Found a background I can settle on.

The old one just felt too... musty. A yellowed map of trade routes between principal Atlantic ports from the age of sail. I mean, it's awesome in the right context. But this isn't it.

I ended up using an image I've loved for years: this. I found it on this page, it's about some stormchasers that travelled through Chadron in 2006. The oldschool font in the header kinda goes with it, makes it all look vaguely Western. And I've always loved thunderstorms on the Great Plains; they're just not the same anywhere else. And the best ones are the ones like this, where you can see the fronts colliding.

Anyway, on to figure out all the sidebar thingythings.