Pull Over or Keep Driving?

After a most excellent day of teaching Mah Jongg Strategy to people I have really come to enjoy I got in the car to make the three hour drive home. I don’t really mind driving, especially if I am listening to a good book. This week I am listening to Lessons in Chemistry and I highly recommend it.

So there I am easing on down the road, nice weather, not too much traffic, even during the rush hour. I am looking forward to picking Shay up at her sitter’s house and getting home to my own bed. Russ is at his DC office so I knew I did not have to cook dinner or even talk.

As I got to Cary I noticed a few rain drops on my dirty wind shield. Good, it needed the cleaning. I turned my wipers on slow intermittent. Three exits later the rain started to pick up. Wipers on low, not intermittent. Then the lightening show started and the rain turned into sheets. Highest wipers, hazard lights and slowing down.

I was in the left lane, which I found helpful because then I had a yellow line to guide me as to where the road was. I don’t think I have ever driven through such a volume of water that was not in a body of water. Thankfully there were not too many cars on the road, but it was very scary.

I considered pulling over and stopping, but my fear was I would then be a sitting duck for someone to run into the back of me. It was almost impossible to tell where the three east bound lanes of I-40 were, let alone the shoulder of the road. If I were to pull off the pavement into the grass, my car could have sunk into a mud pit, or just filled up with water.

So I carefully kept driving and when no one was anywhere close to me I moved to the right lane so I could exit. Once off the highway I could see that the trees were blowing and bending at unnatural angles. Do I stop and stay in one place and have a tree fall on me, or do I keep going and have a tree fall on me?

I kept going. Picking up Shay, who was not happy to be driving in the storm. We did not take the fastest route home because that would have taken me by the golf course where there is often flooding. Instead I took a longer, but higher route. I pulled into the driveway which was a little like a small river, but at least the sheets of rain were now mere buckets.