Page 144 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

In 2005, Virginia and I celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary at Morton’s Steak
House. Afterwards, we flew to California to see the Creation play at the Crystal
Cathedral and Disneyland. We enjoyed a brief visit to the Mall in Newport Beach.

In August, we flew to Washington, DC to attend the 34th AMS Broadcast Meteorology
Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. I enjoyed having lunch with Harry Volkman,
who had just retired from a long broadcasting career that began in Oklahoma City and
wound up in Chicago. Virginia and I toured the National Cathedral where were
surprised to find our neighbors, Scott and Vicky Findley, in the gift shop, too. It was a
very hot August as we visited the National Archives, the Ford Theater and the
Holocaust Museum. We got into the WWII Duck amphibian vehicle and rode into the
Potomac for a waterfront tour of the capital. This was my final attendance at an AMS
conference.

We took another trip to California in December 2005, flying back to California with
our granddaughter, Amanda. We were fortunate to witness one of the last hurrahs of the
Crystal Cathedral at the Christmas pageant that had flying angels. Sadly, the church
went into bankruptcy in 2010 and was finally purchased in 2012 by the Catholic
Diocese of Orange County, to be renamed the Christ-Cathedral after renovation.

CHAPTER 44 - Rash of Notable Hurricanes
The year 2004 was similar to the 1940s for Florida. The first storm was Tropical Storm
Bonnie on August 12. During that afternoon, tornado warnings were issued for several
counties west of Jacksonville. I went outside to view the cloud formations and saw a
sky unlike any that I had ever seen before. The dense cirrostratus overcast lowered to a
very ominous nimbostratus on the southwestern horizon. I immediately went into the
building, aimed the tower camera in that direction and started recording.

A tornado warning had been issued for Duval County and our News Director, Mo
Ruddy-Baker, came to the weather desk inquiring about the situation. I told her that the
National Weather Service had just canceled the tornado warning. To my surprise one of
our reporters in called in from northwest Jacksonville reporting that a tornado was
hitting buildings. While I had captured the clouds with the tornado faintly visible, the
camera crew filmed close-up pictures of the funnel striking a church near Dunn
Avenue.
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