I enjoy driving, so, heading upstate NY yesterday to visit family, I looked forward to my ride as an integral part of the pleasure of the day. It didn't disappoint.
The Taconic Parkway is one of my favorite highways, the most perfect road for a summer drive, a meandering pair of ribbons that winds its way through forest and farmland atop the ridge of the Taconic Mountains, with a commanding vista of the Hudson Valley and the impressive peaks of the Catskill Mountains in the west. As the Silver Bullet and I headed out, I couldn't have picked better weather for the drive, not too hot, blue skies filled with lovely summer puffs of clouds. Traffic wasn't bad, and I settled in with my iced green tea, opting for the radio to entertain me. I found an oldies station that claimed to play all the tunes we "never hear anymore", and they were right - when was the last time *you* heard "Tighten Up"?
I was in an easy summer groove as suddenly, I noticed that the sky ahead of me was looming black, and, as sunlight still streamed through the moonroof, it started to rain, and how. There wasn't much in the way of lightning or thunder, but it was coming down so hard I was surprised not to see hail. Within seconds, there was enough water on the road to cause some serious ponding (on a ridge top), but there are no shoulders on the road, so it's not very easy or convenient to pull over and wait it out. As I rounded a bend, all of the cars ahead of me had their brake lights on. I managed to make my way around most of the cars who were stopped, or nearly so, to see that what was holding things up was a car *stopped* in theright lane - no lights, no flashers. If the storm hadn't slowed us all down to some 40 mph, that would have been a multi-car pileup, for sure.
After about 3 or 4 minutes of this pounding rain, it abated nearly as quickly as it had started, and out peeked sunshine again, punctuated by a few moments of drizzle here and there. Soon, my journey changed direction, and I was able to look back through sunny skies to the mountain ridge, with the storm cloud sitting there surrounding it. It sure gave a new dimension to the notion of driving *through* a storm!
After an afternoon of the familiar camaraderie that only occurs among family, content with good food and the comfort of many hugs and kisses, my return trip home took on an entirely different mood. I never even turned on the stereo, as the unfolding landscape provided me with its own beautiful music. As woodlands opened up, blue skies shifted to peach and coral, and then dusty lavender, ringed with crimson, in the twilit westerns mountains. That gave way to sparkling navy velvet above, interrupted here and there with fog and gauzy mist, as summer-warmed streams and the earlier rain yielded their moisture to the crisp evening air. Then, in the east, the magnificent, buttery disc of the moon commanded the night sky, a beacon lighting my way homeward.
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