obstacles

Well I wonder if everyone traveling had similar stories today. Seems that the Inkslinger had trouble getting to New Mexico. We also had a harrowing trip. We were very slow getting away from home this morning. As a matter of fact, it was nearly 1:00pm when we pulled away from the house. Smooth sailing through misty rain until we hit the North Carolina line, at which point six lanes of traffic slowed to a crawl, and the sky opened up on us. I'm guessing that congestion is due to folks trying to get on and off I-85 and am discouraged that that means that we'll be in it for another 15 miles or so. When we passed I-85 an hour later, the traffic crawl didn't change. We continued to crawl through Statesville and finally at about the I-40 intersection, we slowed nearly to a stop while the road was invisible through the driving rain and mid afternoon fog. I began to worry that we wouldn't make it up the mountain into Virginia before dark, and would be treated to pea soup fog there. I refused to stop and feed the starving wee ones for fear of the dark while climbing the mountain.
When finally we got to Virginia, there was no fog at all once we began climbing, though traffic was still thick and crawling. When we finally reached the top, at about 5:15, two hours behind schedule, I could see a faint glow in the clouds to the west. Another mile down the road and the setting sun broke through. The entire sky turned orange. Will saw a double rainbow out his window and when we all looked, it took our breath away. I quickly pulled over, grabbed my camera and stood beside the teeming interstate taking pictures and watching the sky change minute by minute. The sunset was not just in the sky, it was everywhere. Vivid color bathed everything. The kids inside the truck said, "dad, your skin is orange." I wasn't just watching the sunset, I was part of the sunset. Right up against the rainbow. I've never experienced color like that before. Being color-blind, I've only ever seen yellow in a rainbow. A long streak of single color highlighter stretched across the sky. But today, I saw strips of vivid separated color in two rainbows swiped across orange clouds. I think they were filtered just for my eyes.
As I stood there beside the road on top of the mountain, I thought about the stressful, crawling trip that brought me there. One fuel stop, one potty break, a 10 mile section of normal speed driving - any one of these things would have allowed us to miss this extraordinary moment. We needed to be over 200 miles from home at precisely 5:15pm, and it was all arranged to happen. There we were, a part of the sunset, projecting two rainbows on the opposite sky. Then it was over.
I got back into the truck and crawled another 15 miles to the junction of I-81, and traffic began to move and we drove normal speed the rest of the way to my parents. Go figure. Did you ever crawl into your car and hear the creator of the universe say, "come here, there's something I want to show you?"
So this thanksgiving, I am thankful for things I hadn't even know about this morning. I am thankful for a momentary reprieve from color-blindness. I am thankful for mountains, clouds, sunshine, traffic congestion, rain, fog, and all obstacles needed to govern my pace to put me precisely where I need to be precisely when I need to be there.