Wild Ride Home

Last night, on my way home from choir practice, I had to use my best driving skills. Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit (a lot) but it was a wild ride home.
First off, we live about 9 miles away from SHAPE, not a big deal in Nebraska, but it seems to be here. The roads that we travel are considered farm roads here. They are all paved, with the exception of the Roman road, but they aren't gravel. They aren't even that bad of roads, a few pot holes, but not horrible. What they are though, is narrow. Very narrow in American standards, but if you're driving two tiny European cars, I guess they're accommodating.
After you leave the small housing area from SHAPE, the road does not have a speed limit as far as I can tell. There is not speed limit sign one way or the other. I've driven with both kinds of  Belgians and Shapians on those back roads. Those that think, "Hell yeah, I'm on the autobahn!" or "There's no center line, I better drive at a escargot's pace." Both irritate me, but one more than the other. Last night was the escargot that I got behind that I was unable to pass because they were in the middle of the narrow road. Then we got stuck at the railroad crossing.
Generally, the trains come and go pretty quickly, and I'm very happy that Belgium is so diligent with their crossing bars. We haven't been on a road yet that hasn't had them. So, now I'm stuck behind the sloth car at the crossing. We waited at the crossing for much longer than usual, I don't know what the hold up was, but we were there about 10 minutes.
The slow car goes ahead and we're the only two cars at the stop. I let her go for a bit before I put the car in drive and go myself. At this point, I see a nasty rat scuttle into the road to grab some grain of something that was in the street. A rat! This is the third rat that I've seen on the road or cross the road in the rain, the second at night and I have to say, they're a bit grosser at night. My inner redneck came out suddenly and jerked the wheel to try and hit the little varmit. I missed, which is probably a good thing. I wouldn't have liked the effects of hitting it, I'm sure. Blech! Little, nasty animal number one lives.
At this point, probably at seeing my lights jerk around in their rearview mirror, the escargot driver pulled over and let me pass. Excellent, now I had the command of the road on the straightest, most well cared for part of the road. Moving right along I saw something dart into the street from the left side. It was one of the giant Belgian hares shooting out of the field. There was no way I wanted to hit this giant bunny. I applied the breaks carefully so I didn't Tokoyo Drift into the ditch and the hare did a quick stop and double take before deciding to go back the way it came from. Animal number two could live another day.
My heart was racing after that. I took our tried and true little farm cut road home since it's potholes are the most well known to the little Prius and started the second leg of my journey.
I was singing to my American Graffitti CD and driving at a respectable 70KPH when I come into the little town before mine. Thank goodness I had slowed down because there was a cyclist riding in the street. 2130 at night, a rainy night, dark, wet street and there's a cyclist with a tiny little bike light on the rear under his seat. No reflective gear on and no helmet. This is typical in what I'm becoming to realize is the Belgian live each day to the fullest attitude. Missed him, animal number three lives another day.
Good grief, just get me home. Not even the Peppermint Twist was going to get me to speed back up on the way home, it just wasn't worth it. I did make it home without maiming, injuring or killing any animals, but it felt like that kind of night when I shouldn't even get in the house and try anything remotely dangerous. Dishes stayed in the sink, I could have gotten burned by our abnormally hot water. Clothes didn't get washed, I could have slammed my hand in the door or tripped down the stairs. No shower, I could have fallen and broken something.
I managed to safely change, brush my teeth, wash my face and climb into bed with my book without incident. Safe and sound. Animal number four lives another day.