Road Trip
I went on a business trip to New Mexico a couple of weeks ago and decided to drive down so Michelle and Grant could come. They stayed with her sister while I worked and then we took a little road trip on the way home.
We visited the Great Sand Dunes which was awesome (in a non-valley girl kind of way), except for the the wind which picked up a layer of sugar-fine sand and blasted the skin off of our ankles.
We drove through Durango, Ouray, and Silverton on our way home. These are all tiny old mining towns that are often unreachable in the winter due to road conditions. The designers of these insane mountain roads knew that the only thing that could keep you from careening off of them and plummeting to your death was fear. So, to magnify this life saving terror they disposed of such things as guard rails and straight-aways. They also removed the emergency lane so that the only options were "road" or "cliff". I literally could not see the road if I looked out the passenger side window. Looking down all I saw were hundreds of cars piled up at the bottom of the chasm where the shoulder of the road would normally be.
To be honest I never looked down, but I have no doubt that is what I would have seen had I not been leaning nearly into the drivers seat with my eyes shut and my hands clamped over them. I tried to tell Michelle I was just napping, but I think the sweating and whimpering gave me away.
It was a great trip and only took a couple of days at work to recover from it.
Comments
Loved it except for the sweat that is forming on my upper lip. Genetic do you think. Ask Sue.
Posted by: old prof | June 13, 2004 08:08 PM
Oh. I took a trip into Yosemite a coupe of weeks ago on roads just like those.
There were no guard rails and the roads were two lane andtwisty and vertiginous.Every once in a while you would see a sign that said "SLOW" but you got the impression that as far
as they were concerned that wasn't an order.
If the sign had been bigger it would probably have said:
"Slow but hey, thats just a suggestion. If you want to go faster and plunge to your deaths thats your business. Government is too intrusive
anyway."
I think its a western thing. Like," We got Bears and clifs, use them at your own discretion".
and now I'm going to fly out in the morning to England and Wales where they really dont care if you want to step off the platform into the path of an approaching train or falter off the sidewalk into a London bus going by at
sixty, two inches off your elbow.
The country is as dangerous. Demented drivers hit seventy MPH on serpentining lane and a half roads with no sidewalk or shoulder
but populated by terrified American hikers. All you can do is post road guards front and rear and try to remember which is which.
Then you scream,dive into the non-yielding hedges, and hope your pack doesnt get caught by the rear-view -mirrors. I know a man who
claims his friend got knocked down by a London Lorry's rear-view-mirror.
Me and mine, we believe him.
But what would you know of that Joe, you stay at home.
we are going to miss you and Michell. Grant would have loved it.
Posted by: old prof | June 13, 2004 09:37 PM
You were a dead giveaway for a fake napper when you tried to tell Michelle that you were napping. I always try and fake napping, but fall into the trap of telling them I'm napping, then they're on to me.
I think that the ultimate discretional western Combo would be the bears and the cliffs, but then throw in some guns on the side. Kind of like the option of ordering ala carte, as opposed to the combo, like why order the bears or the cliffs, when you can get the guns for a couple bits extra? More discretionary options.
If the sign was even bigger, it would probably say, "slowing will prolong your life, speeding, as you can see, will not--but you know that now don't you?
Posted by: dave | July 19, 2004 06:25 PM