Driving the width of Texas is very similar to several things, not the least of which being waiting at the RMV (registry of Motor Vehicles) for someone to call your name, expecting that it will happen at any minute, but it never does, and hours later you find yourself trying to be entertained by some random circumstance like trying to guess the language of the people around  you or attempting to count the number of those whose name have been called before yours.   Thankfully the RMV now has the internet, but Scotty has not actually  invented a usable transporter quite yet.  So  you just wait but it never happens.

It was my turn to drive and the long night nestled over Texas for what seemed like forever.  Around 4 pm it started raining and then raining and then raining.  Soon the rain hit the car so hard that I thought someone had jumped on the car.  Other cars began to move to the side of the road, but not me.  I wouldn’t be stopping.  Texas was already a long enough state to drive through, plus my expert driving skills would help me out.  For over an hour the rain crashed down on us, and I just kept praying for it to stop.  Driving 10 mph had started to get on my nerves.  I sang and prayed and thought about the fact that I didn’t have a girlfriend yet,and I was already 18 years old (What was wrong with me anyway?)  By the time it stopped raining, I remember being a mess mentally, almost shedding a tear because I was so tired of the concentration it took to stay on the road through the storm.  Sweat poured down my forehead, a result of the fear I experienced in the last hour.  Finally it did stop, and all was quiet, and I thanked God for bringing us out safe.

Then one by one, my fellow passengers woke up, each asking me in their own way if I was doing all right driving.  They know how boring the drive through Texas can be. Then I turned on the radio where a news weather report was hitting the airwaves.  Apparently Texas had just come through its worst thunderstorm in 50 years (rainfall in an hour).  Kim and John and Allison all laughed and one quipped…

“Thank God it didn’t rain here in this part of Texas.”