Saturday, September 24, 2005

Like an automatic car wash, but outside

On my way to my hotel, I driving along a windy I-10 at about 70 mph (that's the speed limit) when ahead of me I saw what looked like fog or something.

I came upon the "fog" to quickly to think. It was a torrential downpour. It was as sudden as driving into a swimming pool.

I had to slam on the brakes and slow down to maybe 20 mph, and even that was not enough to be able to see much. I saw a flash which my mind assumed must have been lightning. All the street lamps instantly blinked off.

I was almost to my exit, so I crawled around the offramp, drove down the road a quarter-mile, turned left into the parking lot, and sat there in the car and waited.

Two minutes later, the rain had ceased. I walked into the hotel dry.

The rain has acted like this all day, although not nearly as heavy as this cloudburst.

Later, my dear wife informed me that you won't see lightning in a hurricane, but what you will see are transformers exploding.

That short drive was perhaps the scariest drive of my life.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You told us you were completely safe! I am glad you made it back to the motel in one piece. :)

Jon Swerens said...

I was safe at the office. I was safe at the hotel. It was that fifteen minutes in between, that's all.