Hmm...night driving isn't jogging any memories for me. However, the most nerve-wracking childhood drive that I remember took place in Virginia, on the Skyline Drive. Our entire family was heading to a lodge there for a few days of vacation in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Unfortunately, Hurricane Agnes was bearing down on the area at the same time. The weather was horrendous: pouring rain and thick fog. Not the greatest conditions for a narrow, winding road with steep drop-offs! We were lucky enough to make it to our lodge before the road was closed due to the bad weather.
Needless to say, we didn't get a chance to do any of the nifty outdoors stuff that the lodge offered, like horseback riding. You couldn't even see any scenic woods from the huge picture windows in the lodge's restaurant: all that was visible was a wall of white fog.
Gah. Scary. The most terrified I've been in a car was going down switchbacks in the southwest in a 28-foot (I think) motorhome with my dad driving, and he's never been known for his moderate speed. I wasn't sure whether it was worse to look out the window at the drop or to screw my eyes shut and leave it up to fate. Heh
( ... )
The night driving really didn't prompt anything for me either, but the talk of switchbacks reminds me of one road in NSW which was just one switchback after another, on and on and on. I think it went on for an hour or so, and by the time we emerged from them all I was literally dizzy. I wasn't driving, but I still refused to go back the same way, as I wasn't convinced that it didn't have some impact on co-ordination - if not his, then other people's.
I was going to ask whether it was the dizziness or the drop that got to you, but then it occurred to me that the dizziness would be worrisome because of the drop, so really they're inseparable.
...Glad we settled that, then.
Switchbacks are not my friends. A good percentage of the dreams I've had about being in cars have involved malfunctioning brakes and big drops.
The most scared I've been is actually in buses/coaches (particularly double decker buses) taking curve after curve next to yawning drops with wholly inadequate guard rails. I mean, two or three feet of concrete isn't going to mean a thing to a bus. IMO XD
Oh dear. It sounds even worse to be in a careening vehicle with someone you don't know (and who doesn't know [or care about] you and the other passengers) behind the wheel. And when you're on the second deck, you really feel the swing.
Ah, yes, switchbacks and large vehicles. Definitely not a good combination. And I'm not fond of driving over bridges even if I'm firmly in a middle lane. (My car doesn't have electric windows because I'm very paranoid about ending up in the water and not being able to escape. I think I saw the movie Stuntman way too many times.)
As for the Blue Ridge Mountains, we never did get back to them as a family unit. However, I went to grad school at UVa, which was a stone's throw away from the Skyline Drive. I took the opportunity to go hiking there as often as I could.
Needless to say, we didn't get a chance to do any of the nifty outdoors stuff that the lodge offered, like horseback riding. You couldn't even see any scenic woods from the huge picture windows in the lodge's restaurant: all that was visible was a wall of white fog.
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...Glad we settled that, then.
Switchbacks are not my friends. A good percentage of the dreams I've had about being in cars have involved malfunctioning brakes and big drops.
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LOL. Yes. Me too ;)
*shudders at your dreams*
The most scared I've been is actually in buses/coaches (particularly double decker buses) taking curve after curve next to yawning drops with wholly inadequate guard rails. I mean, two or three feet of concrete isn't going to mean a thing to a bus. IMO XD
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As for the Blue Ridge Mountains, we never did get back to them as a family unit. However, I went to grad school at UVa, which was a stone's throw away from the Skyline Drive. I took the opportunity to go hiking there as often as I could.
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