No More... Hey, I Really Mean It This Time!
After I'd written an entire story about my most recent harrowing 'unpaved road' experience, I proceeded to dump all that work into the unknown far-reaches of the dark and gloomy, mysterious, and forbidding nether regions of the cyber world. I have no idea how I managed that, but it's a good bet fat fingers played a prominent role. Whatever, it boils down to having to compose yet another complete version... Here goes...
Each time I ride on unpaved roads, I tell myself never again. I always have the best intentions and the sincerest wish to honor that goal, too... but... Sometimes there simply is no other choice, or at least one that makes any sense: Like with road construction. Along the Alaska Highway, for example, you either suck-it-up and ride on or you turn around and abort the entire mission... If there are no acceptable realistic alternatives, then... exceptions must reluctantly be made... obvious risks and all…
Now, deciding to ride on treacherous, loosey-goosey surfaces absent any compelling imperatives is a whole 'nuther thing! That's precisely what I'd just done, though, and it had proven to be a most sobering episode! I truly don't want to ever do that again! Yeah, it could still happen, and I could yet again find myself expressing my displeasure, but the fact would still remain that I had indeed repeated the error. Oh my, trekking can be so very downright challenging sometimes...
Suddenly being solo again that brisk morning and basking in the joyous elation of that return to normalcy… By the way, by that time the sky had completely cleared of any clouds, which of course was interpreted as a very good omen and a clear signal that good times lay just ahead… I loaded our girl and proceeded to the first stop sign… You know, to decide which way might offer our next big adventure.
Ah, let’s just ride down to Damascus, VA, and pick up HWY 91 north… I’d been thinking West Virginia might be a decent destination anyway, since it was already starting to warm in the southland, and no rain appeared eminent in any direction for a few days… That would do nicely, I’d thought… And just like that, what we consider ‘a plan’ had been formulated…
I thought about the last time we’d ridden that highway… CharlieMac had led us up through Saltville where he’d been born; he’d even shown us one of his boyhood homes. North of there somewhere we’d turned off to scoot over to Thompson Valley for a couple of Scooter Dogs. A really nice ride, too, and the dogs had been their usual sensational. It was always nice to visit with Don & Tracy, so we’d had a very enjoyable outing…
Our girl and her partner rode on past the turnoff previously taken since Scooter Dogs was no longer open and wouldn’t have been on a weekday anyway. Besides, we’d not been on that particular stretch of HWY 91, but we had ventured along the other route… You know, the lure of new roads and variety being the spice of life and all…
That ride was really pleasant, too… until it wasn’t! Wait! What?!!! What happened to the pavement? That smooth paved road had abruptly turned to gravel, presenting us with a choice: Turn around and back track, or… Hmmm, wonder if this stuff continues very far… Maybe it’s only for a short distance, so we could save a bunch of miles if we just toughed it out… We warily but foolishly, it turned out, rode on…
In no time at all we were headed up an increasing grade with lots of dicey curves… no traffic, no signs, no people with hard hats and paddle signs, just our girl, her rider, and a seemingly endless ribbon of gravel ahead… In short order I was thinking, “If we come to a place where I think I can safely turn us around, we’re going to abandon this fool’s errand!” It took a while…
After what seemed like hours but was actually only a couple of miles, I realized we were approaching a very tight, steep upward grade, left-handed switchback curve… and I gasped a sissy-like exclamation followed by the audible utterance of a frantic plea for Divine assistance! This situation definitely had enormous potential for not ending well at all!
We started into the turn, but the best track was leading us on an arc to the outside. The condition of the surface, the necessity of having to goose the throttle to maintain momentum and steering while leaning a bit into the curve testing traction, all were showing unmistakable signs of swinging us further to the outside and forcing us into the ditch along the side of the road… Uh-oh! Mercifully we happened into a most rare but relatively flat almost level few feet of roadway, so I stopped us right there. Time for an assessment, I figured…
I dismounted, removed my skidlid, stepped back and had a look around. I then did a body inventory… Arms quivering? No. Strength sapped? Not really. Need to have a rest, perhaps a nap? All good! OK, so would we be able to execute a turn around here and exit this rider trap? YES! I think we can!!! Great caution would be required, and no small amount of good luck, but this just might be our best opportunity! We actually pulled it off!!!
It wasn’t until sometime after we had begun our descent that the thought of taking any pictures occurred… The best shot would have been of that switchback with our girl parked beside that ditch… Alas, my thoughts at the time had been entirely focused upon disaster avoidance and maybe beating a hasty retreat! We did come to a stretch that seemed safe enough to stop for such a picture, but it really understates the overall conditions being faced… Still…
During our determined withdrawal from harm’s way, we rode between three cows that had escaped the confines of their fence… two on one side of the road, one on the other. They stopped and looked at us in complete disbelief, and they seemed to be asking the obvious question, “What the heck are you dummies doing here?” I had no answer for them… Still, we slowed to nearly a crawl and carefully eased between our bovine buddies, then scooted away towards the next big challenge.
We eventually spotted pavement ahead, and a gigantic sigh of relief was exclaimed for anyone nearby to hear! Oh my, what a wonderful thing that black stuff is, too! I’ve grown to love it way more than at anytime before… “Stay focused, grasshopper, this is no time to get carried away!”
We rode on enjoying the new-found smoothness and pure joy of… Hey, is that a turn off that would take us over to HWY 16 and then up to Tazewell, VA? I’ll give it a try. Unseen from the main road and not visible until after the turn was made did the ‘Dead End’ sign come into view… OK, time to apply the lessons just learned from our most recent U-Turn experience…I wasn’t inclined to gripe about it, though, having been so recently reminded that things could always be much worse!
In time we did come upon a road I was reasonably sure would take us where we wanted to go… provided it was paved all the way, that is! It was… We ended up in Marion, VA, only thirty miles or so from Abingdon where we’d begun that day. Wow, such a short distance miles-wise in terms of the overall trek, but such a long, arduous journey in terms of miles actually ridden and time and effort expended… More than a bit spooky at times, too… So, now you know why I ain’t doing that any more… Yeah, right…
DDT
