From Hornets to Bridges

My road trip last week in search of beautiful courthouses first took me southwest of my home 150 miles.  I was a little disappointed in the first specimen and the cloudless gray steel gray sky but I had had a nice drive and was looking forward to some real beauties coming up before the end of the day.  After stopping for 15 or so minutes I got back in Truck and off we went, heading north to where I knew we were going to hit the jackpot.  I got about five miles out of town and noticed that there was a yellow jacket - or a hornet - I'm not sure I know the difference; I just know I'm supposed to be deadly allergic to stings from these things and I carry an Epi-Pen with me - that was sitting on the dashboard.  I'm not the type to panic but I was a bit concerned.  Especially when he started flying around all over the cab.  He finally landed over by the passenger window about the time I hit an area that had an adequate shoulder that allowed me to pull over.  I don't have automatic windows in my truck (that's the last time I make that mistake!) so I had to get out, take the key, go over to the passenger door, unlock it, all the while hoping this critter would fly right out and find some friends that were a lot smaller than me.  No such luck.   He flew right over to the driver's window.  So back I go, open the driver's door, and the sucker has vanished.  I mean evaporated into thin air.  I opened the driver's rear door, moved everything around in the back seat hoping to flush him out.  Nothing.  Back to the passenger side.  Front door, back door, no buzzing bugger.  Knowing I couldn't just sit on the side of the road for the rest of the day there was no choice but to get back in and head out.  I drove with my window down for about five miles and decided that wasn't going to work, so I started looking for another place to pull over.  I finally took a right on a county road because there was virtually no shoulder in this area and I was uncertain of the surface of the ground I'd be pulling onto if I just got off the pavement.  I drove down this little road a piece, and look what I found!

A little one-lane truss bridge over the beautiful Navasota River!

I never found the hornet.  Maybe he got sucked into the air conditioning vent and suffered a death by Freon.  Maybe he's still wandering around in there somewhere.  I never saw him again but I silently thanked him for being the cause of making me go down this little traveled road!