My Hero
I got back into town late Thursday night-- and still managed to get to work on time on Friday. After work, Cory and I went to grab a bite to eat during his dinner break.
On the way back, we were zipping about 55 mph down Pine Island road, a divided highway with turning lanes on either side. I saw something large in the right turn lane, swerved to avoid it... and realized it was a turtle, attempting to cross six lanes of traffic.
I yelped something like "We have to rescue it!" So we pulled into the parking lot of the neighboring strip mall, leaped out of the car, and rushed to the road. The turtle was hauling ass-- or at least, she was moving pretty quickly for a turtle. She was in the middle of four lanes of rapidly moving traffic.
The poor thing would take two or three steps, hear another car coming, and hide inside her shell. Once the cars had passed, she'd poke her head out, shuffle a few more steps, then hide again when another car was coming. And it's a busy road, so her progress wasn't particularly quick.
She was a good-sized turtle, too-- more than a foot long, so thankfully she was fairly noticeable. As traffic zipped by, we saw one car barely miss her-- her shell actually rocked a little when the car blew past. A few others braked or changed lanes when they saw her.
When traffic finally cleared, we ran up and Cory grabbed her, ran across the median, across two more lanes of traffic, and set her down on the grass on the other side.
It was probably a good minute before she poked her head out of the shell, and she stared at us for a while, probably trying to decide if we were a threat or not. Cory snapped a quick picture of her, and I stood and wished I'd shot video of the rescue on my cell phone. After another 30 seconds or so of her staring at us, she started wading through the tall grass, quickly scooting away from us. Within about 10 seconds, she'd worked her way into some tall grass and we could barely see her at all.
I looked it up later and discovered that she was a Florida Red-Bellied Turtle. I told Cory that there's probably a society of turtles now who worship him as a god. I'm sure that they sing folk songs about him in turtle town.
On the way back, we were zipping about 55 mph down Pine Island road, a divided highway with turning lanes on either side. I saw something large in the right turn lane, swerved to avoid it... and realized it was a turtle, attempting to cross six lanes of traffic.
I yelped something like "We have to rescue it!" So we pulled into the parking lot of the neighboring strip mall, leaped out of the car, and rushed to the road. The turtle was hauling ass-- or at least, she was moving pretty quickly for a turtle. She was in the middle of four lanes of rapidly moving traffic.
The poor thing would take two or three steps, hear another car coming, and hide inside her shell. Once the cars had passed, she'd poke her head out, shuffle a few more steps, then hide again when another car was coming. And it's a busy road, so her progress wasn't particularly quick.
She was a good-sized turtle, too-- more than a foot long, so thankfully she was fairly noticeable. As traffic zipped by, we saw one car barely miss her-- her shell actually rocked a little when the car blew past. A few others braked or changed lanes when they saw her.
When traffic finally cleared, we ran up and Cory grabbed her, ran across the median, across two more lanes of traffic, and set her down on the grass on the other side.It was probably a good minute before she poked her head out of the shell, and she stared at us for a while, probably trying to decide if we were a threat or not. Cory snapped a quick picture of her, and I stood and wished I'd shot video of the rescue on my cell phone. After another 30 seconds or so of her staring at us, she started wading through the tall grass, quickly scooting away from us. Within about 10 seconds, she'd worked her way into some tall grass and we could barely see her at all.
I looked it up later and discovered that she was a Florida Red-Bellied Turtle. I told Cory that there's probably a society of turtles now who worship him as a god. I'm sure that they sing folk songs about him in turtle town.
Labels: Cory, the daily grind
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