This is a part of the “Sunday Story” series. No politics today – just a “race for life” into the sunset of the Eastern Ohio hills.
Sunset Drive
Part of officiating high school track and field involves long drives into the sunset. We finished a great pole vault competition at Muskingum University in Eastern Ohio about six-thirty Thursday evening, and by the time all of the paperwork and talking was done, it was past seven before I headed west for home on I-70.
The early evening traffic on the fifty mile stretch to home was light, and speed was fast. My old (2004) Jeep was pressed to hang with the eighty mile-an-hour crowd, and in sympathy, I spent some time in the “slow lane” for a break. As I crested one of the rolling green hills, the setting sun hit me “full” in the windshield. Jeep windshields are flat, ninety degrees parallel to the road. Because of that, no bug ever “glances” off it. Jeeps are killers of mosquitoes, destroyers of grasshoppers, demolishers of lightning bugs. Because of that, there’s always a sheen of bug “goop” on the windshield, spreading the direct sun’s glare across most of the field of vision.
And that reminds me why not to put the windshield down. (Yes, you can lay the windshield flat on the hood of the Jeep, they even give you a nylon strap and appropriate hood-loop to hold it steady there. It’s reminiscent of all those black and white World War II shows we watched as kids like the “Rat Patrol“). The problem with that, is where are all the bugs to go? Right in your teeth, or eye, or up the nose is my guess. Better to keep the windshield, “shielding”!
Life in the Slow Lane
So I crested the hill in the right lane. Not only did I have sunglasses, but a baseball cap pulled low to try to block the sun. But I still hit the glare, and struggled to realize that the two-door Chevy ahead of me was driving super-slow. I looked to the mirror (it was clean!) to see a black SUV coming up on the left, so switching lanes wasn’t an immediate option. So I slowed down, below sixty, behind the Chevy. Then I noticed that the SUV was slowing down too. So I switched lanes, accelerated back to seventy, and went by the Chevy, sliding back into the “slow” lane after the pass.
I glanced back into the mirror to see what was up with the SUV. And in that glance, I got this entire story.
Both the SUV and the Chevy continued to slow. And while I was struggling with the glare to the front, the scene in the mirror was quite clear, in fact, hyper-clear in the reflected sunlight. In front of the black SUV, sprinting for its life, eyes as wide open as they could get, was a young, spindly deer. And, to the SUV driver’s credit, he managed to slow enough that the deer maintained a steady lead, frantically trying NOT to become road-kill on westbound I-70 between the Norwich and State Route 93 exit.
Buck Tales
The road ahead was clear, so I too slowed to watch the drama. The young deer continued his sprint, and the Chevy slowed even more, giving him an opening to dodge right, back into the safety of the forest. And that’s what he did, diving across the road and down the high berm into the wood line. I’m sure there were tall stories told around the grass at the deer herd that night, about the crazy speeding vehicles and how really, really fast that deer could go.
Then I thought, wait a minute. What did I miss? Or more directly, how did I miss the young buck? He must have been in front of the Chevy (that’s why they were slowing) when I went past on the left, then he must have then switched into the left lane to get in front of the SUV. Essentially, I drove by the deer on my right, but didn’t see it as I focused through the haze on my windshield. Then when I checked my right mirror to make sure I was clear of the Chevy, the deer must already have been in the left lane. We crisscrossed. He must have changed lanes right behind me.
I guess he wasn’t the only lucky one on that stretch of rural highway on Thursday night.
The Sunday Story Series
- Riding the Dog – 1/24/21
- Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
- A Track Story – 2/7/21
- Ritual – 2/14/21
- Voyageur – 2/19/21
- A Dog Story – 2/25/21
- A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
- Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
- Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
- More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
- Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
- A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
- My Teachers – 5/9/21
- Old Friends – 5/23/21
- The Gift – 6/6/21
- Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
- Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
- Running Memories – 7/25/21
- Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
- Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
- The New Guy – 9/5/21
- Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
- The Interview – 9/26/21
- Night Moves – 10/3/21
- Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
- National Security – 10/24/21
- Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
- Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
- Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
- Watching Brian 12/12/21
- Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
- Team Trips – 12/26/21
- Uphill, Both Ways – 1/9/22
- Old Trophies – 1/30/22
- The Last Time – 2/7/22
- Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
- Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
- Track Weather – 4/3/22
- What’s Missing – 4/11/22
- A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
- Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
- Origin Stories – 5/22/22
- Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
- Back at State – 6/5/22
- Out in the Country – 6/19/22
- Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
- Car Stories I – 7/24/22
- Car Stories II – 7/31/22
- Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
- Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22
- New to the Pack – 8/21/22
- Car Stories III – The Bus – 8/28/22
- A Day in the Life – 9/4/22
- Stupid Human Tricks – 9/18/22
- Fair of Foul – 2/26/23
- Immigrant Story – 3/12/23
- Busy Season – 5/15/23
- Of Jeeps and Bucks – 5/28/23
