So I'm heading down the Oregon Coast today, and stop for a pee. I get out and hear this strange otherworldly moaning sound in the wind. I look down the cliff and see hundreds, and quite possibly thousands of sea lions on the beach and in the ocean, all barking in unison. (first pic) Very strange. Each one of those tiny black dots is a sea lion.
I carry on down the highway, and as it gets increasingly desolate, the weather deteriorates and the gusts of wind and rain get increasingly stronger. I consider heading inland away from the coast, and talk to some truckers who tell me to stay on the coast, because there will be "too many trees down" inland.
Ahead the sky is now almost black (about twice as dark as in the third pic). I turn a corner, and I'm suddenly in a dark rainstorm of a kind I have never experienced before. The car is violently shaken from side to side by gusts of wind carrying enormous amounts of water...almost like slabs of solid water that were pummeling the car and felt like some huge fist pounding the car. I couldn't tell whether the water was from the sea or the sky or both. I could see nothing and had to stop in the middle of the road. The wipers were on full but I could see nothing. Just pitch black and solid sheets of water. There was no place to pull over. Nothing to do. No idea what the other traffic was doing.
All the while the car is being pummeled so badly by these slabs of water, that it is actually moving several feet in each direction from the gusts. The whole thing lasted no more than 3 or 4 minutes but felt like an eternity. I can't remember the last time I felt that frightened and completely helpless. The whole thing ended just as quickly as it came...the cloud just moved on down the coast.
A truly strange experience.
Anyone ever been in anything like this??
Tonight I can't help but think the seals were trying to warn me off this crazy storm—which they already knew was coming...
