56 Hours and 2400 Miles - Part IV - The Drama

All the 'drama' on the trip was confined to the roadway.  Luckily, our only involvement was the fact we had to make two long detours on and off the highway.

The first one occurred shortly as we left San Tan Valley and were on the other side of Phoenix, just leaving the city.  Up ahead were flashing lights and all the traffic was being routed off the highway onto the side road.

You can barely see it, but there is an overturned semi in the middle of the picture by the overhead sign pole.  The van you see there on the right is one of the TV stations, so we figured it was a pretty big story.  Once we got home I located the information.  The truck was carrying asphalt oil (300 degrees), so there was some haz-mat trucks in the mix as well.

I grumbled about having to detour all over Arizona it seemed like.  I had to take back all my mutterings about how this put about an hour extra on the trip, when I found out the driver was killed in the wreck.  

The second bit of drama occurred in the afternoon, once again forcing us off the highway and all over east wherever because we were really nowhere near a larger town with more exits.

First off, I have immense respect for firefighters and law enforcement.  They do what I couldn't/wouldn't/can't do.  There was one fire off to the side of the road they had apparently just gotten out.  Once again, here I am thinking, "Boy, am I inconvenienced" because we were in the middle of nowhere and it was a long detour to the nearest town where we could get back on the highway.  

And once again, I had to eat my thoughts because there was a second fire and it was right by the highway.  And the detour sent us right through the middle of this little town which was setting up for a harvest parade.  But then again, it is all about ME, isn't it?