It Was Like Playing a Video Game

I returned on Sunday from an epic road trip to California.  It was 41 hours of driving and 2,700 miles over six days, but I frequently felt I was playing a video game.  I'm more of a pinball guy, but let me explain:

Driving on roads through large mountains, up inclines and down declines and zig-zagging back and forth, and in and out of tunnels, and driving at speeds up to 80 mph, my car felt very, very, small.  For most of the time I was attempting to navigate my vehicle through the changes in weather: rain, sleet, snow and sometimes even sunshine.

Below are two pictures taken twenty minutes apart in Utah on my way to California.  These are the two worlds I was driving in.

I looked to one side of the mountain and it looked like the one in "Lord of the Rings.," and I can hear a voice say, "For Frodo," before another attack. And, then I'm looking out over a valley and there are bushes and trees, or are they people? Are the woods going to start moving? There's a voice I thought that said, "My friends, you bow to no one."

Am I winning? A sign says, "Watch Falling Rock," is that good? Is someone throwing rocks down at passing cars? I actually saw a rock in the road and moved around it. There were constantly flashing lights-warnings and signs that read: 50, 65, and 80. The signs were constantly telling trucks what to do and I'm just a little tiny passenger van among mountains.

There's a warning that comes out on my phone and I quote: "Public safety warning-possible heavy rainfall could cause flash floods in slot canyon areas.  Avoid low lying terrain." How can you tell if you're in low lying terrain?  

After this warning I asked myself, "Is this heaven or the other place?" Did the voice really just say, "No, it's just Utah mountain weather."

(The weather was an adventure heading to California and it was perfect heading home.  More highlights coming on my road trip in the next couple weeks.)