PanningForGold

T’was an interesting drive home  tonight.  One moment we were enjoying the usual drive over the mountain via route I-99 , the next moment? There it was. The storm only seconds in front of us and it was bad.  There was just enough time for my wife to tell the person she was on the phone with that she had to go as we were heading into a storm.  The next second we were in the thick of it.  I was trying to concentrate on the car ahead of me who never turned his lights on so I was concentrating on his break lights.  I had no idea where we were on the road as I could not see the lines, I couldn’t even see the road.  I did know we were close to one of the hairy overpasses and I seriously didn’t want to go over the edge.  Some smart people had pulled off to the side, hazard lights flashing as were ours.  I was worried about the car behind us if I pulled over would he see?  If I pulled off would I be pulling off into somebody else who didn’t have the hazard lights on?  Yes it was that bad.  My wife suggested I try and keep up with the car ahead of us that way we had something we could see.  As I gently pressed on the gas peddle an 18 wheeler pulled up beside us.  At least we could see that.  In a moment it pulled ahead, the truck could not be going faster than the 15 or 20 mph that we were doing.  Yet like a whale vanishing between the waves it too was gone in seconds.  Again the idea was to keep up with the truck, suddenly there it was still in the passing lane but this time at a dead stop.  A car was pulled off the road at least I thought it was because all I could see were the hazards.  We pulled off right behind it, the car behind us pulled off as well. The truck was idling beside me, traffic all around was now stopped.  In the slight break in the weather, through the mist we spotted another truck this one half on the road, the cab was well into shoulder, my wife started to call 911, we could still barely see and another wave of hail was heading our way.  The truck managed to straighten up.  And then another wave hit, we watched as the hail bounced off the car.  This time traffic stopped all around.  Luck would have it that the storm passed quickly. I was suprised to see we were on the overpass pictured above.  Traffic started moving slowly, drivers and passangers all looking a little dazed, everyone moving with a little more care.  A new river was born as the water flowed down the mountain by way of the median.  As we started moving we saw how bad it could have been.  The truck that was half in the lane had swerved to avoid an accident, just ahead of him there was a minor accident between an suv and another truck.  They were all fine, we were fine.  A little shaken, A little stirred but we survived. 

As we got out of the car we heard the siren bell going off in Port Matilda.  On the weather station not only was there storm warnings there was tornado warning but we didn’t see exactly what area it was for but it couldn’t be far. 

It is good to be home!