The Adventures of April

I went over to my parents' house yesterday after work to see an aunt and because my mom offered me free food. I work in Lawrence and my parents live a little way outside of Topeka, so it's about a 45 minute drive to their house from work.

Everything started out very nicely. I got out of work right at 5:00. I made it to the edge of town surprisingly fast. I jumped on the interstate and rejoiced, because I was driving fast (within the speed limit, of course) past Lawrence with very little traffic rather than creeping through Lawrence and being stuck in traffic.

It started getting cloudy right before I got off work. Just outside of Lawrence, it started sprinkling just a little.

Then it starts raining pretty hard.

Then it starts pouring even harder.

Then it appeared that someone took a very large bucket of water and started pouring it steadily upon my car.

I couldn't see. I was barely creeping along. All the other cars around me were barely creeping along... and this is a road where people always drive really, really, really fast. I kept starting to hydroplane, something I had never done and can now say with confidence is rather scary and not a real good idea. And just when I didn't think it could get any worse...

The sun came out.

"Oh!" you might be thinking, "that's great!"

No. It was actually not great. Because great buckets of water were still being poured upon my car and all the cars surrounding me. The sun hit the water pouring down, the water on the road, and the water being flung into the air by the tires of all the cars creeping along and created a blinding glare. I could barely see anything.

The sun ducked back behind the clouds after about 5 minutes of blinding glare, for which I was very grateful, but the bucket-dumping continued until I got to Topeka.

Then it stopped. Just like that. It was cloudy, but the ground was barely wet and it wasn't raining at all. Kansas is weird.

And there's more.

I got to my parents' house, we ate, sat around and talked for a few hours. It didn't rain the whole time. I left their house about 9:00. No rain. I decided to stop and see my husband, because he was at work and it was on my way home. No rain. I visit my husband, then head home. Still no rain. I get to the highway. It starts to sprinkle.

I should explain something. The highway I was taking home is a country highway. It mostly goes through farmland. There are no streetlights anywhere, few houses, and it is very, very dark. The only light when driving down that highway at night comes from your headlights and the headlights of any cars who may also be driving down that road, which tend to be few and far between.

I am intially amused by the fact that it starts sprinkling as soon as I get to the highway. My amusement doesn't last long, as it quickly begins to rain harder. And harder.

I then discovered what is worse that driving through bucket-pouring with blinding sunlight... Driving through bucket-pouring on a country highway at night. And I'm pretty sure there were two buckets pouring water on my car this time.

It poured nearly the entire way home. And, of course, it stopped raining completely as soon as I pulled onto our street.