It's been over two months now since our car broke down on the interstate highway while driving home from work, leaving us stranded and vulnerable in the HOV lane, hoping that the next car coming down the road doesn't hit and kill us.

We still experience anxiety driving that stretch of highway.  We don't look at that road the same way anymore.  It was originally designed as a 5-lane highway, but several years ago, they added a sixth HOV lane by narrowing the other five lanes and taking up the shoulder on both sides of the road.  Now, it's six-cars-wide of heavy traffic, spaced only about two car lengths back from one another, and all speeding along at well over 70 mph, except for a few who insist on going slower, causing the other cars to weave in and out of lanes trying to pass and get around them.  It's a perfect situation for an accident and they occur frequently, and when it does happen, there's no room to pull over and everything then backs up for miles.

That was exactly what must have happened this morning, as the radio announced that an accident on I-85 had all lanes of traffic blocked, and it wasn't expected to reopen again until after 9:30 a.m.  As a result, we worked from home this morning, and drove in during lunch after the road had cleared.

Driving home, we passed the spot where we had broken down last February, noting it grimly as we zipped by as we always do now whenever we pass that spot. A few miles later, we saw a lot of red tail lights lit up in front of us and as we slowed down and got closer, we saw the flashing lights of the same emergency response truck that had rescued us.  Once again, just like it had for us, the truck was over in the HOV lane, stopping traffic so the poor driver/victim could get across to the right and to relative safety.  Once that was done, the traffic moved once again, and as we passed, we took a sympathetic look at the vehicle to our right.  "Dude, we've been there," we thought.  While having to come to a stop on the drive home might once have annoyed us, now it's an exercise in empathy.  

We're really lost confidence about driving that stretch of road.  It now looks mean and unforgiving  to us and we dread having to take it twice a day, but there's really no other practical route.  All the more reason to look forward to retirement.