A report this morning (I think the one in the Boston Globe) said that Padilla disappeared after working for two years at a Florida fast-food place (Taco Bell, I think) after being released from jail. He probably started that job shortly after being released in Aug. '92. So we're probably talking about a disappearance some time in '94.
Another report this morning (I think in one of the Florida papers) had Padilla and his now ex-wife moving into an apartment in '92 that they stayed in for years.
The Chicago Sun-Times yesterday said Padilla went to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the early 90's. This was presumably after he converted to Islam in '92 or '93, and thus also after his probation ended in Aug. '93.
He could have spent a month or two in training camps in Afghanistan and/or Pakistan from mid-'94 on, time enough to be a trained explosives technician by 4/19/95, the date of OKC.
Just a bump again that McVeigh spent time in South Florida at his sister's place sometime just before or after the Gulf War. She was living in Broward County at the time, same place Padilla was arrested.