We made it to Chattanooga last night around 10pm, a steady rain making it hard to see even a few feet ahead of me as I drove around familiar territory. 

We’d already endured two previous rainstorms, one outside of Macon that lasted a good three minutes, but was enough to cause slight panic since I was separated several feet behind Kerri’s car, and could barely see anything then. The second rainstorm happened right outside of Atlanta…

And this storm was no joke.

As we rode closer to the dark clouds looming above, Queen began to croon through my car speakers…

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality…”

Lightning flashed in the distance once…twice…

“Open your eyes, Look up to the skies and seeeeee…”

The music faded for a few seconds, meaning a message from one of the other cars headed up to Chattanooga had been sent to Carola’s phone.

Kae’sha: “Y’all, we forgot to pray before we left…”

And over the walkie-talkie app Voxer, Kae’sha prayed a sincere prayer for traveling mercies. The storm clouds turned the afternoon sunlight into midnight darkness. 

As soon as Kae’sha finished her prayers, the first raindrops hit my windshield.

This storm had the same effects of the first one in that I could barely see what was happening on the road. The only comfort I had was Kerri’s bright red tail lights that flashed every few seconds due to braking. If I could stay close enough to her car, I’d be okay.

Water from her tires splashed onto my windshield, and combined with the rain falling from the clouds, I was faced with a white wall. It was a mess. 
I could see cars pulling off on the shoulder, the drivers thinking it best to just wait the storm out. I thought maybe we should do the same, but other cars were flying past us, thinking that rushing through the storm would be the better option to escape it. 

I prayed a silent prayer of my own as I continued to try to drive. Kerri’s car braked, and suddenly, this massive puddle of water in the middle of the freeway was revealed. 

OH MY GOSH.

2 out of the 3 cars we had were pretty low to the ground, and I just hoped that neither of us would get stuck in a puddle in the middle of the freeway outside of Atlanta. 

We all thankfully drove through the puddle without hydro planing. I realized that, because I didn’t use AC in my car, and we had to roll our windows up, the white wall grew worse because my windshield fogged up. 

Carola frantically started wiping it, and, even though it was raining, I asked her to slightly crack a window. I tried turning the defrost (is that what it’s called?) on, but it didn’t really help.

 Finally, the storm passed…or at least it seemed to before it kicked back up again for another ten minutes. 

But then, the rain lightened up. The white wall of water and fog faded. I could finally see through my windshield again. After a couple more lightning flashes, we were left staring at light grey clouds. 

We hadn’t even faced the real storm yet…

…we still had to drive through Atlanta…

#JustStartWriting

❤ Mishy