It started as a dark and foggy day. There was a mist, but it really didn’t turn to rain. It seemed like it was night all afternoon, from the time we left the house until we did get home at night. But it was one of those days that you either want to stay in bed or get out and get in it.We are lucky in that we live close to where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers meet. We don’t go over there very often but we were on our way to Cape Girardeau and that is the best way to go. Actually, once you cross the Ohio River you can turn right and go into Cairo, Illinois but we prefer to go left and head into Missouri, over the mighty Mississippi River. I don’t know why I refer to the Mississippi as “mighty” and the Ohio as a river, because at this point you really can’t tell one from the other. They are both about the same width and they are both flowing downstream so I don’t know why you wouldn’t refer to them as the same. Maybe because at this point the Ohio ceases to exist and all you have is the mighty Mississippi, which appears to be a whole lot bigger flowing south.
You would think that the fog would be greater around the rivers. And it was bad, most definitely, but it seemed to be worse on the way to the rivers. Once we got into Ballard County, Kentucky, the fog seemed to intensify. That probably has to do with the fact that whole area of the state is full of water. It’s not a swamp but it’s low-lying and water does seem to seep up at times. It’s a great area for hunting ducks and geese and deer and anything else you might be looking for. The thing about Ballard County though is that you have to be going there in order to find it, unless you know those roads. It’s not a real convenient location. Then again, not much of western Kentucky is convenient. I guess you could say the same thing for the same parts of Illinois and Missouri. Of course, years ago, when the rivers were great, those areas were booming. Not so much anymore, but they have a good heritage and legacy.
When we got over the Ohio River I decided to pull into the park that sits on a strip of land at the tip of Illinois. This is the spot. This is the spot where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers join. Usually the park is flooded, but in the dead of winter we don’t always get a lot of rain. I thought I would drive back there and take pictures of the bridges. Jimmy didn’t want to go back there. The kids were fussing. We had a plan in place for the day, they wanted to keep going. I reminded them that we weren’t on a schedule and no one will ever let me stop at this park and I was going to do it today. So I did. All I wanted to do was to take a few pictures with my phone. My good camera was in the backseat but I’d been having some trouble with the battery dying on it so I was just going to use my phone. These pictures weren’t going to be for anything anyway. I wanted to see the fog and the bridges.
When we stopped the kids got out of the car. Jimmy laughed at the truck parked next to us, “don’t look in there, there might be a dead body”. I gave him a mean look. The kids knew there wouldn’t be a dead body in that truck. They walked right by it. Except Katie, she wanted me to take a picture of her looking at the bridge. Well, I could see her but the bridge was almost covered in the fog. In fact, there was a part of the bridge that you couldn’t see at all. But I took her picture. John had found the lookout building. Honestly, it was a building closer to the shore, where you could see both rivers. It was about the size of a large patio. I told him to stand still and I would take his picture. He quickly moved to the other side of the building, out of my shot. It didn’t matter, I knew he was in the picture. As I went to get back into the car I noticed a few trees that appeared to be rising from the fog. They looked so cool. I think that’s the picture I like the best. As we went to leave the park I took a picture of the Mississippi River bridge. It was over a levy. It wasn’t as dramatic as the Ohio River bridge but you can see the effect of the fog. If I felt less rushed I would have walked over to where I could get a much better view of that bridge. But I figured if I did that someone would be fussing for us to get going.
We got on the interstate rather than go the backroads over to Cape Girardeau. I thought that would be a better idea even though there was still so much fog. It was strange, that far away from the river and the fog wouldn’t ease up. Truly I was enjoying it. It’s one of those phenomena that you don’t get to experience frequently. I mean, there’s fog sometimes early in the mornings. But this fog was all over the region and had been around all day. I guess because the sun never came out the fog never left. I guess it is true that the sun burns off the fog or the wind blows it out of the area. Since there was no sun and no wind the fog didn’t have anywhere to go. We ran a few errands in Cape as we had stopped to eat before we got there. I had made up my mind that I wanted to be on my time, and I didn’t really care if the others in the car kept saying, can we go home now. I wasn’t going home. We didn’t have anything else to do and we didn’t have anywhere else to be. If I wanted to go from one shopping center to another then I was going to do it.
I was finished though and knew that I was going to go home through Cairo, Illinois. I know the way home that way, at least, when it’s clear. But the fog had not lifted at all. I did know that we needed to head downtown in order to head out of town so I decided to take another detour. The family didn’t have a clue where I wanted to go but I had a clue, not much else. Fortunately, I was able to enter it all into my iPhone and I found out that I wasn’t far from my destination. Of course, everyone was fussing, “you’re going down to the river? Why would you want to go down to the river? Are you going to SEMO? Why would you want to go to SEMO?” I told them I just wanted to go downtown. I told them that I knew that Cape had a beautiful downtown and I just wanted to go down there. Honestly though, I wanted to go to a bar that really should be a landmark. Downtown, I think across the street from the Federal Courthouse, is a bar called The Bar. I wanted to see it. It was featured in a suspenseful movie called “Gone Girl”. The guy who wrote the novel was from Cape and a lot of the landmarks of the town are featured in the book, and then the movie. The movie was filmed in Cape. I have wanted to see that bar since I read the book. I knew no one would go with me so I decided to head over there because I didn’t have anywhere to be and I didn’t have anything to do. Well, the bar was lit up, a little, as we passed it. I turned around in a parking lot in the next block and came back to the bar, pulled up alongside the opposite curb and rolled down my window. I was going to take a picture. It was funny though that a couple walked out of the bar at the exact time I was taking a picture so I ended up taking a few. I wasn’t sure if I wanted people in my picture. Once I had the pictures then I was ready to head home. Jimmy suddenly knew where he was and how to get where we were going. I let him direct us back out to the new bridge but I could have found it with no problem. We stopped to get gas and then headed home.
The ride home was exhilarating. The fog was so thick I couldn’t really see more than a car length in front of me. I kept up a normal speed, maybe a little slower than I normally would have driven, but I was aided in seeing well by the little reflectors that were on the middle yellow lines. I only notice those things when I ease over into the oncoming traffic lane. I have always assumed they’re there to wake you up and make you aware that you’re easing out of your lane. I had never used them to navigate my way home, to keep me on the right path. Once we crossed the Mississippi River on the beautiful new bridge that Cape Girardeau has I figured that the fog would ease up some. I don’t know why I kept thinking that except that’s the way it always happens. But it didn’t. That fog stayed consistent. It didn’t go in and out like it sometimes will: back in the fog in a low-lying area but the fog diminishes as you climb a hill. I could sense Jimmy getting tense sitting next to me. I could sense that he wasn’t convinced that I could manage to get us home safely. Of course I could. I’m one of the best drivers I know. Of course, as I have gotten older I don’t see as well at night as I used to, even though I have had my cataracts removed. But I was enjoying this ride. I wasn’t seeing the big picture. I was only seeing about a half of a car length in front of me. When I had my brights on then the lights reflected back at me. John, who just got his driver’s license, told me to turn on my brights at one time. I told him I had my fog lights on and didn’t need to turn on my brights. He suggested that I did. I turned them on. He said, “oh, okay”. But I kept them on much more than I normally would but only because I was enjoying the light being reflected back to me. So I honestly felt as though I was inching home. I kept thinking that maybe a deer or a dog or a zombie would be in my line of vision. And then I kept thinking that no one could fault me for hitting someone in the middle of the road because there was no way that I would be able to see them until I was right up on them. I was lucky, everyone stayed off the road. When we got to Cairo you could say that it was not fit for man or beast. Cairo has turned into a ghost town of sorts but tonight it most definitely was. There were a few shops open and I did see a couple of people out walking. They should have had on reflective jackets or something. Fortunately they were on the sidewalks. But if they went to cross the streets they could easily be gonners.
On the other side of Cairo the road changed. There were no more reflectors on the yellow lines. There were yellow lines and there were white lines. I panicked. I literally had to inch my way out of town. Additionally, instead of a light mist it was raining. It was not storming, just a really good soaking rain. One that you beg for in August. Because I was going so slow I wasn’t paying attention to having to have my windshield wipers going. Jimmy has never done this to me but he told me to turn my windshield wipers on. He couldn’t see. I wasn’t worried about him seeing. I just wanted to see that yellow line in the middle and that white line on the curb. I knew that things would be back to normal once I got into Kentucky. Jimmy knew that I started to panic and he told me to pull over. No way. I had gotten us this far, I wasn’t giving up now. I would just go slower. And I did. And fortunately, it wasn’t long before I got back to the spot where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers join. And I could take a left to head back over the Ohio River. I was going to be fine now.
But I wasn’t. The reflectors weren’t on the bridge. That bridge is not very long but on the Kentucky side, the ramp leading off is very long. And it’s got a couple of curves in it that if you don’t know are there then you’re going to miss them. I was concerned. I was going to miss something and I was going to end up in the Ohio River. If I was going to fall into a river I would rather it be the Mighty Mississippi. What was I thinking, I didn’t want to end up in any river. I didn’t want to end up off of the road at all. If I went off the road even a little I was not going to be able to get myself back on the road. The ground was wet. If I went off in this area I was going to get stuck. I didn’t want to get stuck. I decreased my speed. Of course the slower you go means that the more cars are going to be behind you. And in the fog cars tend to follow other cars closer. So I had two or three cars right on my butt. They knew where they were going. I’m sure they couldn’t fathom somebody going this slow on a major highway. I kept thinking that they were going to force me off the road. If I had been forced off the road then I was going to end up either in the water or in a field of mud. No one would know that I was down there. We would be down there all night and even though it wasn’t cold out at all we would all be scared or maybe hurt. It would not be a good thing. I needed to get these cars off my butt. But there was not a place for them to pass. There was oncoming traffic. There was oncoming traffic with their brights on. I hate people who won’t dim their brights. These people weren’t dimming their brights. I started taking deep breaths. And I came to realize that I had been enjoying this excursion, I needed to recapture that. I just needed to be able to see the lines.
Once I was off the bridge ramp and into Wickliffe I decided that I was going to be home free. I knew this territory. I would be fine. And I kept thinking that once I got away from the river that the fog would lift. I drove through Wickliffe and got back some of the enjoyment of the ride. We went by the courthouse and it was still decorated simply for Christmas with a candle in each window. I should have stopped and took a picture but I wasn’t as interested in stopping as I had been. Heading out of town meant that I was going to be closer to home shortly. But I forgot that I was in Ballard County and some parts of that road are a little tricky. And they didn’t have any reflectors on the highway. The good thing was that the traffic was light again.
Honestly, there was only one more place that it was bad and that’s where there is a curve in the highway that doesn’t seem to end. I’m sure when you can see that you know that it does end. But when you can only see about a car length in front of you the end is not in sight and anxiety starts to build. I found that the muscle that runs between my two shoulder blades was tightening up. It was going to hurt me through the night. I knew it. I also found that if a car didn’t dim its brights and I looked straight into it that light was traveling straight to my brain through my left eye and starting to cause a migraine. If I didn’t get home soon I was going to have an awful headache that was going to bother me all night long. I also discovered that I had been gripping the steering wheel extremely tight with my right hand and my thumb that has a touch of arthritis was starting to either go numb or lock up in pain. I released it from the steering wheel and started some hand exercises. I came to realize that I had had too much. As mystifying as this night had been I was ready to get out of the fog and out of the car.
Once we got into Carlisle County my reflectors came back. I decided then that those reflectors were put on the highway by the County Road Department and not the State DOT. I was going to have a few words with the Ballard County Judge Executive. I was going to tell him how much safer his roads could be if he only had those reflectors along the yellow lines. They didn’t necessarily have to have the ridges along the shoulder that will wake you up, most people are not going to go to sleep on those roads. But then we crossed over into Graves County and the reflectors went away again. I made up my mind that I was going to talk with the Graves County Judge Executive and tell him that they really need to have those on their highways. Those are my highways and I need them. Now, I probably will never experience fog like this again but if I ever do by gosh I need to have those reflectors.
The fog seemed to lift a little. It was like we were going in and out of the fog now. And I knew this area. This was so much closer to home. The fog didn’t bother me this close to home, unless a zombie was out walking along the highway. As it was, once I got into my territory I started to ease up a bit. Until, I hit my road. I don’t know what it was about my road but it was like I turned into a can of split pea soup. The fog was everywhere. Fortunately, there were a few signs along the road that I could aim at. I knew this road, I really didn’t need the reflectors. They would have been nice to have but not essential. But then I almost missed my driveway. I was on it before I knew it. I hurriedly made the turn and went up my driveway. I came to realize that I really need those reflectors that some people have marking their driveway. I’m not sure how long they’ll stay up but they would have been nice to have.
But then I looked up the driveway at the Nativity scene lit up in the fog and smiled again. It was nice to be welcomed home.