SLOW DOWN, YOU MOVE TOO DANG FAST

I have lived in some very large cities (translated with traffic) but remember I now live in a Wisconsin rural area. Yesterday I had a reminder of what traffic really is. You see I am visiting the Atlanta area for a baby shower and the family is starting to arrive. We had what is normally a 45 minute ATL airport pickup that ended up lasting almost 3 1/2 hrs. We left the house about 1:30pm for a 2:15pm pickup but by the time we had the other future Grandma and her puppy on board en route home, the traffic app suggested taking another route due to an accident with an hour delay.

Unbeknownst to us and that app in that couple of minutes of being rerouted there was even a more devastating accident on the new highway route where we ended up sitting about 2 hours. The traffic map appeared red all over so Daughter Lori even called her hubby for an extra set of eyes to see where/if we could take an exit to circumvent some of the standstill. He might have exaggerated with the Holy Cow exclamation of 100 accidents across the city at that time, but you get the picture. The traffic was a hotbed mess.

Emergency vehicles one after another blared by us on the shoulder. Eventually our side of 4 highway lanes became one during that one mile backup. As we passed the accident our mouths dropped seeing the 3 cars , 2 smaller cars (one completely demolished and flattened) with a large SUV upside down on top of the 2, creating the letter T. There is no way most of those crash occupants could have walked away.

No, I didn't take a photo but wouldn't you know a rubbernecker on the other side of the highway ended up causing another accident?

It was truly a relief finally reaching an exit for a bathroom break and much needed DQ treats. By the time we returned to the highway we entered the twilight zone as we were like the only car on our side of the highway. Apparently in that small window of time exiting we had missed our highway side being closed for probably the car removal/otherwise we would have been sitting longer.

So y'all can make fun of where Natureman and I live but know our last traffic jam near the End of the Rainbow Valley was last Saturday when after taking our garbage to the dump and mistakenly choosing County Road K to go to town. I had reminded Natureman about the Vernon County Dairy Breakfast. "Aw, no, says he take it." Wouldn't you know we got stuck behind the Tractor Parade going up to the ridge? Gee, I think it slowed us down maybe 6 minutes.

I don't know how the Atlanta residents face their traffic mess all the time. All I can say is, "Folks, slow down, you move too dang fast. "