Travel Woes

There is a reason for my not writing the column last week. I’ve been on the road again, this time all by myself, and just completed a 3,000-mile trip to Western New York and Kansas City. I drove back to Augusta during the past two days, and it was quite the trip.

I know that after my escapades that I related regarding my trip to Maryland in February, some of you will think that I’m making this stuff up, but I can assure you that the events I’m about to tell you about actually happened.

My first leg of the trip home took me from Kansas City to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, just south of Nashville. It was a 600-mile drive, and it was really pretty boring for the first 400 miles. It was near the exit to Metropolis, Illinois—yes, there is a Metropolis, and they even have a statue of Superman in the town square—that the first incident took place.

It was 2:00 PM, and the last thing I expected to see at that time of day was three deer running toward the road as I approached. I swerved into the left lane, and the deer also swerved so that they were running parallel to my path. I just got past them when they turned and ran behind my car across the roadway and into the median.

I glanced in my rearview mirror to follow their travel across the northbound lane. A car traveling over there hit one of the deer and I watched it arc up and over into the median. I guess I said a little prayer of relief to myself, but I certainly felt bad for the driver of the car that had hit that animal. I know what kind of damage that can do, since I hit a deer several years ago and incurred about $4,000 worth of repairs as a result.

An hour later, as I neared Clarksville and Fort Campbell the sky was getting quite threatening. It wasn’t long before it started to rain, and I mean it was a deluge. I traveled 90 miles in a steady downpour. At times the rain was so heavy that the windshield wipers couldn’t work fast enough. Several cars and trucks pulled over to the side of the road, but I forged on.

At one point the rain was so heavy that it was cascading off of an elevated roadway north of Nashville, creating a temporary waterfall 20 to 30 feet wide onto the road below. There were some tornados and lots of wind shears in the area I was passing through. In fact, two semis were blown over in opposite lanes on Interstate 40 by the Nashville airport. The road was closed for a while both eastbound and westbound. I didn’t have to go through that bottleneck, but I did pass over the interstate at that junction going south and was able to see the traffic jam it had caused.

The last 200 miles of my trip that day were pretty exciting. I made it to my motel without any damage, but it was a nerve-wracking experience to drive through that storm while hearing about severe weather and tornados in the towns I had just passed.

Fortunately, the next day was uneventful, and I arrived home none the worse for the wear. I guess I’ll stay put for now. I’ve had enough excitement.