. . . before your eyes?  Ever had one of those moments?  I did today.

I had harnessed up Kody and gone for a drive.  I noticed that someone was working with the backhoe, and to avoid the big machine, went over to the other side of the ranch to trot around there.

Now the two sides are divided by a four-lane road; and, to get from one to the other, you can go under the river bridge, or through the flood control tunnel under the road.  I chose the latter; it’s a simple pair of concrete boxes set at a slight angle from each other.  It’s a bad spot.  There have been several traffic fatalities there, as drivers miss the turn and end up smashed between the tunnels.

Anyway, I forgot all about the backhoe as we started back through the tunnels.  We were about halfway through the first one, when I heard the roar of the backhoe in the second.  That was when I had that flash.  I couldn’t turn around; the tunnel is barely wide enough for a pickup.  Frank the driver couldn’t see or hear us, because of the angle between the tunnels.  We were too far in to back up.  The only thing I could think of was to steer as far to the outside of the first tunnel as possible, so we would be seen sooner. 

Poor Kody was suddenly faced with a giant roaring machine, a few feet away, with nowhere to go.  He could have panicked and gone over backward, or tried to turn around and smashed us against the tunnel wall, or plunged through the barbed wire fence between the tunnels.  He didn’t; he hopped up and down, sidled, and half-reared, but stayed under control.  Luckily we had been seen, and Frank immediately went into reverse.  I urged Kody forward, and we “chased” the monster out of the tunnel.  Frank pulled over and shut it off.  Kody calmed right down, and we got past without incident.

He’s a good pony.

Earlier, Marion took some pictures of us.  Here we are walking by . . .

. . . and here picking up a little trot.

I’ll say it again:  Good pony, Kody!