I had a nice little chase in the eastern Texas Panhandle and far western Oklahoma. After playing "free safety" between two different cells erupting between Shamrock and Canadian (my target from yesterday), it quickly became apparent both visually and on radar that the Hemphill county storm was the one to intercept.
Just north of the small town of Allison, the storm really got cranking with a powerful radar signature. It was evident visually too that it was rotating. A monstrous and ominous wall cloud developed with broadscale rotation. At one point, the rotation became quite agitated although more chaotic. It was mesmerizing.
As it continued to move slowly SE, I awtched a long roll/shelf cloud become tilted more into the updraft which visually could have fooled even veteran spotters into thinking it was a tornado. It was one of the best look-alikes I've ever seen. Unfortunately, my camera batter croaked and this feature dissipated before I could scramble to find another. Ugh.
I followed the storm into Sayre, OK where it started to become more linear as it merged into the forward flank of another cell further WSW. I finally got into position to observe this new updraft. I was treated to quite a spectacle of it transitioning into a nice LP with beautiful structure before it dissipated.
Now for the good part. As I was coming home, I was on FM203 about 3 miles east of Wellington, Texas. The grass and vegetation along this road was pretty high. At dusk, it was becoming difficult to make out any clear distinction as to what was in the grass. Sure enough, two big bucks (male deer for you city slickers) trotted out in front of me. I braked strongly and reduced my speed from about 70 to 40 in my estimate. I thought I would be ok and chalk it up to yet another close call out of the many hundreds I've had. But, a third buck darted out of the grass into my lane. I didn't even have time to blurt an expletive...only enough time to make a hard left evasive maneuver.
I saw the impending impact and braced for it. BAM! I saw the buck spin off to my left after impacting the front right corner of my vehicle. The expletives began flowing quite freely after that. LOL! In a bit of shock, I slowed down gradually until I found a safe place to pull over (remember, the vegetation on the road shoulders was pretty high in alot of places). Before I did though, a bobcat of all critters ran out in front of me too! I thought I was in some sort of animal safari show on Animal Planet. After realizing I could have been seriously injured or even killed had things happened a little differently, my nerves then got a little rattled. After calming down, I surveyed the damage.
My headlight was crooked abit to the right. The hood was crumpled up on the passenger side and sprung. The front quarter panel was pretty much destroyed with the large plastic molding protruding outward. Fortunately, the wheelwell still had enough clearance from the tire so I could drive. The passenger door had a big dent in it. The passenger mirror got slammed hard and apparently broke the little adjustment motor in it. In reality, this was minor compared to what I've seen in other photos of car versus deer photos. The fact that I had slowed down saved me from something much more severe and likely sustaining physical injury. Had I hit the deer head on at even 60mph, I wouldn't be writing this blog right now. :-)
After using some zip ties to patch things up to a drivable level, I went back to the scene of the impact. To my surprise, the buck was lying in the ditch apparently dead. I didn't think I hit him hard enough to do kill him almost instantly. I figured he'd have run off for a few hundred feet or so. I cautiously approached him to take a couple of pics to document the event. I thought he had been a 6-pointer, but indeed, he was an 8-pointer. After doing some hunting in my youth and never bagging a trophy like this, here I am 43 years old in my little Honda Element taking one down. ;-) However, I feel abit bummed about killing him.
Okay, now for some pics.
