I’ve been driving for over half of my life. 15 years with no tickets, no fault accidents and nary an ice skid. I’m a defensive, overly cautious driver and I can handle most situations. I’ll even go so far as to say that I’ve driven in rain that some would call torrential…
But, this weekend I had a ticket waiting for me at Serenbe to see HAIR – a show with a cast I knew half of, and friends and audiences were calling the show an audible masterpiece of rock. (I couldn’t very well miss THAT, could I?).
The show was in an outdoor theatre, with very little structure for set or audience. Despite the few hundreds of days of rain in the past few months, they hadn’t been rained out for evening performances. .. YET. Mother nature wasn’t holding out this night. The “curtain” was held for over an hour, and the audience was moved through the pitch black woods into the Serenbe Pavillion…. and god bless him, the artistic director opened up the bar on the house for patrons who were sticking with him for the show. But I was driving. FRICK. Ice tea for me!
When it was time to head home, I took the dry walk to the car, and started out on the podunk (completely unlit) roads to the highway. I nearly took out a grassy median until my lights hit it, and then it started. Pouring. A lot. I was going 15 mph at the most, wipers raging, and lights blaring, barely able to see the road. It was raining that hard. I pulled into a gas station to text Hubs about why the devil I would be 2.5 hours late getting home.
I almost doubted that I should even get on the highway in this rain, but the radar told me it was going to get waaay worse before it got better. When I bravely took on 85, 15 mph and hazard lights were the norm; accidents were littering the road and shoulder. (One poor car’s entire back end was blown out from a hit and run!)
We have a small SUV, which I’m thanking my stars I chose to take that night, because there was standing water in the middle lane of the highway, and I was hydroplaning at 15mph. Unreal. Thankfully, no one was in a hurry. The Jeep was actually shaking from the water on the road, which I’ve never had happen. Forget trying to listen to the weather on the radio – you wouldn’t be able to hear anything for the pounding of the rain.
Am I being a drama queen about all this? Maybe – I was so freaked out on that road that I wouldn’t make it, be killed by a giant skidding truck, or maybe stuck in a massive pond/puddle for hours. But I made it. I’m super glad Red wasn’t with me on that trek – I was just glad to be home!
Tell me the WORST driving situation you’ve ever been in. Were you driving or a passenger?
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