I stayed up far too late the night before then woke up earlier than planned so when I set off at 5 a. m. I was thankful for the adrenaline travelling brings me. Sometimes its better than coffee.
The unfathonable luck charm seemed to be in the works because I miraculously missed all the rush hour traffic around DC and made excellent time. The weather was perfect and once I got past the chaos found at the beginning of 66 West off of the beltway, it was nothing but blue skies, green trees and fields and eventually blue tinged mountains.
In Southern Virginnia I very suddenly found myself driving through an area that had been hit by a Tornado only days before. It was complete devastation. Mangled tractor trailers and houses and mobile homes and cars were strewn about. Giant trees….all of the trees…snapped off like twigs. Crumpled metal, like balls of tin foil tossed away, littered the median and sides of the highways. I was horribly saddened for the people who lived there, and awed by the massive power the storm had weilded. I also had a moment of intense thankfulness that this had not occurred while I was in the area.
After that I drove uneventfully on towards my destination. I was less than half an hour from camp driving along a small two lane country road when the car in front of me braked hard, having nearly passed thier turn. I braked quickly, leaving several happy feet between us. The truck two vehicles behind me was not as quick. He plowed right into the work truck behind me, who in turn plowed into me. The sherrif’s office came and took down everyone’s information. All involved were cooperative and the driver two car’s behind me was very apologetic. My car was the least damaged, but is going to need some work (hopefully just the rear bumper and tailgate). I spent the afternoon in the ER getting my neck checked out before being sent on my way with prescriptions for anti-inflammatories, pain killers and muscle relaxers. Whiplash is very high on my list of things that irritate the heck out of me, so I crossed my fingers and started hoping that I wouldnt need anything but the anti-inflammatories.
By the time I got to the campground it was after 7. I’d been worried that with it being Friday on a predicted-to-be-beautiful weekend that the campground would be full by the time I got there. Not only were there plenty of sites left, but my favorite site was available.
I settled in with a beer and my sketchpad, relaxing to the sounds of a nearby camper playing his guitar and singing (well!).
Alls well, that ends well, but I’m going to need new bumper stickers.