beauty4everyone
Distinguished member
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2018
- Messages
- 264
- Reason
- PALS
- Diagnosis
- 04/2018
- Country
- US
- State
- GA
- City
- Someplace
… “And when I reach the top of that mountain, I can feel the world before me.
And my voice will echo from the top.
And just maybe someone will hear it.” Patrick123
The above, lovely last stanza of one of PATRICK123’s poems, awoke in me a memory of being on Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mtn. National Park – 48 miles long, elevation, rising to 12,183 feet to Alpine tundra, from where one started. A two-lane road 22 ft wide.
It is the highest continuous paved through road in Colorado and the highest paved road in Colorado that crosses the continental divide. Average daily summer wind speeds are about 48 mph with gusts up to 79 mph. That day we missed a warning about the higher wind warning advisory.
Our car: Width: 72.60”, 6’ Length: 183.50” = 15.29’, Between two 6’ wide cars, that leaves 39.96” between cars, 39.96” from front of inner car to mountain, 39.96” outer car to edge of road. (119.98” plus 72” in = 22’) Backing out requires me, the middle car of three cars, side-by-side, to need 12’ of space = 24’’- 12’ = 12” turning area. Thus, backing up enough to clear the cars, is limited to no more than 9 inches to drop off!
TO CHOOSE
I stand here – near the top of the mountain,
Nothing above but blue sky.
The road ahead, fading around a shrouded corner
I cannot see,
Disappears into the distance
Fading into nothingness.
To my left, the narrow width of the road.
Beyond, a drop-off into an endless abyss.
The wind, a force to be reckoned with,
Tears the car door from my hand
Forcing me back toward the
Hillock of Alpine tundra.
Should I go upward toward the
End of the road, which is absorbed into the sky,
Or turn back, returning by way of
The now known path.
Hemmed in on both sides,
Pulling out to reverse consuming all space
Except six inches from an
Un-curbed edge
To move upward into the future
Toward an end I cannot fathom,
Or use the same maneuver
Back along a smoother path.
There is terror in either choice.
B.
And my voice will echo from the top.
And just maybe someone will hear it.” Patrick123
The above, lovely last stanza of one of PATRICK123’s poems, awoke in me a memory of being on Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mtn. National Park – 48 miles long, elevation, rising to 12,183 feet to Alpine tundra, from where one started. A two-lane road 22 ft wide.
It is the highest continuous paved through road in Colorado and the highest paved road in Colorado that crosses the continental divide. Average daily summer wind speeds are about 48 mph with gusts up to 79 mph. That day we missed a warning about the higher wind warning advisory.
Our car: Width: 72.60”, 6’ Length: 183.50” = 15.29’, Between two 6’ wide cars, that leaves 39.96” between cars, 39.96” from front of inner car to mountain, 39.96” outer car to edge of road. (119.98” plus 72” in = 22’) Backing out requires me, the middle car of three cars, side-by-side, to need 12’ of space = 24’’- 12’ = 12” turning area. Thus, backing up enough to clear the cars, is limited to no more than 9 inches to drop off!
TO CHOOSE
I stand here – near the top of the mountain,
Nothing above but blue sky.
The road ahead, fading around a shrouded corner
I cannot see,
Disappears into the distance
Fading into nothingness.
To my left, the narrow width of the road.
Beyond, a drop-off into an endless abyss.
The wind, a force to be reckoned with,
Tears the car door from my hand
Forcing me back toward the
Hillock of Alpine tundra.
Should I go upward toward the
End of the road, which is absorbed into the sky,
Or turn back, returning by way of
The now known path.
Hemmed in on both sides,
Pulling out to reverse consuming all space
Except six inches from an
Un-curbed edge
To move upward into the future
Toward an end I cannot fathom,
Or use the same maneuver
Back along a smoother path.
There is terror in either choice.
B.
