This is a great post submitted by Ms. Politico. Thank you for sharing!
Tybee Island is a beautiful little island about 20 minutes from Savannah Georgia. My family would visit Tybee fairly often throughout my high school years to see family, and it is still one of my favorite places to visit today.
If you’ve ever been to Tybee, you know there is one road that takes you out to the island from Savannah. For a large part of that drive, it’s just a two lane highway. It’s a fun little trip as you’re surrounded by marsh and ocean on both sides as you make your way out to the island. If you’re a nature lover, it’s definitely a scene you can appreciate.
One time while my family was staying at a beach house out on Tybee, my sister and I had to run some errands and get some supplies. There weren’t a lot of shopping options on Tybee at the time, so we headed to the nearest Wal-Mart on a nearby island. However, we left during a fairly substantial rainstorm. I don’t think either of us thought anything of it, at least not at first.
After leaving the beach house, we made a couple of turns and were again on the main road that would take us back toward the city. Little did we know that not only would we be driving with the rainstorm, in the dark, but also during high tide. That wouldn’t normally seem like too big of a deal, except the road to Tybee Island was actually quite low in some areas…as in when it was high tide, the water would be just a little bit below the level of the road ( or so it seemed). The result was the scariest ride of my life.
My sister was driving and I was the passenger. We were making our way slowly down the main road, but the rain was coming down extremely hard. Suddenly, I heard my sister exclaim, ” I can’t see anything! I can’t even see the road!”. Not exactly what you want to hear as a passenger. I was looking out the windows of the car, basically just trying to find the edge so I could help direct her to at least stay on the road. Unfortunately, I didn’t see road. I literally just saw water.
This is when my heart began to beat a little faster. I couldn’t believe it. There was seriously NO ROAD! Did I mention that my sister drove a small, extremely lightweight vehicle that could easily have been washed away? I was, to say the least, nervous. After a little while of driving in horrible conditions, we came upon a clearing, where you could just make out the ocean in the moonlight that had crept in, except the ocean didn’t stop at the road, it overran the road! We were actually driving IN the ocean!
Driving through ocean. Ain’t no thang.
At any moment, it seemed like we would just float out to sea. My mind start going a mile a minute. My survival skills were kicking into gear. If we do get washed away, at what point do we try to open the car doors? We wait until the car fills with water then do it, right? Or is it better to just jump out of the car? Somehow, while I was planning our escape, my sister managed to navigate the road, or lack thereof, and get us to higher ground.
I couldn’t believe it! We made it! I still don’t know how she did it, but props to my sister for keeping us alive. Needless to say, we made it to our destination, the rain died down, and it was a MUCH better trip on the way back to the beach house.
It was bizarre, scary, and one of the coolest experiences at the same time. I mean, who else can say they’ve driven in the ocean?
