It was dark, getting late, and I was listening to a book on tape. It’s important to note that when I listen to a book on tape, I zone out. Completely. I once drove for two hours listening to a book on tape until I ran out of gas on the side of the road. I was too absorbed in the story to notice that the gas gauge had been on empty for quite a while. I shouldn’t be allowed to listen to books on tape in the car.
But I was driving three hours by myself through some non-radio backwoods country between Savannah and Fitzgerald to meet up with Lee and his family Friday night. I knew my ipod and a book would help pass the time.
I had just driven through the big metropolis of Lumber City and was picking up speed around a corner when I saw something in the road ahead. My first guess what that it was a deer, or several deer. As I got closer, I could see there were several somethings in the road. They were too big to be deer. Cows? Goats? What the heck?
I had to slam on my brakes and swerve because whatever was in the road clearly had no intention of moving. In my headlights, the shape of four pigs became clearer. One was a HUGE, huge, huge sow. I didn’t know pigs got that big. Behind her were three younger pigs -but even they were as large as medium-sized dogs. They stared at me, I stared back. Had they decided to move at the last minute as I swerved into the other lane, we would have all been toast (with several slices of bacon.)
I had to stop my book on tape and catch my breath for a minute. I nearly crashed into four pigs. Only in rural Georgia.