Yes, LIv28, staring into a tornado is like looking into the face of doom. I am just an amateur without the fancy equipment and need to drive a thousand miles a weekend as the professionals do. However, I once followed a thunderstorm along the interstate for three-hundred miles, just to watch it die.

One time, I was in a town with tornadoes on two sides. I stopped in the park to get my bearings and to decide which way to go. The sky was as dark as late dusk at 2PM, and the town sirens were on. The radio said the closest tornado was about five miles south and moving northeast. I decided to drive east of town and meet the tornado. Then, golf ball sized hail started falling, and I decided a dented car was not worth seeing a tornado that day. I left.

Meanwhile a highschool graduation party broke up as the sky darkened. The folks knew a mobile home is a bad place to be in a storm, so they all drove toward a party goer's home. The tornado caught them before they made it, and as advised in these situations, they took to the road ditch and hugged the ground. Unfortunately, a combine bean head dropped on top of several and killed them. It happened near where I would have been.

Many storm chasers are research meterologists and others do it for the thrill. Still others earn money by charging people for storm chasing packages. One time New Zealand storm chasers trumped the tornado as the main story. People were amazed someone would travel all that distance just to see tornadoes.

They are dangerous and unperdictable. One can spin up and expand almost instantly. Or a tornado may weaken and die as another forms close to the observer. Straight line winds can be almost as dangerous as a tornado. The wind turns sticks, tin, and boards into missles which can penetrate walls.

Oklahoma had a serious outbreak around 1999, and it was almost like the movie Twister. One was so powerful, it was unlikely anyone under it could have survived, even in a protected basement.

In South Dakota, a tornado destroyed an entire town. When rescuers arrived, they found a ninety year old man sitting at his kitchen table, still eating his breakfast when his house was reduced to a pile of lumber.

Close, but not too close is a good way to look at it.

I have been in caves but as a tourist. One time, the guide took us into an unfinished part of a cave where we walked along a little path and stared into blackness. Have you ever explored a cave and found signs of earlier human occupation or visitation?

Jumping 70 feet from a cliff sounds frightening. You must have a lot of courage. I can imagion it would hurt if you hit the water wrong. Do you use a rope, to be dragged out, or are you on your own? As for sky diving, Bush the elder did it to celebrate his eightieth birthday, and people even older than he have done it.