Deja Vu

Did you ever have a memory so foggy that you weren't sure if it was real?

Back when I was a child, my parents were the king and queen of day trips. The only real vacation we ever went on was our two week trip to my grandparents' house in Florida, so they would pepper the rest of the year with car trips to local historical sites and attractions. We visited the Johnstown Flood Museum, Fort Necessity, Gettysburg, and more state parks than I can remember.

On one such trip, I recalled driving across a long metal bridge so near to the water that even in my youth it frightened me. Through the years this bridge would appear in my dream, but no one but me ever seemed to remember it.

Then we moved here, to West Virginia.

Hoping to avoid traffic on the highway one day soon after we moved, I took a local road home. We were winding down the hills, and I could see the lake through the trees, but I had no idea where the road was heading. Then, right at the bottom of the hill the trees cleared and a bridge appeared perpendicular to the road.

I got the shivers, and every hair on my head was standing on edge. It was the bridge from my dreams, which weren't really dreams at all! The kids loved it, and every day beg to drive over the rusty bridge. We found out recently that it's going to be closed and removed sometime in the next year, so we do drive across it every chance we get. Even if it does still give me the chills.