by Mike Walsh

Created on: September 30, 2010

Chasing the Rainbow
 
I was on my third trip to Florida from Arizona. I have and will spend one 
week a month living on my boat docked in a slip at the Holiday Inn Marina in 
Indian Rocks Beach. I felt I needed a car there to not be bothering my 
son-in-law and his wife from driving me around when there. I had a 2001 Jeep  Cherokee with very low mileage and thought that vehicle would be perfect for  the drive to Florida and to stay there for my use.

 
My stepdaughter and her family were at my home in Tucson the night before I 
planned to leave. I mentioned I was leaving the next morning for Florida and 
Ronna, my stepdaughter, piped up; I want to go! Well, I didn't take her 
seriously but she and her husband Fritz got on the computer to see what 
flights back she could take. I already had my reservations to come back a 
Tuesday. Well, after a lot of bickering and trying to figure out the 
reservation system, they confirmed a reservation for her to come back the 
earlier Sunday. She was locked in. I was ecstatic.

 I was very concerned  about driving alone and this was the answer to that. But I was leaving the  next morning. No problem, they left to go home to Tempe, a hundred miles away and Ronna took a shuttle back to Tucson the next morning where I picked  her up at the station and off we went.
 
The only stipulation was that Ronna got to see new Orleans. Not a problem. 
Interstate 10 went right through the heart of new Orleans six blocks from 
the French Quarter. However, that was not the height of the trip. It was 
west Texas. The longest drive imaginable. A whole day. But what a day.
 
The clouds formed, the rain splattered on the windshield and we thought a 
huge storm would engulf us. Not to happen. The big gorilla that was all talk.
 
 Then, a beautiful huge rainbow appeared from the left of the road to the right 
of the road in the distance. Where was our cameras? Packed, of course. As we got closer the rainbow got larger and veered to the left with us heading 
right for the right attachment to the ground; right where the chest of gold 
should be. We were so mesmerized we did not at first realize we were going 
to drive right through it. And we did. It was an experience one in a billion may have  had. We drove, Ronna was driving, right into the rainbow, brilliant colors 
encircling us, unbelievable, I can't even describe the colors surrounding 
us.
 
It was a fairyland. A Disney moment, an out of body moment, an orgasm of 
color not ever seen and probably never to be seen again. That is the chest 
of gold at the end of the rainbow.

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