The Turtle, Uber Senior Citizen

        About a year ago, I came upon what at first appeared to be an accident. At a bridge repair with a stoplight, a large pickup truck was stopped with the front end slanted just over the center line. I stopped quite a way back as the light was red. Oncoming cars had to move to the edge of the road to get around the pickup. The light turned green, but the vehicle didn't move. I stayed where I was, speculating about an accident. 

        Just as the last oncoming car passed, the pickup moved in a large arc so that both of its left wheels were on the center line, but moved no further when the light turned green. Then I saw the biggest turtle I've seen "in these parts", nearly as big as my tire, although agreeably a Prius tire isn't all that big. The pickup moved slowly forward and stopped, and I thought the driver finally determined the turtle to be dead. "Big T" was flat to the road, and his head, feet and tail were out of his shell. 

        I pulled up close to the pickup, but near the outside of the road, and the car behind me, seeing the turtle, stopped. As I looked down at the turtle, I saw no gore, and pulled up so that the turtle was a few feet behind my car. The car behind me was about two lengths away. The light turned green, the pickup stayed, and my stopped car went to energy mode, running silent on electric. That was when the turtle became wild and crazy (for a turtle). His head stretched out, he rose on his feet and (very slowly) finished crossing the road between my car and the car behind me. 

        After another green light, then red, then green, the pickup slowly pulled ahead across the bridge and I followed, watching the rear-view mirror. The turtle disappeared into the roadside weeds, having lived another day.