I’m not a big fan of the sun so I prefer to drive my MX-5 with the top down in the mornings or later in the afternoon or especially late at night. Both my brother and mother had skin cancer and were sun lovers, so I cover up, wear hats, and lather myself up with suntan lotion of SPF of about 900+. I’m not a morning person anyway. I’m definitely a night owl.
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I’ve been going on midnight drives most of my life and I see some pretty amazing things on the darker, windy woodland roads. The MX-5 has made this ritual of mine so much more interesting because the convertible top really allows you to feel like you’re much more of a part nature instead of just passing through.
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First off: if you drive slowly with the top down and the music turned off you will hear all the wonderful sounds of frogs, insects, and animals of the night. It’s so calming (well at least to me anyway).
Second: you’ll see deer (often with one or two fawns), raccoons, turtles, bats, barn owls, snakes, rabbits, fox, possums, Luna Moths, and many other critters.
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The best things are the unusual. One night I was surrounded by a zillion fireflies on a back road. Beautiful and awe inspiring. Simply had to stop and watch for a bit.
Another time I stopped to watch 3 huge bullfrogs hopping across the road happily at 12:30am. They really made me laugh hopping along single file!
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My best sighting so far though was one night not long ago after midnight.
In my headlights I saw a rat running along the side of the road so I slowed down to a crawl and was watching when it decided to cross the road. Not all that unusual really until a beautiful huge owl swooped down grabbed the rat in its talons, looked at me for a moment and flew silently away. It was awesome and the lighting my headlights provided made me feel like I was caught in one of those National Geographic or Discovery Channel specials on The Nocturnal Habits of Owls. It was so captivating it seemed like slow motion. I think it was a great horned owl from the Audubon book I looked in.
Wish I had a video camera on the hood of my car that night!
Love my car,
Laura
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