Attack of the Owls

The inspiration for my ACEO post this week comes from a road trip a couple years ago: A couple of my friends and I set off on a road trip from Southern California heading to Penticton, British Columbia.  The purpose, aside from an excuse to a road trip, was to ride in the Prospera Gran Fondo in Penticton which is organized by Axel Merckx. See more at https://www.facebook.com/gfaxelmerckx   Axel is a retired professional bicycle racer who's quest in life it to promote cycling in the youth of Canada and the USA.  He is also the son of the great Eddy Merckx.  And in addition to an absolutely gorgeous ride, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to ride with Eddie and Axel - well not with, but far behind :-)

Me with Axel and Eddy

But now I'm getting side tracked.  My inspiration came from the journey to Canada.  My friends and I decided to leave So Cal early on the 4th of July and drive to Pendleton, OR, all in one day.  It was a fabulous drive from which I'm sure there will be more paintings.  We traveled through wonderful little towns where people were celebrating the nations birthday with parades and festivals.  We took tons of photos. 

We made it to south eastern Oregon by dusk and turned onto Highway 78. The road runs along a plateau with open fields on either side.  As it because dark it seemed like the darkness around us began to come alive.  There were white blurs in the air as well as on the ground.  We slowly began to realize that we were driving through the middle of a feeding frenzy.  Both the prey - jack rabbits, and the hunters - snowy barn owls, seemed oblivious to our SUV speeding along.  It was surreal.  It felt like living through a video game.  I could do nothing but white knuckle the steering wheel and stay on the road as rabbits ran into my vehicle and owls swooped into it.  The most terrifying was the huge bird who flew straight into my windshield with a horrifying thud. And of course there was the sickening sounds of the rabbits who ran into our path.  This continued for almost 2 hours.   After the trip we discovered that AAA actually has a travel advisory posted for this stretch of road after dark.  That probably explains why we only saw one other car on the road. 

So My ACEOs this week are a tribute to the poor owls who committed suicide on my windshield and the bunnies who ran under my wheels.