Driving at Sunset

The winding down

Somehow the end of 2022 is right around the corner. This calendar year marked a big change in our lives, we are officially empty nesters.

Our fourth child has successfully moved out of the house, has a nice lucrative job, and is on his own. We have been fortunate that our children, all 4 of them, have made this transition into big kid life and it has been a real privilege to watch them grow.

Traveling

Living with myopic macular degeneration is not going to stop our plans with this new title of "Empty Nesters". Being of an age where future plans need to fit into our healthcare schedules, our trip was planned in between retinal specialist appointments and dental and general well-care visits.

We live in the midwest and often travel to visit family, especially over the holidays. Most of these travels involve visiting the before mentioned children as they have scattered far from our home.

This is easy enough as we are retired people, day travel works the best so that I can share the driving with my husband. The long miles on the highways are easier when shared.

Our latest trip

Trying to visit all the kids on any given occasion gets complicated as they have complicated lives themselves. It was recently that we planned to visit our daughter, her husband, and our 3 grandchildren for a weekend.

Two of the 3 boys were joining us for this visit and it was a great time. As most visits go, it was over very quickly, and back to our reality, we went.

The drive home

The drive back home was long, we added an extra stop on our trip making the day even longer. On this particular trip, we stopped midway for a bite to eat and I was up for driving the next leg home.

It was a bit later in the day, a pretty clear day and sunshine all the way. About thirty minutes into my driving I started to get a bit uneasy. The sun was setting, hanging low in the sky.

Getting worried

I already had my “over the glasses” sunglasses on but I started to get nervous. I could feel myself squinting more and more, trying to really see clearly on this busy highway that we were on.

Then it happened: the sun hit the spot on the horizon, the spot that completely obliterated all vision for me. I was freaking out. All I saw was a blinding whiteout.

At this point, I quickly let my husband know I could not see much, found the next exit, and immediately pulled on to it. We switched drivers and continued on our way.

The lesson

After I settled down a bit, we had a serious discussion about this situation. I know that I cannot do that again. Admitting that I cannot do something is hard but being safe is so much more. Sometimes life lessons can be scary for sure.