The US experience - Traveling 1300 km to Chebunse

We had 35 degrees and tropical vegetation in Florida. We flew over forests and grasslands into Georgia and it still was hot. South Carolina was hot as well, but it was already completely different. The conifers had gone and the variety of trees had nice green leaves. The houses are built differently, nice wooden houses with porches and pillared balconies. Tennessee showed us some really green mountains. We went from the summer into the spring. But spring definitely can be violent there. We saw tornado damage. Trees smashed to the ground in all directions and houses without roofs and/or walls. We were told that 10 km from Lookout Mountain, a Mac Donalds restaurant was wiped away. Only the sign on a high post and the cooler were still there. The only survivor was the guy that ran into the cooler to shelter. Another family had 4 cars and couldn't find any of them after the tornado. The next day, they found one car half a mile away in the trees…

So, we headed north to Chicago from there and saw some serious flooding on our way. The Mississippi is threatening populated areas, so they are flooding grasslands along the rivers feeding the Mississippi. Not only is it spring here instead of the summer I've already experienced for a few weeks, it's also a cold spring. We have beautiful clear skies here, instead of the humid, hazy air in the south, but the temperatures have dropped accordingly. Not much above freezing at night and 12 degrees during the day. I'll need to find some warm clothes for flying! This is how the location for the Midwest Comp looks like. Flat and green: