I was driving home the this past Friday and a summer thunderstorm rolled through the area. It wasn’t a fierce storm.  It had its share of rain, lighting and thunder.  But it was sporadic. It was a welcome break from the heat and humidity the area had been experiencing the past few days.

I continued traveling east with the early evening sun behind me.  As I drove the country road, I looked up through the trees and noticed a glowing.   It appeared that the leaves were glowing green and blue and a bit of orange.  I couldn’t figure it out.  After a few more miles, the trees lining each side of the road  thinned out and I noticed where the glowing was originating.

I was actually glimpsing, through the leaves, a low hanging rainbow.  It was so low, it was just above the horizon.  And it was almost completely horizontal.

I’d never seen a rainbow like this before.  And I’d never seen one this low in the sky.

A Low Rainbow

I pulled to the side of the road.   I got out of my car and snapped a photo with my blackberry.  You can see the rainbow sitting above the valley.   But if you look closely, it just cuts through the tops of the trees on either side of the road.  So you can understand how, earlier up the road when I was at a higher elevation, the rainbow appeared low and almost in front of me.  It wasnt even above the trees. I’ve driven under a rainbow before, but never through one.

I mention all this because it’s times like these that end up, somehow, becoming a comic strip idea.  The idea doesn’t always come at the same time as the event.  But this is something I’ll file away in my memory bank.  Sometime soon, I’ll end up recounting the story to a friend or  thinking about it, and POP!  An idea will come out of the blue, inspired by this little event..

So, when you open your local paper and read George and that day’s strip it has to do with a rainbow, you’ll know where I got the idea.