Lesson Learned

Yesterday I had to be at work very early and also had to stay late for a meeting, which meant that I ended up working a 13 hour day.  By the time I was driving home I was pretty tired, and while I was driving I began thinking about my driveway at the cabin. 

Most of it is narrow and then it gets wider at the back. 

The guy who owns the cabin has an old truck parked at the back of the driveway, and the start of what will eventually become a shop when his work finally brings him back to Juneau.  So there is SOME room to maneuver, but not a whole lot.

The driveway intersects with the road at a tight angle (making turning my car around very difficult), and I have not had a chance since I moved into the house to check the back end of the driveway yet, to see if there are any nails or other items (left over from the homeowners wannabe shop) in the driveway, that might mess up my tires when I turn the car around.

  Anyway - long story short - it has been a real pain in the ass up to this point to turn my car around.

So...............on the way home last night (in the country, in the dark and after working for 13 hours) I got it into my head to turn partially into a side road close to the house, and back the last 20 or 30 feet into my driveway so that I would be pointed in the right direction to drive out.

I pulled into the single-lane side road, put the car in reverse, and immediately realized that:

a)  the side road was on a very steep hill

b) even though my car was in reverse, the car was quickly rolling forwards

c) there were wooded areas and drop-offs on both sides of me

d)  in the dark I couldn't see what the heck was behind me

After messing around rolling forwards and trying to gun it backwards for just a couple of minutes, and quickly realizing that I had gotten myself into a mess, I decided to cut my losses.  

This involved driving down to the bottom of the hill, turning my car around, and then driving up the hill and into my driveway before I messed up the situation even more.

Which is what I did.  With a lot of concentration I safely got down to the bottom of the hill (clamping down hard on the brakes the entire way) and only after-the-fact realized that I had rolled all the way down with the car still in reverse.

Oh hell!!!!!! 

For a minute I was really worried that I had seriously screwed something up on my car.  But it made it safely up the hill.  Made it safely into my driveway.  And thankfully, today made it safely to Juneau and back.  So I guess the automotive gods were on my side. 

Not to mention the safety gods who pulled me out of the ridiculous situation that I found myself in last night.

Lesson learned??  My house and I are both alone in the middle of isolated Alaska.  Don't make rash decisions that could negatively impact my safety.............

I bought bear spray at the store today.  And yes LC, I will carry it with me.

These two pictures were taken today while on the road between meetings in Juneau and the Valley.  It was a day of isolated, off-again on-again rain, sleet and snow.  And when it was all done for the day, the roads were still clear but many of the mountains around the Juneau/Douglas area were sugar-coated with a new layer of beautiful snow.