I went out storm chasing and as usual I end up on some pretty hairy roads that arent the darling of DOT. Usually they are gravel if Im lucky or clay if not and typically not well maintained. Might help you understand all the recent suspension upgrades to the car.
At any rate. My wife is with me on this chase, only the second time she has went out with me since she got nearly scared out of her skin on the last chase she went with me on when I strike hit extremely close to us. That was a good 5 or 6 years ago.
So Im on a side road. Not the best of roads and Im seeing massive amounts of lightning. I drive on trying to get as close as I can and I start to hear the ping ping ping of small hail. I look over to my wife and say I have to stop now and set up or else Im not going to be able to get any shots and with the hail around there is the possibility of some upper level if not Meso or TVS type rotation.
I pull up to this gate entrance to some pasture land. Park the car and start setting up. My wife yells out to me "I smell something". Well Im at the gate of a cow pasture so Im thinking to myself duhhhhh there's probably hundreds of cow paties in the immediate area.
She then says "It smells smoky, almost like fire". Nothing else needed to be said, everything flashed in my head nearly instantly as I saw visions of this massive grass land fire spreading consuming my car and camera gear and thousands of acres of land.
I yell for her to get out of the car now. She complies while Im running to the car and I hop in and start it up and back it out as fast as I can. Sure enough, the exhaust was starting to smolder the dry grass under the car. We dont have any thing with us to wet things down so we just stomp around a bit and make sure nothing is going to light up.
Moral of the story: When chasing storms, be careful where you park and dont make fun of your wifes alertive pleas.
In the end, everything is safe, the grass didnt catch on fire, the car is fine. Oh, and so is the wife.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
Yup, it's amazing what a little heat or a spark at the wrong time in the wrong place can do.
Some time back with a lady friend riding through the countryside on a BSA 650.
Nature called and we had laid out a blanket and things were progressing. We were otherwise occupied and didn't notice until the grass had lit up a juniper bush.... Two naked people beating on a small fire, must have looked funnier than all get out.
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A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams...John Barrymore
