Saturday in Sebring - Part 2

You ever have a moment that is so surreal, so unexpected, that you ask yourself "Did that just happen?" We had one of those on our way home from Sebring on Saturday. We were headed home after my Grandpa's party and I needed to preach at church that night. We were just south of the thriving metropolis of South Bay on US 27 (which in the past has been called "Bloody 27" because of all the accidents that used to happen on it...when it was just a two lane highway) when the moment happened.

I was cruising at 70 mph in the family Ford Escape when to my left, I see a crane (the bird not the construction vehicle) flying across the highway in a slow glide. It crossed the northbound lane and was in the median when I first saw it. My thought was "wow, that bird is coming close to us!". Now, just so you know, we are the only car on the highway in either direction for at least half a mile. My car is black and it is like 5:30pm (the sun is out still!). Well, this crane flies in front of us and there is an instant where I can tell it realizes "uh oh!". It tried to fly faster but instead of going up, it seems to try to outrun us.

Well, it didn't....
It ends up running into our windshield in the upper passenger corner and actually bends the metal frame that goes around the entire windshield! A little bit more in the middle of the car and that thing could have ended up on my lap after shattering the windshield and sending us into the Everglades. As it was, the only casualty was the bird (believe me, it didn't make it!).

For miles down the road, Jeanine and I keep asking each other..."did that just happen?" I mean, this bird can fly at any height and yet, it chose to cross a highway about 6ft off the ground. There are miles of clear highway and it crosses in front of us. It could have been really bad for us, yet, God spared us (how many times do you think that happens on a daily basis?) by letting us hit it in a spot only a few inches from the difference in a broken windshield or not.

Wow...I still can't believe it!