that we would get in the car and make the long trek back to southeast Texas on the 25th.