Today I set out to try and get some photographs of trains. Well, as luck would have it, CSX didn’t get the memo and nothing moved. Well, shit, time to think of something else to do, so I shifted into fine photography instead. So, my friend and I left the small town we were in and then headed further north into the county in search of landscape photo opportunities.

I was halfway through my work when the clouds, which had been building all morning, started to turn dark and threatening. Ok, fine, the storms that were predicted were coming. I got that, so it was a race to get the work in before the storms hit. I got the last one in 2 minutes before the storms hit in earnest.

Well, once again as luck would have it, I didn’t get a chance to photograph Mineral, Va. It is famous for being the epicenter of the major East Coast earthquake 2-3 years ago that damaged the Washington Monument. Suffice to say, as things were going by then, my friend needed to hit the loo so we had to stop in Louisa, Va. and brave the elements.

That’s when the fun started.

Trying to drive down 522 South during the storm was a dangerous trip. The rain came down so hard that it looked like dense fog and my truck was hydroplaning only running 30mph. What was normally a 20-25 minute drive turned into 45. Several times the road was covered with water and I had to crawl across it. Thankfully, I have a 4×4 truck with an off-road package so I sit high up and things went smoothly. If I didn’t know the area as well as I did, I wouldn’t have gone through the water because that’s how folks get killed. Luckily for where I was, there weren’t any creeks or ditches nearby to cause an issue.

Suffice to say, it was a miserable trip home and I’m very glad to have made it home safe.