Chasercon 2012

National Storm Chaser Convention
Denver, CO - February 17-19, 2012

-------------------------------------------

Once again,  Chasercon was held in February in Denver, CO and hosted by Roger Hill and Tim Samaras. I attended my third time in a row. It was fun and informative, and hanging out with fellow chasers talking about storms and everything else was second to none.

 This year Sean Casey and Brandon Ivey were the Keynote speakers. Tim Marshall did his yearly 'themed' presentation, this year dressing up as Darth Vader and aptly named "Darth Nader". Dr Greg Forbes of The Weather Channel did his yearly presentation as well and was supurb as usual. Due to the untimely death of Andy Gabrielson, his presentation timeslot was replaced by an emotionally driven memorial service presented by Kory Hartman, followed by stories from fellow friends and fans.

The vendor room was filled with the usual suspects selling goods and services for the chasing community.

And of course, the lounge. I guess you could unofficially call it the Chaser Lounge. Everyone hanging out enjoying food, drinks, and great conversation.

A farewell lunch with my closest chaser friends was held at nearby Buffalo Wild Wings. Great food and final thoughts of the convention and plans for the 2012 season were shared.

I drove to Denver again this year. The convenience of being 'free' to roam as I want is by far more desirable to me than the hassle of getting to an airport and dealing with all the crap there, getting shuttled to the hotel, and then being crippled with no transportation other than ridealongs. Also, the total cost of fuel was actually cheaper than the airfare. In fact I was paying for gas 50 cents cheaper through AZ and a full dollar cheaper in NM and CO, than in CA. the lowest gas I paid for was in Denver at $2.89.  This year I opted the southern route using I-40 east to I-25 north, however an overnight snowstorm closed I-40 between Kingman and Williams, AZ due to heavy snow. I was diverted south to Wickenburg, then made my way to I-17 and back up to Flagstaff. The delay and diversion added 4 hrs to the total trip,  and after 22 hrs solid on the road I pulled in to Denver at 3am MST on Friday.  The drive home was easy, with just a small slowdown near Santa Fe, NM on Sunday night due to snow.

Until next year!!