A harrowing Atlanta traffic incident and the beautiful gifts of nature
If you want to hear about my harrowing experience on the side of the road in Atlanta, read the first part of this column. If you just wanna enjoy the unbridled beauty of nature, skip to the second part.
I’m starting with the bad because I want to end on a positive note.
I was at the beach this past week and had a really relaxing time, but heading back to Rome through Atlanta threw all that calmness and tranquility out the window.
Here’s what happened. As I neared Atlanta, traffic started backing up and, at regular intervals, we were all just idling on the interstate for several minutes at a time. All this while, BOUNCE to me (that’s how my friend Brandy from Pine Log, Georgia, says UNBEKNOWNST) my car was slowly starting to overheat.
Finally, I’m getting close to the I-75 North exit from I-20. Me and 100 other drivers are trying to exit. It’s hot and traffic is backed up. We’re basically just crawling at this point. Well now’s the time my car chooses to inform me, via a flashing light on my dashboard, that it’s overheating. I know I have to pull over. But there’s nowhere to go. It’s bumper to bumper traffic and at this particular point on the exit (and as far as I can see) there’s a narrow shoulder and a large wall right next to it.
Because we’re on a turn in the road I can’t see ahead of me. The car’s constantly alerting me that it’s overheating. I can see smoke coming up from under the hood. I need to pull over NOW but I know this would be one of the worst possible places to do that.
But it’s now or never. I don’t want to have my car’s engine running any more so I decide I have to pull over. As soon as I do, I put my emergency lights on but of course traffic is now flowing freely and cars are whizzing by me. I’m sitting there in the narrow shoulder. I can’t get out on the opposite side of the car because the wall’s there. I can’t get out safely on my side because cars are right next to me. So I sit there in my hot car STEWING. I’m stressed out and frustrated. I call my buddies to talk to them — not because they can do anything to help me at the moment but because they’ll keep me calm till I can get out of this situation.
It sucks.
I wait about 30 minutes for my engine to cool down a little. All the while cars are honking at me, people are screaming at me because I’m in such a dangerous spot. But my hands are tied.
Finally, when I decide the engine has cooled down enough, I risk life and limb by opening my driver side door and getting in front of my car to open the hood. As luck would have it, I had a bottle of coolant in my trunk, which I also had to risk life and limb to retrieve. I added some coolant, narrowly avoid death to get back into my car and I drive back to Rome.
There’s no real moral to that story except that if you feel overwhelmed in a situation and if you’re like me and tend to panic easily, make sure you have someone you can call who will talk you down off the ledge till the situation gets better.
NOW ON TO THE POSITIVE...
While I was at the beach on Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, I visited this amazing place called Brookgreen Gardens. It’s a botanical garden-slash-sculpture garden-slash-wildlife preserve.
This place is huge. It’s a 9,100-acre property that has been meticulously cared for and kept up. If you’re at all into plants or flowers or landscaping, or if you just enjoy the natural world and the beauty of the low country, you would do well to visit.
There are so many different parts of the property — from a delightfully whimsical children’s garden to magnificent sculptures, to ancient oaks dripping with Spanish moss. Thousands of trees, shrubs, flowers, herbs, ferns and mosses fill every single corner of the property. There’s something for everyone to enjoy.
I know it’s about a 7-hour drive away from Rome so that may not be practical for everyone, but if you’re ever in the area of Murrell’s Inlet in South Carolina and if you have the time, you should stop in and walk around for a while.
The vibrant abundance of life all around you does something good for the soul. Even if you’re not particularly a gardening enthusiast I promise you’ll find something intoxicating about this remarkable place.
And twice a week they do nighttime events where they light up the gardens in a variety of different ways. It’s a truly magical experience walking through such lush beauty, but with twinkling lights all around you.
I suppose the take-away from this column is that we sometimes find ourselves in terrible, stressful and daunting situations. We are none of us immune to that. But never forget that there is beauty and peace to be found in the world if we know where to look. And more often than not, that beauty, that soul-soothing tranquility can be found by stepping away from civilization and technology and returning to the natural world, even if just for a little while.