May 29, 2006 Saline County, KS

Storms finally developed just prior to sunset, but a nice isolated supercell was not evident.

I made reservations for rooms at the Days Inn in McPherson, and we had dinner at the Applebees across from the Days Inn.  There was a problem, though.  After I had made the reservations, I had it in mind that the Days Inn that I had called was in Hutchinson, about 30 miles away.  I had made calls to several motels in both towns prior to finding rooms at the Days Inn in McPherson, and I mixed up the two towns.  So, after dinner we drove right past the Days Inn and headed southwest to Hutchinson.  There was a spectacular lightning display halfway there, with “spider” lightning occasionally spreading upward from a nearby radio or TV tower.  When that show was over, we drove into Hutchinson and looked for the Days Inn.  We could not find it.  I called the number again, and the motel clerk was giving me directions with certain offramps.  There were no offramps or exits here.  He was next to impossible to understand, with a thick Indian or Pakistani accent.  And, his directions made no sense at all given that he thought I was looking for a motel in McPherson, and I was looking for a motel in Hutchinson.  After several minutes of exasperation, I figured out that my motel was back up the road in McPherson.  I announced to the guests on the HAM radio that I had goofed.  As it turned out, though, we might not have witnessed the nice lightning if we had not gone towards Hutchinson (by mistake) when we did.