On A Dark Country Road

Summer is a Spooky Season.

I've posted a few 'ghosts in the road' videos this spooky summer, and for good reason. They're scary! We've all driven down a dark road at night and been a slight bit uneasy. One time in particular, I had a somewhat scary situation on a dark road such as this in the video. When I was in high school, I worked at McDonald's. Usually I was there until pretty late in the night, usually not leaving until midnight when closing the store. Home wasn't terribly far away, but still a 20 minute drive down two somewhat country roads. Add in the lack of street lights and the twists and turns through wooded areas... and you can probably see how it wasn't always a great time.

So one Saturday night, after the store closed, a friend and I went to the nearby Waffle House to hang out and chat for a while. I left out for home and drove through the empty town square in the rain. Which wasn't too bad, but my worn out Ford Escort had problems running in the best weather. This before everyone had cell phones. In hind sight, staying out late wasn't the best idea, but good ideas hardly make for stories. Teenagers often don't have them either.

I'd leave the town square, drive down the main road. Well lit, various store fronts and neon signs. But when I'd turn off, no lights, covered in trees, and literally nothing but woods and houses with enormous yards for as far as I could see. Driving a little slow as deer tended to jump out of these woods at night, my brights were on and what was normal rainfall suddenly turned nasty as an ocean of water seemingly was falling from the sky. As I crossed the bridge over the river, lighting struck out of nowhere with a giant boom of thunder. It was a dark and stormy night. Awesome. 

Suddenly out of the woods, this person came running out screaming at the top of his lungs. He threw a stick at my car and just kept yelling. Instinctively I floored it. Rain be damned, it was time to get off that road fast. I soon was at my turn, and when I hit my brakes to slow down. In the red lit up road from my brake lights, I could see him still running after me. I must have been closer to my turn than I thought when I hit the gas. You could still hear him hollering.

I turned and drove as fast as I could down the next dark somewhat country road until I passed a newly built subdivision some friends from school lived at. I pulled in quickly as it was well lit and assumed somebody would hear this man and call the cops. The rain had let up by this point, so I rolled down my window a little to try and hear him.

Nothing.

It was little bit until I felt brave enough to try and leave the sub division (and it's lights), he was nowhere to be found as I pulled out back onto the somewhat country road. Taken this as a sign, somehow my little Escort ran like a dream and ran faster than it ever did getting me home. Despite looking in the rear view mirror the entire way, I got home safely. The next morning my parents told me he was either high or drunk. Maybe playing a prank on passing cars. Maybe. Regardless, I went a much longer and well lit way home from then on.