Driver's Ed by Wendy - Lesson 1

So, I've got to ask. A.) Look like September to YOU? Not so much, eh?

You know, with the snow and all. But more important is B.) Does this road look big enough to accommodate anything more than one car going each way? The first picture is pretty much it's widest point.

All year long I drive this road. This twisty, turning, narrow road. At most points it's barely wide enough for a car going each direction. On the hairpin curves it is fraught with, it's a terror to drive, especially when someone coming the other way is too busy admiring the breathtaking views to stay in their own lane. All summer long I curse the ridiculous bikers laboriously making the ascent and then wildly careening back down the mountain with reckless - no, make that suicidal - abandon. (Oh, I know they're pushing themselves to the limit, and I should stand back in awe at their physical mastery. Blah, blah, blah. I've heard the same thing about everyone who takes their life into their own hands to conquer Mt. Everest. And you know what? I think they're all playing with half a deck too. Let's try working out your issues (and your physiques) somewhere that you're not actually endangering your life or anyone else's!) There IS NO ROOM for even a single biker on the side in many spots when two cars are on the road, and yet the majority of these spandex-clad maniacs ride in clumps. Single bikers will ride right in the middle of the lane (and flip you off if your horn ever-so-politely asks them to move over). Seriously.

I'm not sure the bikers are even as bad, however, as the Fall Color amateur-photographer freak show that stops and gets out of their cars all along the road to snap pictures of the leaves, and of their loved ones in front of the leaves. It's GORGEOUS. I get it. I can hardly go a day at the ranch without taking pictures, but get off the road before you do it! Go to a park. Take a hike. Or here's an idea - pull out on an actual turn-out in the road if you must shoot the scenery from the blacktop. But have some common sense. Don't park on the road, stick your children on top of a concrete guard rail and stand back in the lane your car isn't occupying to snap a picture with the disposable camera you just bought. Don't you see the myriad of disasters waiting to happen? The car full of like-minded color-gawkers that will momentarily come around the corner using both lanes and only watching the beauty drift by? Because they won't see YOU, they won't see your car, and they won't see your kids - not until it's too late for all of you.

Besides, you're in my way - just like the bikers. Grrr.