I like to keep my eyes open when I drive.  It helps get me from point A to point B safely.

At least that is the hope.

Recently I have found myself beginning to look out for the extraordinary when I drive and trust me – it’s out there.

I had quipped to my mom on Thursday that my drive to Ohio had been uneventful.  Actually I might have said it was even somewhat boring.   And that was my mistake.

Don’t worry – I didn’t have an accident.  However I did see some extraordinary things on the way home to North Carolina.

As I was driving down I 77 in West Virginia at the posted speed of 70 miles per hour I noticed the car in front of me suddenly brake.  So I braked.  Fortunately my Subaru Outback has great brakes and I know that because I tested them the week before when a doe and her baby fawn leapt out in front of me while I was driving down route 276 into Brevard.  I missed that fawn by a mere 6 inches.  Talk about a heart stopper.

But I digress.

As I braked other cars around me braked as well and about 5 cars that were behind me pulled off on the berm of the road to avoid hitting me and each other.  I sat there and waited for a minute and saw a small brown dog poke his way along the berm in front of the string of cars.  Ah ha–that was the problem.

I got ready for the car in front of me to move and it didn’t so we sat a little longer and I saw a black pot belly pig saunter out from in front of the car in front of me and join the dog on the berm.  Now that is not something you see every day on the interstate.  The car in front of me started up and pulled off to the side of the road .  I saw the driver get out and go towards the animals and I suspect she was going to try to keep them safe somehow.  I decided that with at least 5 cars pulled off my help was not needed so I cautiously went on my way.

While I did not get a picture of the pig this was pretty much what he looked like.  Just walking down a busy interstate in the middle of the day.  I suspect he and the dog were buddies and they broke out of their fence somewhere but honestly — it was not what I expected to see.

Extraordinary?  I think so.

A little farther down the road there was another slow down and while cars weren’t slamming on their brakes there were plenty of brake lights so I proceeded cautiously.

As I passed through the slow down area I saw a group of 8 large white ducks hanging out in the median looking like they wanted to cross.

They looked similar to the ones above but were bigger in size and were just hanging out together.

Odd?  I think so.

The rest of drive home was very uneventful compared to this part, thank goodness.

I mean honestly- what was going to come next?

Have you ever seen anything truly out of place in your travels?  Fill me in on that in the comments and remember that each comment means a $1 donation to UMCOR for Hurricane Irma Relief.