Quite a few years ago, our three daughters boarded a plane and flew up to Washingon state. They were to visit their aunt and grandma, who both live in Seattle. And Mike and I were to pick them up. In the car. This would mean that we would have to drive up from Los Angeles. No problem. We had seven days. We decided to take the scenic route. The 405 out of Los Angeles, to the 14 North, where we would eventually pick up highway 395. 395 runs up the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas. It's a gorgeous route. This particular week, though, the Sierras were getting hit by some pretty heavy duty summer showers. All up the highway, we would drive into and out of storms. One minute, it would be dumping so hard, that the wipers, on high, could barely keep up. The next minute, we would be out in the bright sun. Eventually, highway 395 works away from the Sierras, and we were now in an area with long yellow grass on either side of the highway. We had been in sunshine for quite awhile. Suddenly, directly in front of the car was a wall of solid black cloud. I mean jet black. Neither of us had ever seen clouds that black. Even the streaks where the rain was pounding the ground was black as coal. Now, you might say that this was because we were in sunlight and it was contrast. But no, we had experienced that further back, and those clouds were usually a dark grey, not this pitch black. A little bit of panic starts to set in. If the wipers could barely keep up with what we had previously driven through, what's going to happen when we hit that? The shoulder was narrow and would make it difficult to pull to the side and wait it out. And, as hard as it looked like it was pouring, what would visibility be like? We continued on, right towards the middle of this nightmare. Suddenly, about 150 yards from the thick black line, which marked the beginning of this, the road turned. Not a gentle curve, but an actual 90 degree hard right. So, now we were parallel to this wall of black. But, we were now heading east, and we were supposed to moving north. So, eventually, this road was going to head north again, and into that darkness. So, here we were, still out in the bright sun, heading east. Sure enough, further ahead, comes another 90 turn. This time, it turns left, to get us going north again. This is where things really get weird. When the road turned north, the storm was now about 150 yards to the west. We could see it dumping, while we were out in the bright sunshine. So, Mike and I started laughing! "Hah! You missed us!" Hee hee! And then, all hell broke loose The rain started hitting us sideways. I kid you not. And, not with the force of a garden hose. It was the force of a fire hose. Here we were, out in the bright sun, getting pounded from the side by rain. The driver's window on our old LTD was always cracked open about half an inch. Mike was getting drenched. So was I. The water was gushing past him and drenching me in the passenger seat. Mike and I just started busting up laughing after that. It was almost like Mother Nature got revenge for her laughing at us. I have never, ever seen rain come sideways like that. But, it made for a good laugh and a memorable trip.
Posted by Valkyre at May 31, 2005 11:32 PM