Date:         Mon, 19 Sep 2016 17:37:20 +0000
Reply-To:     Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Trip report - Finger Lakes and fifty years of driving
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Driving first. It occurred to me on the way home Saturday that I got my license fifty years ago this month, possibly on that date, and that I'd seen and survived a lot of crazy stuff on the roads in that time: a three-car pileup unfolding in front of me with cars going every which way; all sorts of things falling out of pickups and off trailers, a highway grasscutting rig trying unsuccessfully to cross I-26 before an 18-wheeler got there; a fishtailing U-haul trailer slinging an oncoming Mercedes across my path and off the road completely; various insane antics on ice; a car caroming off a Jersey wall and then across three lanes of I-95, and probably much more I can't now recall, but until that afternoon I had never seen a car fall from the sky to block my lane.  At least that's what it looked like at the moment.
Heading through Pennsylvania on I-81 you travel through many rock cuts where you have a breakdown lane, a narrow sloping shoulder and not much else except rock wall on either side.  We'd left the two lane roads and had hit the highway mid-afternoon to try making some time getting home, with moderately heavy traffic moving well and the WBX working hard but no match for the string of big rigs, RVs, motorcycles and everything else passing us on the left. I was in the midst of one of those heading home reveries (gotta finish building the wood shed, then I have to split all the wood to fill it, then...) when into my field of view dropped a white lump of an SUV that provided one of those incredulous "What the hell am I seeing?" moments. A Nissan Murano had evidently been on a parallel road adjacent to and above the interstate and went out of control, went off that road and plunged down the hillside and squarely into my lane of I-81. With scant time to react I managed to brake, swerve right and get by the still tumbling lump.  I stopped just past it and ran back to render assistance.  Miraculously, the driver survived, no one hit the Nissan or me, and other drivers also stopped and the authorities eventually arrived to sort things out.  I calculate that if the tumble had occurred one second later I would not have had time to veer and would have plowed into the Nissan.  Two seconds later and it would have landed on us.  Three seconds later it all would have happened in my rearview mirror. 
Prior to that it had been a nice trip.  We went up through Pennsylvania, stopping at one of their fine state parks on the way to New York.  We got to Watkins Glen SP on Tuesday and did some exploring.  Too late by a couple of days for Westies at Watkins, we went to the track anyway and got to watch a Porsche club having a midweek track day.  Rich kids' recess. We stayed at four NY parks total on two different lakes (Watkins Glen and Sampson parks on Seneca Lake, and Taughannock Falls and Cayuga parks on Cayuga Lake) and had fun hiking, antiquing and generally being out of touch for a week. The beautiful weather was a treat after the stifling summer here, and the scenery was lovely.  The van ran fine for the 1,400+ miles and returned about 18.5 MPG for the trip. We did get a tense moment with a blinking red coolant light on Sunday morning but I topped off both reservoirs and that problem went away. Thirty minutes after arriving home and unloading last evening the Anniedog was back in the van, ready to take off again. I'm with her. 
Stephen