As everyone has probably noticed by now, I kind of dropped off the face of the earth mid-chase on Saturday. While standing on the side of I35 shooting a nice elephant trunk tornado back to my southwest, I was inconveniently struck by lightning. There was a loud bang from the strike, and the next thing I know, I was picking myself up out of the ditch.
This wasn’t the first time I have been struck, but it’s the worse. I managed to pull myself together and tried to continue chasing, but I just couldn’t keep going and stopped on the east side of Perry, OK.
While I was sitting in the parking lot there, there was a metal sign about 6 feet high just about 20 feet in front of my vehicle. I had just turned off my dashcam a few minutes before when lightning struck the sign in a shower of smoke and sparks. Evidently a leader from the stroke also hit my vehicle, as the engine immediately died and would not turn over. Fortunately, the remainder of my electronics seem to be fine.
As luck would have it, my chaser friend Steve Miller TX was in the same town chasing, and he as well as Dennis Sherrod came to my rescue. One of the local guys ended up pulling my vehicle down to the local GM dealership, but it would be Tuesday before anyone could look at it being a holiday weekend.
I ended up running for a couple of days with Steve chasing and as luck would have us, we ended up back close to where my vehicle was, and he ended up dropping me off Tuesday in Stillwater, OK to pick up a rental car. So right now I am driving a nice, new Dodge Charger!
Hopefully I will get to pick the chase vehicle back up again tomorrow and can get back to normal again. I just haven’t felt much like posting after getting struck. I’ve had some physical issues, including headaches, short term memory loss, anxiety to name a few.
Fortunately, my other storm chaser friend Steve Miller OK (yes, there are two Steve Millers) let me crash at his place to spare me the agony of a few days in a motel, as well as the expense. I slept so hard the first night I think I could have been legally declared dead at one point. Very comfortable bed!
So I am not exactly sure what chasing in the near future holds for me right at the moment… I’ll keep you posted.
I hate that for you, man… sounds like you just need the right opportunity to come along… something without CG perhaps…
Has the Charger got a hemi…? Great chase vehicle… would hate for you to miss an opportunity to chase in a hemi. The gas though. ouch.
Hope you recover from your hit with time. Sounds rough. Glad you survived it, at least.
I wouldn’t chase in a rental car though. I have issues about taking someone else’s property into an area where it most likely would be damaged.
Well, the good that came out of all of that was that we had a blast the few days we chased together…despite the cramped confines of my blue box. 🙂 I also learned a valuable lesson that when Uncle David says we need to go, it’s time to go! lol!