5/17 UPDATE

	Though today was the first official day of our adventure, most of
our Alpha team arrived in drips and draps yesterday.  Yes, in spite of a
year of planning to meet in one place, in the last week before our chase,
we shifted gears and decided upon KC as a base camp.  
	Nancy was first to arrive, followed by Allan Detrich and John
Griswold.  Grizz had driven in from Tampa, and Allan from Fremont, Ohio.
Thanks to a few lucky cell phone calls and GPS in both vehicles, they were
able to hook up on the road somewhere in Ohio and convoy the rest of the
way to KC.  Brian McNoldy drove in from Ft. Collins, CO.  Our reunion was
a joyous event, the sort that can only be shared by close buddies with
shared memories overcoming incredible odds to pull this thing off for yet
another year.
	MESO currently runs one official chase, but every year the
originators get together for a less formal, more aggresively orchestrated
chase that has become known as the "Alpha" team.  Today was day one of
Alpha.  
	Early this am, we picked up Science Officer Chris Howell at the KC
airport.  Shortly after Chris' arrival, our guest Eileen Blass from USA
Today arrived.  Eileen will be traveling with us for the entire portion of
Alpha.  There is always some anxiety when a member of the press tags
along.  This was somehow missing with Eileen.  We were all immediately
comfortable with her.  Eileen is a team player... that is one of the
highest credentials we bestow on someone.  It's great to have her along.
	We started gathering data almost immediately.  No sooner had we
picked up Chris and Eileen than we had the laptop running a cell phone
connection from the tailgate of Grizz's Dodge Ram 1500 Quad cab... in the
short term parking lot of KCI.  Though the day's events definately pointed
toward severe weather, and we almost immediately decided on moving south
to meet it...lack of helicity kept our spirits in a "cautiously
optimistic" mode.  We knew that if we caught anything, it wouldn't be the
prize of prizes we seek most...but we would catch some storms, and that's
what we were there for.
	This year, Alpha team is running with two vehicles.  Each vehicle
is equipped with VHS radios, FMS handhelds for each chaser, and of course,
we all have cell phones.  Equipment wise, we have two laptops capable of
cellular connectivity, our new Capricorn 2000,  anenometers, scanners,
etc.  We also have OZ along again this year, and are asked at every stop
"What the hell is that?".  
	We also have taken great care to have good mapping, and each
vehicle is running GPS at all times when we're on the road.  We have a
fully-equipped pharmacy and first aid kit with TWO snake bite kits and
trauma packs.  
	We caught some beautiful cumulonimbi and a lightning show towards
the late afternoon, and some great mammatus, but staying south of the
frontal boundary became impossible.  As it turns out, the segment of the
front where we were was surged southeastward very rapidly by the previous
night's thunderstorm outflow.  So we were quickly left in the cold sector
(which was a refreshing change from the oppresive heat and humidity ahead
of the front!), but were still thrilled to have seen some action 1) on our
first afternoon out and 2)  without even officially chasing yet.
	Nonweather related adventures involve the usual OUTSTANDING
service and a MESO recommendation goes out to the Smithville Super 8
outside of the KC airport and the Wellington Steakhouse in Wellington, KS.
The folks at the Smithville Super 8 always knock themselves out to
accomodate us (chaser friendly accomodations) and the Wellington
Steakhouse is a great place to grab a fine piece of cornfed Kansas Cow.
However, a caution must be issued for the Blackwell, OK Super 8.  Norman
Bates is alive and well and living in the state of Oklahoma.  Not only
were the rooms and the hotel BEASTLY hot, but seconds after checking in,
we discovered that there was NO connectivity.  No modem lines, no phone
jacks.  Sadly we made this discovery after unapacking about 2 tons of
equipment and lugging it up two flights of stairs.  So we lugged it back
down again... only to discover that Norman had every intention of charging
us for the rooms.  You won't believe this... we had to call his MOTHER to
straighten the whole mess out.  We unleased the Kracken (Allan), and the
whole matter was ultimately decided in our favor.  Allan was able to find
us OUTSTANDING accomodations in a town closeby.
	We're now looking at Saturday as our next window of opportunity.
At this writing, Eileen is editing her notes and pictures in our new digs,
Chris and Brian are analyzing data, Allan is editing HIS photos, Grizz is
watching the Sopranos, and Nancy is poolside, typing out this newsletter.  


Of course, for the latest updates and photos, check out:
MESO -- http://www.mcwar.org
Allan Detrich -- http://www.allandetrich.com