Lynn's Elephant
September 19, 2007
About three years ago, while traveling south along highway #1 (the Jefferson Davis Highway, by the way) my wife Lynn turns to me and says, "I just saw an elephant!" We were on Hwy #1 bypass, near the town of Vass, NC. I've seen various creatures along the roads before, but never an elephant. I've even seen some more exotic creatures from my car window, such as buffalo and ostriches. I've seen deer and coyote. I've seen bobcats and wild turkey. I've seen eagles and weasels, ground hogs and even hogs that are eventually turned into that delicious stuff called bacon. But I have never seen an elephant.
So the next time we happened to be traveling along that section of road, we made a point to look for Lynn's elephant. But we always seemed to miss it. Were we looking at the right spot? Had the elephant moved, or been taken away? Ever diligent, if we had daylight, we would look.
Then one beautiful day, with a blue sapphire sky and a brightly shining sun, we glanced out our window as we traveled south along highway #1. And lo and behold, there was Lynn's elephant! How could we have missed it before? It was huge! It was gigantic! It was mammoth! (pun intended). In fact, it kind of looked like a giant mammoth, with huge protruding tusks. We had doubted my wife, but the kids and I confirmed that there, in the dense brush just off the highway, there lived an elephant for all to see.
We wondered how many others had taken notice of this elephant during their daily travels. He is camouflage a bit, and if you're not looking for him you will miss him. But if you look, there he is! And given that this is a relatively new section of highway, there's no telling how long he's been there, waiting to be discovered. I tried snapping a picture of him once, as we zoomed by on our busy schedule. But when I looked at the image, all I saw were trees and bushes! Where was the elephant? He's always there if we look in the right spot. The next time we zipped past, I used the video feature of my digital camera to try to capture the pachyderm. He had become a favorite sight now, as we look for him every time. When I see him, I'll exclaim, "There's Lynn's elephant!" Of course the kids say, "Mommy's elephant." Oh, and the video? Well, he's there! The video (I've shot three now) is kind of shaky, and doesn't stay centered, but if you look carefully you'll see Lynn's elephant.
I've got the videos linked below. Let me know if you can see the elephant or not. I think the third one is the best. And if anyone spots Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster in the videos, I've got dibs on selling it to the media!.