Wednesday, September 08, 2004
the strangest thing happened to me last night, but i have to set it up alittle before i can tell you.
many of you know that asheville is located in the mountains of western north carolina. when they built the town, if they ran into an especially hilly spot that was in their way, nine times out of ten they'd bulldoze it flat, or create a twisty winding road up and over it. there's only one place i can think of where they couldnt do either and just blasted a tunnel right through the middle. This spot is the tunnel through beaucatcher mountain, about 100 yards long, it connects beautiful downtown asheville to a greyhound bus depot, fast food chains, a wal-mart, and anything else you might need.
so it was 9:45 at night i went through the tunnel to get to dairy queen. i get my cone and ana's blizzard and like a fool i told guy at the window "oh, no sir, i dont need a lid on that blizzard"
leaving the parking lot, i realized the blizzard wouldnt sit up-right in my car without making a mess. so now im driving back to the house holding the cone in one hand, blizzard in the other and steering with my wrists.
as i headed back toward the tunnel and i saw a grey hound bus lurching toward the depot. the greyhound station is the last thing on the right before the tunnel and as the bus crossed in front of me, i saw this huge plume of white smoke trailing behind it, the smoke was bigger than the bus.
so there i was, ice cream in each hand, big smokey bus in front of me. i drove past it and into the tunnel. the tunnel was filled with white smoke. at first i thought i could just keep going and push through it, like nascar, but i couldnt see anything.
i decided to roll my window down and crane my head out. i couldnt see the yellow line. so i started back towards the wall. in just a few feet i'd already wandered way into the other lane. i found the yellow line again, and slowly, 5 miles an hour, crept forward.
i felt the icecream rolling down my arms. suddenly i was watching the yellow line with my head out the window, driving with my forearms and licking my wrist all at once. it was like juggling. i gave up chocolate for new years, so i couldnt lick my right arm at all.
cars kept appearing and disappearing in the other lane. i could only see a few feet in front of me, and even with their headlights on the cars were covered up by the fog. i kept waiting to slam into something. strangely the smoke was so thick that i was actually a few yards outside the tunnel before i realized i'd made it through.
thankfully there was more icecream in the cup than on me by the time i got home, so things worked out pretty well, smoke inhalation aside.
many of you know that asheville is located in the mountains of western north carolina. when they built the town, if they ran into an especially hilly spot that was in their way, nine times out of ten they'd bulldoze it flat, or create a twisty winding road up and over it. there's only one place i can think of where they couldnt do either and just blasted a tunnel right through the middle. This spot is the tunnel through beaucatcher mountain, about 100 yards long, it connects beautiful downtown asheville to a greyhound bus depot, fast food chains, a wal-mart, and anything else you might need.
so it was 9:45 at night i went through the tunnel to get to dairy queen. i get my cone and ana's blizzard and like a fool i told guy at the window "oh, no sir, i dont need a lid on that blizzard"
leaving the parking lot, i realized the blizzard wouldnt sit up-right in my car without making a mess. so now im driving back to the house holding the cone in one hand, blizzard in the other and steering with my wrists.
as i headed back toward the tunnel and i saw a grey hound bus lurching toward the depot. the greyhound station is the last thing on the right before the tunnel and as the bus crossed in front of me, i saw this huge plume of white smoke trailing behind it, the smoke was bigger than the bus.
so there i was, ice cream in each hand, big smokey bus in front of me. i drove past it and into the tunnel. the tunnel was filled with white smoke. at first i thought i could just keep going and push through it, like nascar, but i couldnt see anything.
i decided to roll my window down and crane my head out. i couldnt see the yellow line. so i started back towards the wall. in just a few feet i'd already wandered way into the other lane. i found the yellow line again, and slowly, 5 miles an hour, crept forward.
i felt the icecream rolling down my arms. suddenly i was watching the yellow line with my head out the window, driving with my forearms and licking my wrist all at once. it was like juggling. i gave up chocolate for new years, so i couldnt lick my right arm at all.
cars kept appearing and disappearing in the other lane. i could only see a few feet in front of me, and even with their headlights on the cars were covered up by the fog. i kept waiting to slam into something. strangely the smoke was so thick that i was actually a few yards outside the tunnel before i realized i'd made it through.
thankfully there was more icecream in the cup than on me by the time i got home, so things worked out pretty well, smoke inhalation aside.
# posted by joel @ 9:28 AM 
