Caught Between a Cow and .... WATCH OUT!

3 October 2013. On Monday Peggy and I were driving back from Managua to León after a day in classes with the Dordt College students.  Two Nicaraguan passengers were in the car with us. We were going up a long and winding grade on the two-lane road.  Ahead was a tractor trailer rig going about 65 kph, slow but not crawling as is often the case.  Behind us was another tractor trailer rig who clearly wanted to go much faster than 65.  I was sure of that because I could read his Honduran license plate in my rear view mirror.

As our tight little pack came around a blind curve I instantly knew there was going to be trouble.  A cow was walking into our lane from the right shoulder.  The truck ahead of me braked quickly and pulled to the left.  I braked and looked in my rear view mirror.  Clearly I was not going to hit the cow, but it wasn’t clear that the massive truck behind wouldn’t roll right over us.  In the mirror I saw billows of smoke coming up from his tractor tires as he braked really hard and veered to the left.  WE were the biggest obstacle in his path.  I saw an opening -- I accelerated and jerked to the right, escaping onto the shoulder.  Thank God there was a safe shoulder right there, because more often than not there isn’t on these roads.  The truck in front continued on.  We zipped around the cow and back onto the road without even stopping.  The tractor trailer behind us had the most difficulty of all recovering from his evasive maneuver and still dealing with the cow who continued in his direction.  Well, we all survived – even the cow. As soon as the road and traffic allowed I passed the slow truck ahead of us and sped on, hoping to never see that Honduran plate in the rear-view again.

Gracias a Dios.