The mythical “end of the rainbow” was found Friday afternoon in North Carolina, near the town of Thomasville.
Video of the elusive spot was posted on Facebook by photographer Katelyn Sebastian of Winston-Salem, revealing the rainbow led straight to Interstate 85, about 80 miles northeast of Charlotte.
No pot of gold and no yellow brick road were located. However, Sebastian says it still proved “magical,” in a mysterious sort of way.
Sebastian told McClatchy News she and her fiance, Katie Williams, were driving on Interstate 85 when they heard the rumble of thunder, topped a slight hill, and found themselves headed into a wall of color.
A photo shows it was a mix of pink, blue, yellow and purple, along with colors that may not have names.
“It’s one of those moments that you will never forget,” Sebastian said in an email. “It kind of just stopped us in our tracks. Just thinking about being a kid and always wondering what was at the end of a rainbow and for the end of a rainbow to be just dropped in your lap like that, it really takes you back.”
The two, who were following a vehicle driven by friend Toni Embler, quickly pulled over and the trio began recording video, something that is natural for Sebastian as owner of Sebastian Real Estate Photography.
Then they got back in their cars “and, of course, drove straight towards the end of it.”
So what did they find? That’s where it got a little mysterious.
“It just kind of disappears as you drive through it,” she told McClatchy News. “I always remember hearing that there was a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow when I was a child. I even remember trying to find the end of one anytime I would see one, but never being able to find it.”
That the rainbow vanished when they entered it makes perfect sense.
Rainbows form only in perfect mix of sunlight and rain viewed from afar, according to Scientificamerican.com.
“When sunlight hits a raindrop, it does not move as fast through the water as it does through the atmosphere, so it bends a little,” the site says. “When light hits the rain at just the right angle, it is refracted through a raindrop and into our eyes, causing us to see a rainbow.”
literally ended on 85
Posted by Katelyn Sebastian on Friday, July 10, 2020
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 12:07 PM.