Road 419

It was around 9pm on a hot summer's night. My brother and I set out on a short road trip to visit a friend, he lived in the back country of Washington state. My brother Stan drove an old 1978 green ford pickup, that surprisingly for its age was still in good shape and ran fairly well.

We hit the I-5 north bound and took the Cougar Rd exit. At night the road was darker then most other side roads that had street lamps, but it was summer, so it was just turning dusk as we began down the road. We happen to be talking about an old barn house where a night owl once lived. He was one of the biggest in the northwest, people would come from all around to see him. Taking photos as he perched in the old barn where he had lived, for 20 plus years. When the owner of the barn noticed the owl had made his barn his home, he put in a special upper window just for the owl to come and go at will. Farmers that lived around the area nearby would gather at the little country store, sit and drink coffee, and tell their stories of the great night owl that kept their fields rid of rodent's.

One time when i was out visiting our friend i went to the country store. I could hear the farmers talking about the night owl. one farmer exclaimed! man he must have a good wingspan of 15 to 20 feet, I recalled the farmers story telling my brother while we drove the winding road, it's been a good ten years now since the night owl disappeared, the folks in the area think he flew off and died some place.

Then what happen next shocked myself and my brother, while driving a straight spot of the road, my brother said quite shocked "what was that"? my reply, 'what?' I said, then he said, look out your window above us! to our amazement there was a large night owl flying right above the top of the truck, OMG, I said. Its wigs cover from one side of the truck to the other side. spanning a good 10 feet, gliding along with us, as if we were in a race, could this be the old night owl I was just talking about?

I watched the night owl flying along top of us, it felt like he was saying to me, I'm alive and well thank you! as if he had been listening to my stories of him or the one from the old barn. His beauty and grace were beyond anything I had ever seen, and his speed was amazing, we were clicking at 50 miles an hour, and this night owl was right in pace, only a half of a foot above the top of the truck I could see him very well through my side mirror.

he stuck with us for a good twenty minutes, we were approaching the old barn on the left of the road just down about 30 feet, my brother kept saying is he still with us? he had to watch the road. Not the Night owl, when I said okay Mr. owl your home! with a giggle, not thinking this was really that old night owl, then the old night owl looked at me, and it was like he winked say thanks for the company! and glided out from atop the truck headed to the barn,

My heart pumping with excitement I said, stan look it is him, it is, it the old night owl, he is still alive! and came home, wow what an exciting trip this little road trip has turned out to be.

This very night he chose to return home, and we escorted him atop the truck, now that's something to remember! what a privilege to have been his escorts on the last part of his journey. now I have a great story of the old legendary night owl from Washington state.

Yet even though I know owls have great vision, I often wonder if he used the old truck head lights to find his way down the long darn road, or if that old truck was somehow related to his life, and he thought he knew the driver, maybe he was raised by a human? now I'm going to further look into that theory, if it turns out there is more to this story, I will write it in a part two of the great old night owls return back to his perch where he still lives today.

THE END.