Turbulent DFW Excursion With Explosions & Flying Grocery Carts

Til today it had been a couple months since I took the long way to D/FW, as opposed to flying to D/FW, which is a quick trip, well from Wichita Falls, a little longer from Phoenix.

I digress.

So this morning reasons arose which made it make sense to drive to D/FW.

The weather was not predicted to be any level of dire.

Not long after heading southeast on 287 the first weird thing happened. Suddenly it was obvious the northwest bound lanes were getting rained on, whilst the southeast bound lanes I was on were dry.

That strangeness last for a couple miles. And then the black smoke you see above came into view.

Soon it became obvious this was an incident on the road. Soon after that the road was blocked with traffic diverted to a frontage road. From the frontage road one could see a long line of vehicles was stuck behind the incident.

Driving slow on the frontage road we eventually came to whatever it was which had happened. No details could be determined whilst passing by, other than a big ball of flames spewing smoke.

I forgot to mention, by the time of the exit to the frontage road the sky had gone into drop a downpour mode. Which explains the view from my rain coated side window as we passed the conflagration.

Continuing on towards D/FW the sky eventually brightened.

And then around noon I arrived at Winco. The sky was blue. No sign of a storm no matter which direction I looked.

I was in Winco for about a half an hour. Upon exiting Winco I felt like Dorothy must have felt when she began her journey to Oz.

Calm had been replaced by storm. Dark clouds looked like tornado makers. Lightning was striking. Thunder boomed. Wind was blowing strong. Grocery carts were sailing across the parking lot. I had trouble securing my goods whilst the wind threatened to send them skyward.

Eventually I was back on my way to return to Wichita Falls. But not before navigating the bizarre mess one must drive through to get from Tarrant Parkway to Highway 287.

If I have said it once, I have said it twice. Fort Worth is not a town which wears big city pants. How in any sane world is it okay to have approved all that retail development without upgrading the roads? It is just inexcusably bizarre. And the type thing one does not see in what is known as modern America.

In modern America they do this thing called URBAN PLANNING. You do not give the go ahead to retail/commercial development without also having adequate infrastructure upgrades.

I can not imagine how any citizen of Fort Worth can drive 287 to Tarrant Parkway and not be appalled. Or try to drive Tarrant Parkway to 287 and also be appalled.

And yet it somehow remains a mystery to those who run Fort Worth in what is known as the Fort Worth Way why the town has such a bad reputation and has to offer bribes in any attempt to land various developments, be it a new residential building, a sporting goods store, a corporate headquarters, or anything else.

How can it not be known by ardent Fort Worthians that towns which have, uh, attributes, do not need to bribe with pathetic incentives?