Travelling Tumbler

There are few things that can make an adult feel as giddy as a kid. Cheering when your team rallies in late innings, seeing jets fly by at incredible speeds, and lightning and thunder creating Mother Earth's best fireworks show. I've got something else to add to that list: Seeing the Batmobile up close.

On Saturday four of us were driving from Medford down to Mt. Shasta for some skiing. We don't know the area incredibly well and got a bit turned around. We pulled off a few exits too early, realized it, then jumped back on the highway. A few hundred yards ahead of us we saw a semi hauling a long flatbed with something peculiar on the back. Four thick, huge tires and an exhaust pipe that looked like it belongs on a fighter jet.

"No. It can't be."

But it was and we knew it. The Batmobile was hitching a ride.

We started freaking out and speeding up. Everyone but Nick, who was driving, pulled out camera phones and started snapping pictures.

As we pulled up next to it, it was incredible. Like a tank made out of a hundred different pieces of armor. No doors. No headlights, obviously. No visible rocket launchers or machine guns, sadly.

It was a monster. And it was beautiful.

It was unbelievable, but it was real. The Warner Brothers logo was on the flatbed and on the truck cab.

As we passed the Batmobile (aka: The Tumbler) I looked up at the two men driving the truck. The driver (who looked like Survivor's Troyzan) and I made eye contact. Smiling from ear to ear, I gave him a thumbs up. And he gave one to me, too.

After the shock and glee started to fade we wondered was the Batmobile doing travelling South on I-5 in super Northern California? I had a theory that there were some pick-up scenes being in filmed in Vancouver where a lot of films and shows are produced. Turns out I was only a little bit right. It *was* in Vancouver, but as a feature in a Cancer fundraiser. What a great way to put an attraction with huge draw to use.

We joked that our day couldn't get any better. Skiing was pretty fantastic. But how often can you say that you saw the Batmobile? I'm still giddy just thinking about it.