I have a lot of fun with the roads around my home in the foothills of the Georgia mountains.  They’re curvy and fun to drive.

On the other hand, they do present some challenges.  Like the time I drove over Blood Mountain.  I left in the morning and didn’t have lunch.  As I was driving home in the late afternoon, I munched on the Kit Kat bar I’d picked up to stave off starvation.

And, I learned a valuable lesson.  Don’t eat chocolate on an empty stomach and drive down very windy mountain roads.  After breaking into a cold sweat, I pulled over for a short break.  After some deep breathing, I convinced myself I wasn’t really going to die – or get sick – and finished the last few miles to home.

I learned another lesson the other day.  I was driving back over that famous mountain – on a full stomach this time – with two friends.  We got a bit turned around trying to find our destination, and determined that we needed to turn around.  While the road was a bit curvy, I chose a relatively clear area, stopped briefly, then started backing into a small store’s driveway to turn around.

The drive was a u-shape.  Directly behind the car there were a few flimsy trees, then the drop off the side of the mountain.

About the time I was almost completely off the road, the person in the back seat screamed.  Of course, my initial reaction was that we were facing impending doom, and I briefly accelerated.  Then, of course, I caught myself, thinking of that “small” drop off behind me. 

I turned to look at the road ahead and saw no immediate danger, so I asked the back seat driver what had happened.  She had caught sight of a car that had appeared coming around the curve in the road and decided that we were about to collide with it.

So, she screamed.  Swell.

If I’d been a bit more enthusiastic with the gas pedal, we’d have had a real problem.  But, of course we wouldn’t have had to worry about it since we’d all probably be dead.

So, the moral of that story is: if you scream while in the car, you’d better be darn certain that any reaction by the driver isn’t going to get you in worse trouble.

You should also consider that the driver might just wring your neck if you all survive.