19 May, 2001 - SW SPS - Left London ON, after work, ~18z Friday. Started Saturday the 19th from Troy IL, just E of St Louis (decided that after after a morning briefing from Al Moller, there was a play in NW TX). I actually ran into another Canadian Chaser (Ron Granville) on the road in Central MO (we tandemed for a while). I crossed the Red N of SPS at 23z Saturday (after punching the mod-heavy rain near Lawton, where Ron and I went separate ways - I actually stopped for a while as road conditions were offering hints of hydroplaning). Spoke to Lon Curtis as I plunged S towards TX who confirmed there was still an opportunity for deep convection along and N of the outflow boundary to my SW. Sang part of Waylon Jennings' lyric "when you cross that old Red River, Hoss, Bob Wills is Still the King" as I crossed the ol' Red River!

Headed SW of SPS on 82/277 to Mabelle with linear development to my W/NW. Pretty (i.e. attractive) linear RFB. Noted tail feeding into line to my NW 0008z). Turned back NE and was overtaken by small horde of other chasers. Tail dissipated, and new line formed to the E-ESE on outflow of first line. Saw nice vault over SPS, but nary a hint of rotation at all during warned period. No pictures, as multitasking skills suffered from the long drive and lack of sleep and practice (had not had any chases in 2001 prior to this one - maybe should have a dry run each spring to shake the cobwebs off!).

I spoke to the Shreveport, LA NWSFO Warning Coordination Meteorologist Bruce Burkman at the AMA FO on 28 May, and he related that he saw a brief tornado at Lake Kickapoo/Archer City, so I'll take that a confirmed event. That being the case, if I had made the navigation choice to take FR 1790 to FR and back E towards Archer City, I *might* have been in a better position to see the event. Reality is that I backtracked up 82-277 and could not really see to the south, mainly due to terrain (even though I was only 5 - 10 miles away). Lesson learned is that even though I thought for certain that the chances for a tornado were almost nil and that the subsequent tornado report was bogus based on the predominant linear convective orientation. I suppose anything CAN happen!