Frustrating chase in Texas

Chase Recap:

This was a frustrating chase from beginning to end. After sleeping in, I had a lot of life to catch up on including laundry and things around the house, so I ended up with a late start. My target for the day was down near Midland/Big Spring, TX but it became very obvious quickly I wouldn’t get there in time for convective initiation.

Road Block

I still kept dropping south on I-44 into Texas, eventhough I had originally planned to go west on US62 out of Lawton to be in position for the storms in the TX PH. This would be a big mistake as US82 coming out of Seymour came to an immediate full stop. It was pretty obvious that we were stopping for an oversized load to go down the road. They were lifting power lines and stopping oncoming traffic to safely get this thing down the road. I was stuck behind this convoy for 31 miles, which took almost 90 minutes while they lifted power lines and stopped oncoming traffic. I tried multiple times to bail off onto side roads, but flooding and roads being washed away never resulted in me getting ahead of the convoy.

Finally in Benjamin they let everyone behind them by, and I was able to quickly get going again.

Pit stop goes long

Without a bathroom or gas stop since the turnpike in Chickasha, I had to make a stop at the Allsups in Crosbyton. I pumped my gas then ran in to use the restroom. Unfortunately someone was in there but they yelled out “Be out in a minute”. Well 15 minutes later, they still weren’t out.

Finally I was back on the road. I continued with that storm through Cotton Center, Plainview, and off to the east towards Silverton and South Plains. Eventually I couldn’t find a road that didn’t have flooding across it, and spent the next couple hours getting back to I-27 and north for a photo at sunset. Frustrating chase day as I headed to Pampa for the night.