He thought it would be a good idea. He guessed wrong.

On the surface, it was perfect timing. He had just finished shooting Whose Line is it Anyway? for the summer, and the idea had come to him on the plane home to Canada. His son, Luke, wouldn't be going back to school for a few weeks, and his wife, Debra, was going to Los Angeles to shoot a small scene in a big movie. He decided father and son would pack up the car and drive to meet Debra in California when her week of rehearsals and shooting was over.

So far, everything had gone right. Luke, who had had his license for two years already, was able to share in the driving. Somewhere in the middle of Missouri, things started to fall apart.

"Dad, it's getting really dark," Luke said.

Colin Mochrie looked up from the mess of maps in his lap. "Do you want to switch before it starts to rain?"

"I think it's too late..."

Up ahead, the clouds had darkened even further, and the two could see the rain hitting the pavement.

"Brace yourself, Luke...we're heading into a downpour."

The words were barely out of Colin's mouth when the clouds opened up and the rain began. Within seconds, the gray stream of raindrops was surrounding their car.

Colin realized this was a major shower. The windshield wipers, on full power, weren't succeeding in keeping the water off and away from view.

"Oh, God," Luke said, slowing down dramatically, his knuckles going white from their death grip on the steering wheel.

"Don't panic," Colin said in the most soothing voice he could muster. He reached over to turn on the hazard lights.

"There's so much water on the road!"

"As long as you can still see the lines on the road, you're fine," Colin said, sitting up a little, his heart pounding. "Do you want to pull over and wait it out?"

"No...no, I can still see," Luke said, squinting and concentrating.

Spoken like a true Mochrie, Colin thought. He never backed down from a challenge...he learned that every day from improv...and he should've known Luke wouldn't back down either.

Neither spoke for a few minutes. The downpour seemed to let up but come back down harder.

"I'm going to pull over," Luke announced, turning on his blinker. The road was filled completely with water. Luke steered the car underneath an overpass and onto the shoulder.

Colin leaned his head hack and sighed. Luke's hands slid off the wheel.

"Good job, Luke," Colin praised.

"I never want to do that again!"

A few more minutes passed and the storm started to let up. They watched as the rain dissipated into a steady light stream.
"Do you want me to drive?" Colin asked, seeing his son's white face and hoping to relieve some of his fear.

"How will we switch? There's too much traffic."

"You're going to have to crawl out of the passenger side...and I'll crawl over to the driver's seat."

Luke looked at him. "Dad, you're not exactly young..."

"I'll be fine. Just yesterday, I was doing Moving People and I was in some positions you wouldn't believe."

Colin opened the door and slid out into the rain. Luke quickly climbed over and followed. Colin turned sideways, sat in the driver's seat and pulled his legs over.

"All without getting anything wet," Colin joked as Luke closed the passenger side door.

Colin carefully pulled out into traffic and looked at his son. "Lunch is on me...you made it through your first downpour."

"Mom'll be proud. She was the one who taught me to drive."

Colin glanced at his son again and they shared a laugh.