Joe and I have always been night owls. One of the things we like to do together when the rest of the world sleeps is go for a drive. It's quiet and dark, and the lights from homes and businesses twinkle all around us in the surrounding hills. It's like driving through fields of stars.

A few weeks ago, we went for a night drive, expecting to see what we usually see... cool new stores we didn't know about, interesting passes that lead us to other cities, new routes home. Instead, after a few various turns, we found ourselves driving through the woodsy suburbs of a town we weren't too familiar with.

We drove over dark hills and around silent bends, feeling a little lost and out of place. Should we head back?, we wondered.

Suddenly, Joe slowed down, and before I could ask what was wrong, the car came to a stop, and he flipped on the brights. I gasped. Directly in front of our car was a massive and beautiful buck, standing directly in the center of the road. He didn't even glance at us. He strolled slowly across the lanes, as he'd been doing before we showed up, clearly unfazed by our presence. "Wow," I whispered, watching him move.

Then, as the buck moseyed on behind someone's yard shrubs, I saw a little head pop up! "Another one!" I shouted, pointing (because pointing and shouting is exactly what you want to do when watching sensitive wildlife...). As we slowly started driving again, we saw the two deer standing together quietly, nearly hidden behind the leafy plants.

Joe and I laughed and talked about how amazing that was, that we hadn't expected to see anything like that!

We drove around a few more bends, then attempted to remember the combination of turns that would lead us back towards home. We were incredibly lost, unable to recognize roads or remember where we'd turned.

"Meg, look!" Joe said, and off to the side of the road, another deer stood, so still and statuesque, eyes glowing in our headlights.

"Wow, this is awesome!" I said with amazement. Though, we both agreed by this point, we were feeling more than a little nervous that one of those mammoth animals might dart in front of our moving car. A few moments later, I saw something twinkle near the ground, and I knew it must be a pair of eyes! "Joe, look out!" I said, and he quickly slowed down and flipped on the brights again.

About twenty feet in front of us, a little animal scampered across the road. "An opossum!" I said. "Wow! I haven't seen one of those alive in the wild since I released my little guys!" (A story for another time, perhaps!)

By this point, Joe was ready to be closer to home. I was having the time of my life animal-watching, but Joe was understandably very nervous about hitting something.

A few turns later, we were driving down a long, more brightly lit road, and there were various stores on either side of us, many of which we hadn't seen before. There were a few more cars on the road with us, and it appeared that we were getting back into civilization and out of Sherwood Forest. "See," said Joe. "This is what I was expecting when we went out tonight..."

I laughed. "Instead of all the wild animals?"

"That was a little scary," he said.

I think I might have felt the same if I'd been the one driving. Instead, I just said, "That was awesome."

"Did you enjoy our animal drive tonight?" asked Joe.

"Yeah!" I said.

"Are you going to write about this on your website?" he asked.

My sweet husband... He knows me so well!