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MOUNT VERNON, Ill. - So, which is weirder: two white vans topped by 17 antennas and covered with magnetic storm spotter logos, or cloggers tapping their merry hearts out in front of a visitor information center at a highway rest stop? Storm chasers and cloggers made an improbable convergence Sunday at a rest area on Interstate 64 near Grayson, Ky., passing a few strange looks back and forth at one another. They didn't have time to mingle much, as the 12 storm chasers - mostly high school and college students from the New River Valley - had just finished lunch and were getting in their vans when the cloggers began clacking on the northeastern Kentucky concrete for an impromptu audience of dog-walkers and people in need of a restroom. Virginia Tech student Jeremy Swink, one of the storm chasers, didn't quite know what to make of it when he saw people of all ages at the rest stop wearing tie-dyed T-shirts with the word "Wizards" emblazoned on them. "I could have guessed 20 things they might have been doing, and tap-dancing wouldn't have been one of them," Swink said later over dinner at a Denny's restaurant in Dale, Ind. Two men who said they were associated with the "Wizards of Dance" clogging team out of Grayson were equally puzzled by the tangle of antennas atop the vans. "I hope you catch one, but I hope one doesn't catch you," George Huff said when told that the vans were rigged for tornado chasing. All down the highway on Sunday, passengers and even drivers swiveled their heads and gawked as the antenna-laden vans rolled toward the Great Plains. The chasers made it to Mount Vernon, Ill., Sunday night, and were expecting to drive to Kansas or Nebraska on Monday in advance of potential severe weather on today. Late Sunday night in his motel room, chase team leader Dave Carroll stressed chase ethics in a team briefing. The Pulaski County High School meteorology teacher reminded the group that the storms it seeks are the cause of much hardship for residents in the Great Plains, and that the people they encounter should be treated with great respect. "Consider yourselves ambassadors of Southwest Virginia." he said. |
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