Saturday, September 7, 2013

Around the Bend

Even though you have a better view from the driver's seat in a big truck, you still can't see around the next bend or curve in the road. Sometimes your life will depend on things you can't see or even possibly know... sometimes you'll need to follow a hunch, a feeling, perhaps a spiritual prompting.

After a rather dry winter in Oregon they finally had a good storm in March. I'd driven through it late on a Thursday night and made my way down to Bend for a delivery the next day. Then, with an empty trailer, I headed back over the now-white mountains to pick up a load of plywood in Aurora. The skies were blue, the roads were clear, and traffic was light. As I approached a curve marked at 45 mph, a feeling of dread made me slow down even more. I rounded the bend to discover that laboring up the two-lane towards me was a heavily loaded logging truck followed by dozens of cars. There was no shoulder to speak of on either side--just sheer drop offs of 20 or more feet. And there was a single convertible trying to pass the whole lot of them.

Because I had already slowed to about 30 mph on that curve, I was able to slow down just enough for that car to slip back over into the other lane. Had I gone the suggested safe speed of 45 on that curve, it would have ended badly for the two young men in the convertible.

I can't definitively say why I had had that feeling. I can say I was glad I responded to it as I did.

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