Sunday, March 27, 2011

In The Still Of The Night

As I drove into Dallas in the wee hours of the morning, traveling the interstate with one or two other drivers, I came upon an electronic reader board telling me that just ahead, all four lanes of Interstate-30 were closed due to an accident.

All lanes being closed is never a good thing, but since I didn't know exactly where it was and only had a few miles to go, I kept approaching thinking I'd be able to get off before I reached the traffic backup.

Well, of course that didn't happen. All of a sudden, I crested a hill and on the other side saw the bright red glow of hundreds of taillights. I immediately turned on the CB to see what was going on and heard other drivers surmising who and what had caused the backup. The thing I kept hearing was that a tanker truck was involved. I'm always concerned when I hear of a tanker accident; it's never the tankers that are carrying milk. And based on what I was hearing on the CB, and the amount of emergency vehicles present at the scene, I was pretty sure they weren't mopping up dairy. Something serious had spilled and according to the amateur reporters on the radio, something was also seriously burning.

I waited patiently as the traffic crept along. I was far enough back that I couldn't see the actual collission, but knew it had to have been bad to close the entire interstate. It wasn't as if they were even routing us around it, in the lane furthest away, like they usually do.

The backup moved pretty quickly as the police routed everyone off the interstate and onto side roads. I wasn't familiar with the re-route, so I had to follow my GPS until I got to a road I knew. I finally made it to our destination without a hitch but knew I'd have to wait until morning to hear the details of the accident.

I was sure the news wasn't going to be good.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
1 YEAR AGO:
Wake Up In The Morning, Put Your Hand On Something Useful, And Take Care Of Yourself And Your Family*
2 YEARS AGO:
Eddie My Little Ex-Marine Friday
3 YEARS AGO:
Delayed By Lipgloss During A Period Of Elevated Security: A Travel Debacle Ensues
4 YEARS AGO:
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
5 YEARS AGO:
Your Cat Is In My Garden

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