South Carolina ~ Georgia ... Interstate 95 ... The vehicle corridor of transportation at the South Carolina & Georgia border is one of the most picturesque we have encountered. Tall stately pines isolate the north & south concrete speedways. The enclosed path of choice maintains a more focused view of the road directly ahead or above of the crystal blue sky with wispy pure white clouds. A quiet feeling of security seems to prevail, even though one is traveling at 65+ miles per hour.

Speed is not a concern ... because all those sharing this path appear to be creeping along with you even though they are traveling much faster than you would consider. Their slow side-by-side passage lulls one into not considering consequences if they touched. Present day vehicles sport such bright and festive colors, that you often feel like you're traveling within a kaleidoscope of images sparkling under a sweltering sun.

There is an unfocused peripheral verdant coating from the surrounding pines. When one's foremost desire is to get from point A to point B, windows are closed tightly to provide creature comforts not experienced on previous trips, i.e., encapsulated in an air-conditioned space, the subtle changes that "Mother Nature" has been formulating beyond the tips of the surrounding trees is not easily recognized. The shifting levels of ozone and humidity that would normally assault the senses and restore one's vision to reality are not available.

Suddenly you are no longer in a kaleidoscope of bright contrasting or exciting colors. Your world is now a long, darkening tunnel and the light has just gone out!!!

A torrential curtain of rain unfocuses the scene ahead. Lightning bolts appear as giant pole-vaulting, grotesque canes supporting a hidden demonic presence. Plunging from over the trees to seek a stronghold in the road ahead. Vaulting over the separating barrier to the other path. The blinding light is quickly followed by a thunderous applause. The heavens approve of the presence's journey and have sent accolades so we mere mortals are reminded of "Mother Nature's" ways. We are shown this by the obscured landscape, of the power she has over us.. The sequence continues at a dizzying pace. Seconds seem like extended minutes. Speed is no more. We are all crawling like the submissive mortals we are known to be when confronted by such fury.

RED FLASHING rectangular signs by the roadside are barely visible... WARNING!!! ACCIDENT AHEAD!!!

A break in the tree line, separating the two paths, in the center divider, revealed a small overturned pickup truck. The soft soil that supports the tremendous tree growth does not support the roof of the overturned truck. There is no visible glass area showing as the truck seems to be absorbed as a further nutrient to support the existing life while snuffing out another.

Small out-of-focus figures are darting to the scene, leaving their vehicles alongside the road for the game of demolition derby that soon echoes from behind us. All those glaring lights that were once part of the entourage we were in have disappeared. We quietly kept in file behind those on the main road.

POLICE SIRENS!!! and Ambulance Sirens fill the air with expectations of the next round against "Mother Nature." The mortal response to the carnage we witnessed is echoed in the plaintive shrieking wail of the Police Car announcing it was coming to a Procrustean event. Two large tractor trailer trucks were conjoined in an embrace that would take hours to undo, but would never be undone in one's mind.

Those stately pines, beautiful to behold on clear days, now concentrated the fury of the downpour and acted as a containment system for the rebounding deluge. The swirling water was focused to the center of their being. That was the roadway we were traveling.

Never have I wished for something of such beauty to be destroyed... until then. The barriers did not let the storm travel from our path and the lid that kept out the light was demoralizing. And, as quickly it arrived, destroying those who could not cope with the fury, it left. And, in leaving, it reopened the vista of beauty that it had seemed to want to destroy.

I'm glad my interrupted prayer was not answered. Most likely because it's hard to get on your knees while behind the steering wheel of a truck in a torrential downpour, when your first priority is to keep from participating in the bumper car game going on around you.

We were again enjoying the luxury of freely traveling some of the most scenic roads in the USA… then we crossed into Florida and its semi-white concrete highways that are akin to causing snow blindness on a sunny day… but that's another writing … from somewhere East of I5… John & Susan

Yep ... I'm hard at work spinning another.