On Monday July 12, 2010 I was delayed at work and didn’t leave at my normal time. We’ve been having some extreme weather here lately in S.C. with a lot of afternoon thunderstorms. On this particular day I checked the weather forecast in the morning and it gave me the standard 30% chance of afternoon thunderstorms. I debated taking my 2010 HD Street Glide into work, but as luck would have it, I took my new F-150 Lariat instead.

At about 2:30 – 3:00 pm the skies started getting pretty dark and ominous looking and the rain started. It was coming down pretty heavy and the conditions were worsening when I left work. This is in and of itself not real uncommon in S.C. in the mid summer. Their was a great deal of standing water, about 3” on state road 521, and traffic was rather timid and reserved. The standing water got even worse in SR 441 with about 4”, and driving was getting treacherous.

When I entered Raccoon Rd. and the home stretch (about a mile & a half from home) the rain was so bad I could hardly see the road and was moving about 20 – 25 miles per hour. I drove under a downed power-line that I never saw until it was pushed up and over the windshield. As I rounded the bend about a ˝ mile from home, an old Oak tree was laying across the road. This tree had a trunk about 18- 22” wide. So needless to say, I had to turn around and take another route.

I went up to Fish Rd. for a detour, and drove under another power line. This was beginning to get pretty serious in a hurry. Three quarters of the way into my detour, damn if there wasn’t another tree across the road. I was following an older Blazer and it diverted around the tree to the left of it on the shoulder in the wet grass. I thought, if he could make it, I could make it and proceeded. The 5.4 Triton in the F-150 motored right through the minor obstacle, never missing a beat.

I drove over a couple of more downed power lines and made it home. We were without power and I had to leave the truck on the street, it sure was nice to be home!! The wife was freaking out since we have our three granddaughters with us right now for the summer. Once we got power back in a pretty short period of time, life started to become a little more normal.

The following day we found out that a Tornado had touched down on Fish Rd. at 4:35 pm and worked its way to the Beech Creek Golf course where we live. So if I had been on time that day, I would have probably been right in the Tornado's path when it touched down!! Funny how fate works huh? I guess I just got lucky, or it wasn’t my time yet.

This is a brand new truck and it really inspired me with confidence. What a solid platform to take on the elements with. Would I have done anything differently? I don’t really think so. I never had any warning of the imminent danger that I was driving into. Plus once you get so close to home, where would you go instead?

The truck only sustained a small minor scratch on the right Scab door from the Pine tree that I drove around. It buffed right out with some Turtle Wax and I can’t even find it now. No wonder people have a love affair with their vehicles. I can tell you one thing, I’m sure glad that I had this adventure in this new truck, it made me a believer.

Bob

 

Man, that is God watching out for you there. Glad to hear everything is ok

 

Glad to hear everyone is ok including the new truck. Good thing you didn't ride the scooter to work! I hate getting caught in the rain on 2 wheels, but that would've been alot more serious.

 

about 3 weeks ago we had 1 here in CT. touched down in bridgeport and skipped on through stratford. went over my shop in stratford and then out to LI sound. bldgs lost roofs, multiple trees down, highway billboards knocked over, and an upper lvl of a 5 story bldg found a way to make it 4 stories. needless to say it was a mess here for a bit and i think it would be safe to say that no f150 would be getting around. i say that because it flipped a tractor trailer on the highway in its path lol. there were some calls that we were going to on foot for 2-3 blocks because the roads were just completely blocked off.

glad to hear fate intervened for you bob.

 

Tornadoes are pretty crazy been in several my self growing up in central oklahoma. They will diffinatly humble you, glad to hear you made it out ok.

 

Thanks guy's, no kidding about the bike. I hate riding in the rain too, but would have probably have "John Wanye'd it" home!! Because I hate to leave the bike anywhere. I almost feel "bulletproof" since I have a bike with a windshield now. After the fact, I thought, wow, this is even better than an Ford F150 commercial. But the truth speaks for itself, this truck is a "Beast" and worth every dime. After all, whats your life worth??

Bob