25 years ago. My wife and I and our 7 year old daughter are driving to California to visit her family for the Christmas Holidays. We are in a baby blue 65 Falcon with the right rear suspension springs broken so I have a block of oak wired under the axle to keep that part of the car up. We are about 10 miles east of Flagstaff when the weather closes in and there's fog and heavy snow. As you can imagine, we're in the wrong car in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The road conditions are deteriorating. Getting really snowy and slippery. The temperature isn't cold enough to make the big heavy flakes fly past the wind shield. They stick and clump and the wipers are (of course) crappy and slow so I can't see clearly into the increasing snow.
My wife checks the road atlas and finds a turn south toward Phoenix if we can only make it to Flagstaff.
I slow down. The snow is coming thicker and I can barely see ahead. A semi blasts by leaving us in its sloppy, icy wake and my worn out wipers are doing a crappy job cleaning the windshield. I watch the edge of the road and I try to keep a steady pace and stay on the road. I begin to worry about what I've brought my family to. I made a bad decision to go this route at this time of year, We're in a rear wheel drive car that's marginally capable of handling this kind of situation. Lights are coming behind us. Cars and trucks continue to blow past as I try to see ahead and negotiate the snowy highway and visibility continues to worsen. The defroster in this car is a pipsqueak and the windshield is beginning to fog up. I look over at my wife. She is focused ahead but glances over at me. Her eyes tell me she is feeling the same thing I am feeling. One little miscue...one little slip and we're off the road, into the ditch and suddenly into a situation I never planned for and certainly do not have support for. This was before cell phones, and all the clothes we packed were for California. There wasn't a blanket in the car.
Believe me, in those moments I was the most vulnerable I have ever felt.
Then Cathy says "Look!"
I take my eyes off the road I'm trying to stay focused on and look out the right window at what she is excitedly pointing at. It is a majestic bald eagle. Flying beside the falcon. Right outside the car. Amazing! If we rolled down Cathy's window we could almost have touched it. It was keeping pace with us, looking straight ahead. As if to say "Follow me".
I immediately felt at peace. As if there was nothing to worry about. That beautiful eagle led the way up the last few miles through that snow storm until we reached the flagstaff turnoff. There were trucks pulled off all over the place. I don't remember when the eagle left us, but I do remember the gratefulness I felt when we reached the turn south and began descending off the mountain toward Phoenix and warmer weather. When the snow turned to rain and there was no longer ice and snow on the road, I finally relaxed and breathed a long sigh of relief.
To this day I wonder why that eagle came to us when it did. I don't think there was anything mystical about it, but I appreciate the circumstance that brought it to me when I needed it.
