Top Gun, the Chester County version

I encountered something on the ride home last night I have never seen - or heard - before.

And it has nothing to do with the fact that for the first time in 34 years, I was making the back end of the commute from Swarthmore (which is actually in Springfield) instead of Primos.

But as I rolled along Route 352 and West Chester Pike it looked I was driving directly into Armageddon. You just knew that as hot and humid as it had been, the storms that followed would be epic.

The sky grew increasingly dark as I kept driving, until it was nearly pitch black. That's when I realized I was still wearing my sunglasses. Taking them off only increased visibility a tad.

That's when it happened. It was bad enough that it looked like the sky was going to open up and consume my car, I suddenly hear a dull roar that seemed to be getting closer.

At first I thought it was thunder, but it kept getting louder. And louder. That's when I really started to think my time might be up, that maybe a meteorite or something was about to fall out of the sky and consume my car.

Just as the roar seemed right on top of me, I realized what it was - at about the same time I saw what gave every indication of some kind of military fighter jet zipping across the Chester County sky. There was just enough light dispersed through the clouds to make it out. But there was no mistaking that flight pattern. Small planes don't make that kind of noise. And big passenger planes don't do the kind of maneuvers this jet was doing, executing sharp turns and flying on its side.

Then, just as soon as it showed up and zipped back and fort across the sky a couple of times, it was gone.

Where did it go? Where did it come from? The Dover Air Force Base maybe? But what was it doing this far north? I thought maybe it was connected to the security for the Democratic National Committee, but it was just that one jet seemingly doing maneuvers on its own.

Anyone else see or hear that jet?

Please don't tell me I was hallucinating.

Maybe they're making a sequel to 'Top Gun' and didn't bother to tell anyone.

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