The Scariest Drive of My Life

I drove from Silver Lake, NM to Springerville, AZ. Combine absolutely no phone reception with pouring rain and I was a nervous wreck. The one lane road seemed to disappear a few yards in front of the car. Worse was the view from the rear view mirror, total darkness, not even the reflection of my rear lights. It was like the world was swallowing the little light that the car could muster and would soon swallow me, too. Even the music from the rental car's speakers had an eerie echo that seemed to whisper, "This is the last song you will ever hear".

146 miles. 146 miles. I counted down the miles by 10s, 20s, every digit changing was a reminder that if I just kept going and stayed safe, I would make it. I drove around chunks of rocks that had slid down the mountains in the rain. I slowed down to an excruciating crawl when the winding roads became more than the car could handle.

Finally, I made it. So happy to see the little rinky dink motel that would be my home for another week. Happy to see the bars light up on my Blackjack. Happy to be done with the risk of possibly falling off the face of the earth and inspiring an episode of CSI.