An early morning wakeup got us out of the door and on our way to catch the first of two flights. It was morning, but there was still three hours or more of darkness left in the sky. The first flight was a short two hour flight from Orlando, Florida to Washington, DC. The second flight would be seven times longer than that. There was only one hour and ten minutes between connecting flights, so any delay would domino into a series of major travel setbacks on the destination end of this trip. We gave ourselves a comfortable two-hour cushion to catch the first airplane.

While driving south on Interstate Highway 95, we were talking about how the 14-hour flight would not seem too bad if we compared it to our customary 26-hour sail from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas. Jill had just said, "At least we don't have to be awake to watch for other traffic during this trip", when the brake lights of the long-haul truck ahead of us suddenly glowed brightly. I quickly summoned the Jeep’s brakes. Through the early morning darkness I could see a cloud of dust in the median ahead to my left. Everything on the highway came to a complete stop. I stopped the Jeep a few yards behind the huge truck ahead, which had fishtailed on the roadway to avoid becoming part the calamity on the dark road ahead.

The calamity was caused by two large eighteen-wheel cargo haulers hitting each other at very high speeds. I can only speculate that one or both of the drivers fell asleep after driving all night. The result was a lot of debris strewn all across the highway, the right lane blocked by a smashed transfer truck and the left median littered with the bent trailer and cab of the other freight carrier.

Just like that, the two-hour cushion we had given ourselves to catch the first flight didn't seem to be enough. The truck ahead of us moved to the edge of the highway. Its driver got out to help. Lights of emergency vehicles were already approaching from the opposite direction. There was a slim opening amongst the debris. In my judgment there was just enough room for the jeep to squeeze by and gain access to the empty highway ahead. A crowd of drivers gathered around the two hapless truck cabs as I maneuvered the Jeep past the scene. We gingerly missed unrecognizable cargo lying in the left lane and broke free of the fiasco just as a police car pulled across the median and blocked the lane behind us. If I would have waited another minute to make my move through the wreckage, I am sure we would have missed our flights; both of them. I said a silent prayer for the two truck drivers, and then pressed down on the gas pedal to take advantage of the empty highway ahead of us.

We still had our two hour cushion after we went through airport security.

We had time to have a little breakfast, the first of many meals that would be a big part of the next two weeks.