Shit, Fire and Damnation

Back in August 2020, Mamaw asked me to take her to visit her sister Pete in Pennsylvania. It’s about a 9 hour drive from North Carolina to Pennsylvania, and nothing but mountain towns in between. My daughter, Anna, decided to join us, so one weekend we loaded up and went on our little adventure. We drove almost all the way straight through, only stopping for gas or food maybe once or twice. The entire time we spent talking, no radio. I have a good amount of passenger anxiety and for the first thirty minutes Mamaw drove. It was about 6am, dark and rainy. Mamaw kept saying “What’s that up there in front of us?” and I would say, “It’s a truck and a trailer Mamaw” while gripping the door handle and trying not to hyperventilate. She abruptly pulled to the side of the road and said something along the lines of letting me drive since I was being such a wimp. So, the other 8 and a half hours, I drove and we talked. She had traveled this road many times throughout her life, coming back and fort...