May 22 - Fort Laurens

We decided to drive north on America's Byway. Our next stop was Fort Laurens in Bolivar. Although the rain had stopped in Zoar, it must have moved north, because it was starting to get darker here. We went out anyway, and walked to the bridge over I-77. As the skies grew ever more threatening, I began to plan our escape route. I didn't want to go back to the car, because I wanted to look around a bit on the other side of the bridge. I decided that if it started to rain, we could run across the bridge and go down the embankment, allowing us to find shelter underneath the bridge. As it turned out, the skies were not bluffing It began to rain quite heavily. I was on the east side of the bridge, and I yelled to Kay, who was on the east side of the bridge, just snapping away with her camera, catching images of dark storm clouds. Kay came running towards me with all her heavy gear. We went down the side of the hill and under the bridge, where we waited out the downpour. We looked like a couple of drowned rats. I'd had time to shove my camera into my fanny pack, but Kay's gear was just too extensive to stash. She found a poncho while we were under the bridge and covered her cameras. When the rain had mostly subsided, we worked our way back to the car.