Adventures while Driving in the Dark

I thought of something while typing out the above line. Darkness is not just at nighttime. Darkness can be in the day time say if you were to get a heavy rainstorm. Yes that just happened to me on the way to work.

But even if you drive at night there is still some light around you. There are the street lights. That always seam to turn off when I am going under them. There are the head lights that seam to always get brighter the later in the evening it is. And my favorite there are always the stars shining down.

As you go forth you will find some things that I would like to see happen again and others that I would be happy never to see again. Either way I know that some of you have encountered these before and some you haven't.

This picture, taken at night, while it was raining on our van.

First if you go to the end of our street you expect to see deer crossing at any time of the day. So that one I am ready for. And as they say most accidents happen within 5 miles of home. And the end of our street is less then a mile. So they are just laying in wait for me.

Second where I was going to work at the time I took a highway to work. In fact they were expanding the highway so there was a lot of construction equipment on the sides of the road. This is not where one expects to see any animals including deer. So as you know this was one of those things that happened while I was driving home. Late at night of course. From out of nowhere there are deer. Not just one mind you. But at lease six maybe up to 10 making a mad dash across the highway. If I were driving a van like I am these days there would have been a close encounter of the unwanted kind. Instead the went over my car. Not just the front and back but over the top. And to add to the excitement there was no contact with the car itself.

Yes after this happened I did pull over and pulled out the flash light and check to see if I could see the deer. Nope they were long gone. I then double checked the car and again there was no contact made. It took a few minutes to get over the wow factor and finish the drive home. In fact it took a little while to get to sleep that night as my brain was still processing.

I was within five miles of home for this one. There were no street lights along this road way. So when it started to get light out I looked at the clock. I knew it was not that late in the morning but that was the first ting I looked at. It was getting bluer and bluer in the sky. I pulled over to try to figure out what was going on. Coming in the opposite direction another person had also pulled over to see what was going on.

As the night sky lit up we both saw a large rock flying over head. Not a shooting star mind you but much bigger. I had grown up watching shooting stars and those were much smaller and did not light up the sky as this one did. The song I wear my sunglasses at night could have been playing on the radio as this passed over head.

The other guy and I were yelling back and forth at each other as we were so excited to see this. After wards I drove around to find a police officer to see if I could get any more details. It turned out I was not dreaming. The meteor landed in the next town over in a field.

In general I don't give rides to strangers. But once in a while I get that feeling that I should pull over and lend a hand. This is usually when I see someone with a flat tire. The one I most remember about the flat tire was seeing a family all dressed up and looking lost. Even though I was also dressed for work with shirt and tie I laid out my coat and went under the car to get the tire off. It turns out that another person pulled up as I was getting the tire out and had a device to get the lug nuts off. So between the two of us we were able to get the tire changed. When they asked how much do we owe you my response was - The next time you see someone on the side of the road and you can help do so. Pay it forward. And this was back in 2,000 before the whole pay it forward came into play.

Another one was when I say a person walking down the middle of the highway lat at night. I did a double take and the turned around. At no time did her thumb go up to ask for a ride. I told her that I would be getting off a few stops before her and could get her that far. She was fine with that. It seams her soon to be x-boyfriend had told her to get out of the car and drove on without her. The thing with me is that when someone gets into my car they are my responsibility. I knew where she was heading for and kept driving until I got there. In her case straight to her door. She got our and I back tracked to get home.

Its sometimes easy to know when to reach out and other times you have to be looking to know where to help out. In this case day or night there are people that need you. You just have to know when and where and be willing to take that step forward.

Its night time you should have quieter music to relax with

That is true if you are trying to get to sleep. But if you are driving and trying to stay awake that might not be the right path to follow.

Yes I tend to listen to the music louder at night then in the daylight hours. The only time I don't like having music on is if I am lost or if I am following a map for the first time. OK so following the map the music gets turned down not off.

Its also fun driving past others who are blasting their music and knowing that mine can still project over theirs. If its in my car I can still hear it. Maybe not all but I know most of the songs I listen to and the words that are part of those songs. I also have a tenancy to try and learn songs while I am driving. Its nice to be able to attach my CD player or MP3 player and just let it go.

If you are driving and looking over this lens please pull over and play it safe. Think of this as texting and driving. The two should not be done together.