When What to My Wondering Eyes . . .

Neil and I were driving down a North Carolina road on a sunny September day recently, passing a rickety pick-up truck filled with loosely tied bundles of dried tobacco, brown leaves flapping in the breeze, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a yellow school bus . . . pulling what?

Beside me sat a still tasty, cooling cup of Starbucks laced lightly only with half 'n half -- honest! No Irish whiskey or bourbon or whatever one might use to lace coffee. I was both awake and sober.

Turning to Neil, I queried, "Do you see what I see?"

A yellow school bus driving along a rural highway on a fall day should not be an unusual thing, but it looked as if this one was pulling a wagon filled to overflowing with recently picked tobacco.

A school bus -- hauling tobacco? No matter what the state, one would think pulling a load of tobacco behind your school bus would not be an acceptable thing to do.

Approaching the vehicle as it turned onto a side road, we realized what we really were seeing: a yellow school bus closed in behind the driver's seat with the entire roof of the former passenger section cut away to make the rest of the bus into a yellow truck bed.

Indeed, we did see a yellow school bus, appropriately altered, hauling tobacco. What will our wondering eyes see next??