Sandcastle Momma: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

A month or so ago the Island Girl was visiting a friend across the Bay and I was supposed to pick her up that night.

It was raining a little when I left home and as I drove onto the Mid Bay bridge I could see an incredible lightning show taking place out over the Bay. It was really pretty and I thought about how cool it would be to just be able to pull over and watch the storm come across the Bay. But I was on a 3.6 mile bridge and there was nowhere to pull over so I drove on. Luckily, I was the only car on the bridge so I was able to drive slow and enjoy the show.

The farther out over the Bay I got the more I could feel the wind picking up and when the lightning flashed I could see the storm line moving towards me.

Just as I reached the foot of the hump in the middle of the bridge, the storm reached me. I was driving up the hump and the wind was pushing my van all over the road and the lightning was hitting the water on both sides of me and it was raining so hard that I couldn’t see the road in front of me. I couldn’t decide if this was really exciting or really terrifying LOL

As I reached the top of the hump, I was hanging on to the steering wheel and doing my best to keep the van from being blown all over the bridge and I started thinking about being pushed off the bridge. What have I heard about car windows when you hit the water? Didn’t I read that if your windows are up you won’t be able to open the door as the car is sinking? Maybe I should crack the windows so if I get blown over the side I’ll be able to get out of the van once it hits the water. Will the electric door locks work under water? Probably not - better unlock the doors now.

As I came down the other side of the hump the wind started easing up and within the next minute or so I’d driven out of the storm. The rain and wind were behind me and just ahead were the lights of the toll booth.

WOO-HOO!!! I drove into the toll booth completely exhilarated. The toll operator took one look at my face and said "I was watching that storm out there - that must have been incredible"
"Just like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride - but better" I told him.

When I got home I told the Island King about the storm and about me cracking the car windows and unlocking the door in case I went over the side. "That’s all great honey but to be honest, you’d never have survived the crash so it wouldn’t have mattered that your windows were cracked" he tells me.