The Road to Avonlea.

We visited our town in Nueva Ecija last week. Two of my sisters were with me, and our cousin Lorna and her hubby Abe was leading the way, in another vehicle.

Going to General Tinio (also known as Papaya), we took the NLEX and then the highway at the Pulilan exit.

We visited my Uncle Teriong, my father's only brother at Barrio Concepcion, and after a big lunch, we proceeded to see another relative.

Then, we headed to Lorna and Abe's farm, a 4-hectare property with lots of fruit-bearing trees. Their rest house is a lovely two-storey structure with beautiful furnishing and a spacious lanai/veranda. We feasted on freshly picked "suha," and went home with more suha and bayabas

Later, we went to our own farm which is located near Fort Magsaysay and drove to Cabanatuan to visit via the Fort.

This was the eve when typhoon Ramil was supposed to hit the North. At around 6 pm, we headed for Manila but traffic at that time was unbearable. It seems Cabanatuan City is the tricycle capital of the Philippines for hundreds of trike were darting in and out of the highway, competing with regular vehicles and the flying passenger buses of the North.

I exited at the first available sight of "To Manila." After that the nightmare started.

Rain started to pour with vengeance as I entered this dark highway. It was leading to Zaragosa in Nueva Ecija and then to Tarlac, and then to the new SCTEX.

My Ate mentioned this was the route they took from Cabanatuan to Manila the other time they travelled to Cabanatuan. It is a new highway and thus, less vehicles and you can go as fast as 120 - 140 km/h without any problem.

As I drove through the rain of Ramil in that dark, almost isolated highway, I remembered the years 2000 - 2002 when I stayed in Nueva Ecija and would drive late nights to Manila. I used to take the San Simon highway in Pampanga and then NLEX.

One such late night, San Simon got flooded as I was driving home and it was pitch black and my vehicle was a crappy jeep. I imagined a lady in white appearing in the middle of the darkness and ending sitting behind me. This weird imagining was actually a product of tales from the "barrio" in Nazareth where our farm is located.

It has been told time and time again by the barrio folks that a lady in white appears in a particular section of the long stretch of savana haunting travellers. Apparently, she'd been struck by a car and left to die in that lonely road.

Finally we reached STEX and then NLEX and then Monumento at nine-ish. It took almost three plus hours counting traffic time

The road to my Avonlea, I imagined would have been illumined by moonlit sky and graced by golden pond, and my Lady in White or Black waiting in anticipation for me.