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There was only one way to solve my question. It was to humble my pride, be very direct and very quick and ask this old man smoking a cigarette and wearing an ancient baseball cap whether or not thunderstorms tend to hang over the 15 or not.

"So that storm up there, that's where I'm headed. Hey do you have any idea what the weather's like up at the junction of 70 and 15? I know it's not a town or anything, but that's where I'm going."

"Well son, the only thing I can say is that they move fast. Build up quick in the afternoon, don't usually stay in one place. And it's late a'ready, they should be settling down. See if the weather's on and what they're sayin'. Should tell you somethin'.

The TV was showing some reality show through the graffiti scratched windows of the truck stop. I went inside and asked the cashier for his opinion. "The weather program should be on in a couple minutes now."

"You got a restroom?"

Five minutes later the "weather" was still not on. Some blond was swaying over a microphone in the noisy TV broadcast. This is useless. I'm wasting time. I should get out of here.

But I was sore and tired. I was strongly tempted, though I don't smoke, to buy a pack of cigarettes and join the laconic local in the baseball cap and bring up the price of milk and corn and forget about being on the road for a while.

Instead I unraveled my rain pants from my gigantic pack and began to struggle them on. The local eyed my preparations. "Watch out for them highway patrol, they hide on those overpasses. Was ridin' a Harley down through here back in the day, got nailed pretty quick right out here. Keep an eye out."

I really could care less about the Utah highway patrol. I wanted to know something about those lightning flashes arcing across the sky, far to the north. The darkness was warm and oppressive, a feeling I knew well and dreaded. I looked around. The TV was still blaring some music show. The truck stop was dead. The old timer puffed on his cigarette. There was nothing to do but leave and face the imminent unknown of what it was like to be on interstate 15 in the middle of the night in the middle of a thunderstorm...