It was a dark and stormy night . . . actually, it started out as a beautiful sunny and warm day but it turned into something else in a matter of minutes . . . this is the story of a time when I was driving from Yosemite on 120 toward the pass . . . and the weather went from sunshine in the valley to stormy weather the farther I traveled up 120 toward White Wolf Lodge and Tuolumne Meadows at 10,000 feet elevation . . .
As the wind picked up and a great mass of darkening clouds appeared, I soon had no problem convincing myself it would be a good idea to turn around and go back . . . I kept expecting some sort of small road or “turnout” to appear to either side to allow me to execute a quick “about face” but the relatively narrow two-lane road (with so many blind curves!) suddenly became unfriendly so far as this option was concerned . . .
There was simply no obvious safe place to turn around . . . and yet the weather was undergoing an amazing transformation and getting steadily worse by the minute . . . so the nagging thought of my subconscious finally broke through to the surface even as my nervous fear was increasing exponentially: should I turn around on the road itself?
The raindrops were starting and about to turn into a heavier downpour if I kept pressing ahead: nothing to enjoy, that much was for sure . . . but the road was not nearly wide enough for a simple all-in-one-motion U-turn, meaning I could start a U-turn all right but I would have to stop halfway, put it in reverse, back up (while occupying the downhill driver’s lane!) and put the car in drive again before I could complete this directional change . . .
I’d been on this road before and knew from past experience that some cars coming down the hill often traveled at very high speeds . . . Allowing for the maximum time that might be involved, including coming to a complete stop and accompanying loss of speed before the maneuver could be completed and momentum regained, I would have about 5-10 seconds if all went well . . . but what would happen if a speeding car came flying down the hill just as I started to back up? Would the other car have time to stop?
Make no mistake: it wasn’t a wise maneuver for a driver to make in even ideal weather conditions; it was a complete “no no” as far as safety was concerned but the rapidly worsening weather as I drove higher and higher began freaking me out—“I don’t belong here!”—and I kept edging closer and closer to getting my nerve up to “go for broke!”
I would commit to making the U-turn in the middle of nowhere on a narrow two lane road and hope no car would appear speeding down the hill toward me while I was stopped halfway through my U-turn . . .
and if such a car did appear I would keep my fingers crossed and employ my last option: to go from hoping to praying that the driver wasn’t “one of those crazies” who blindly refuses to slow down no matter what the circumstances . . . until it’s too late!
Nervous in the extreme, I took one last deep breath and thought to myself: “Good luck, here goes!”
It was rapidly becoming “a dark and stormy night” as I began to brake for real, having made up my mind “to go for broke” and take my chances on a rainy roll of the dice . . .
“And I, alone, have survived to tell thee”
Moby Dick
