Then he allowed himself to be directed by GPS off of the highway onto a very narrow secondary road that runs across the top of Neddie Mountain, which is helpfully called "Neddie Mountain Road" so you'll know that it's not the right road for a semi. There he became stuck trying to manage a hairpin corner with crumbling shoulders and precipices on both sides.
Pity the poor driver. He's a young black man, he's in the middle of mountain country full of Confederate flags and hillbillies he's been taught to fear his whole life, he's stuck in a truck full of valuable cargo, and it's getting dark.
So he calls for a wrecker, which a tractor-trailer capable wrecker has to come from Asheville and takes hours to get there. He has to sit there alone for hours and hours until help finally comes. Now it's fully dark and they're trying to haul him out. They get him out, and realize that not only can he not get through that curve, they can't get their wrecker through it either.
So they call the Volunteer Fire Department. It's now fully dark, and we have guys out with flashlights helping them painstakingly back the whole way back to the highway that was never a good option for a truck like that to begin with. The wrecker can probably turn around maybe a half a mile back, but there's nowhere on that narrow road to turn around a semi.
We'll get him out, but I imagine it will take all night. Then he's got to drive back to Asheville using the long way that he was trying to avoid in the first place.
UPDATE:
10 comments:
“Short cuts make long delays.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
I used to live on Neddie Mtn Rd. He must have been trying to cross from the Hwy 281 side. Not only does it have that switchback curve, but it is kind of steep, too. When I lived out there, it wasn't paved either. Don't know it that's still the case.
At some point it was paved, but long enough ago that it's all crumbling now.
If he were middle-aged people might have been more impatient with him, at least under their breaths.
Could be. Just a few weeks ago we had a guy float his truck out into the middle of one of the lakes while trying to get his canoe back, where it sank to the bottom. There was a lot of "Well, you know, we all make mistakes; good thing nobody got hurt." But there was also a lot of, "Can you believe that idiot?"
This kid, in addition to being young, clearly was not from the mountain country. He had no idea what he was driving into, and didn't feel comfortable enough with the locals to ask. But he seemed to have recovered a sense of trust (and, probably, appreciation) that he was getting a lot of patient help where he expected danger.
Well, and that's good. I'm glad to hear it, although it's what I would expect, of course.
God's opinion tends to hit harder over time.
You might consider applying to the priesthood. I hear they need good celibate young men.
Some time ago I drove a Subaru Outback. I'd gone to a continuing education event in Colorado, and was discussing National Forest Service roads in the area near the venue. One of the other ladies asked if I'd be taking a certain route (we had an afternoon free, and I wanted to go see anything other than books and people). I shook my head. "All wheel drive is not high clearance." She acted a little offended until I explained the difference. It had never occurred to her that a Subaru couldn't handle some of those roads. (I don't like digging vehicles out of snow or off of rocks and the like. I have been high centered. Not again, thank you.)
LittleRed1
Good point. Most people don't know that "All Wheel Drive" and "Four-Wheel Drive" are not equivalent terms on a four-wheeled vehicle. And even then, my 4x4 Ford and my 4x4 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon are not equally capable. One of them has low clearance and a long wheelbase, the other has high clearance, a short wheelbase, a sway bar, and a winch.
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