First driving adventure in Freeway !!!

Aaah it's been quite sometime since I visited this part of the world, well .... "The Blogging World" !!! So, life's just been keeping me pretty occupied these days.

So, the last time I was full of talks about SFO and our craziness we did there. And talking of all the drive and fun we had there, I just feel like sharing here my nail biting experience about my first drive ALONE in the freeway here at USA !!! Well .... I really need to mention that driving in the United States ain't definitely as simple as driving back home in India. Now unlike India, you have the cops with their cars patrolling in the roads every other minute and just not that, to make things worse, there're also radars enforced on many roads that detect your speed when you drive, which then, gets notified to the cops if you happen to violate the limited speed mentioned for that particular road. There are cameras on many intersection signals too and auto sensing speed detectors fit under the roads as well !!! And if you violate any of the traffic rule and you get unlucky, then ??? Well then, it's very simple !!! The cops would happily put lights behind you and chase you until you stop and give you a TICKET and all you've got to do next is shed all your bucks from your pocket to pay off that ticket price, which really is heartbreakingly costly !!!! huh !!!

So, with all these petty knowledge and all the homeworks done before I started actually driving on the roads of United States, I took my car that evening like any other day. It was a routine that my friend and I went to the gym in the evening which was about 3 miles from the same apartment where we stayed. That very evening my friend could not accompany me to the gym, though I had another visitor with me who was none other than my husband. LAF was very close to my husband's work place. Hence, the plan was that I dropped him back at work and then take the very next right turn after an intersection to reach LAF. It was all I had to do and was that simple.

So, I got on the road to Michelle Dr after dropping my husband at work and drove until I crossed the 1st intersection. It was evening 7:00 PM with no day light saving then. So, the day got dark pretty soon. There were no street lights near to the right turn too which could lead me to LAF. So, I could hardly see and due to this I missed that right turn that I had to take. What did I do, I wondered ???? I didn't know what to do next!!! Moreover, I was in the rightmost lane that read RIGHT ONLY. I got into a slight state of panic and I did very well understand that I could neither take a left nor a "U" but with no choice left have to take the Right at Jamboree. This was new to me and as instructed by the road sign, I complied with it and took the right at Jamboree and drove down the road. I was panicked !!! I had never driven down that road and it was totally unfamiliar !!! I reckoned, there was no use panicking and I tried to cool my head off and decided to stick to the lane and look for the next intersection and try taking a "U" if possible to get back to Jamboree and then back to Michelle. So, with my head steady and cool I pressed more gas and literally sped in the speed of the traffic not knowing absolutely where that road would lead me. Jamboree was a wide and a very long road. After a point the speed limit read 60 and I obeyed to follow the speed and pressed more gas.

It is generally that within the city the maximum speed limit is 40 and in very few places it is 50. And in the freeway the usual speed is 60, though in few places 65. Now, one can always move with the speed of the traffic, not very much recommended though, as long as you don't block the traffic because of your slow driving, for which too you are awarded a TICKET. So now, with the speed limit reading 60, I calculated that I was definitely on a freeway and there is no choice for me except to follow the road. I decided to find the forthcoming exit and somehow reach back to Jamboree and back to my required destination.

As I drove down the road, to my surprise, I could not see any visibility of a signal for at least 3 miles since I took my right turn there !! Finally, after driving for quite a distance I could find an intersection with a signal from far and learned that it was the Main St. Thinking back, I judged that the fwy must have converted to a hwy because one finds a signal only on hwy and not on a fwy. So, discovering a signal there, my sixth sense ordered me to take an immediate right there. Not knowing where I was still heading to and having no more choice left again, I took the right at Main and still hoping to find a place to make the possible "U" to get back to Jamboree, I continued in that road. Ohh look at my luck !!! I did find an immediate signal in about 0.3 mi but to my dismay there was a "NO U TURN" sign there !!! Now, this consecutive right and left turns really started giving my nerves those shivers that I had tried to avoid all the while. So, what could I do more ??? I had to take that left turn at the Von Kaman Ave. After I took that turn I decided to no more rely on any signal and thought of an alternative of entering a shopping complex to get to the other side of the road back to Main St. Could I ever believe what my eyes saw this time ???? After I came out of the complex to get to the other side of the road I saw the "ONE WAY --->" sign in Bold. If you could ever have heard of consecutive bad lucks, then this, I sure would say be a living example !!! Obeying the traffic signs again, I took the right from the complex and drove until I found the next intersection of Morse Ave and Von Kaman Ave. That indeed gave me quite a bit of hope !!! Aaah yesss, I thought, I didn't have to drive long enough !!! I got that definite hope of getting back to my destination soon !! So, no sooner I got the Protected Green lights for me I thanked my luck a million times and took a safe "U" safely returning back to my roads. Came Von Kaman and then came the Main and I could very clearly see the Jamboree too. Not thinking twice I took a Left on it, when I got my Green !!! The thought and transition of finally heading towards my destination, very delighted and confident, I called my husband immediately to share this little adventure with him. Not knowing what luck had in store for me, I drove with all the excitement and parallelly talking over the phone. I felt something weird about the road suddenly !!! As I drove, I suddenly found that the road started getting much broader, than what I encountered while going on the other side, with quite many exits showing up too. I found the green directional boards on the top reading I-5, 261, Jamboree Only/I-5. What on this earth was this, I wondered ??!!! Recollecting my memory, I found that I hadn't seen this while going on the other side and my mind which was clear all the while suddenly started getting terribly perplexed. With the use of my little common sense I obviously stuck to the Jamboree Only lane and felt, though, I surely must have left some exit behind. This is not what I expected ???? I thought I was heading in the right direction ??? What happened ??? How did the road suddenly change ??? Did I miss something in all the excitement of returning safely ????? My mind started asking a million questions/second now !!! Where could I have gone wrong ??? Being on the phone and telling my husband the route that I was following I somehow felt I was lost indefinitely this time. I had no clue where I was and found that I ended up on a toll road now. I was horribly panicked and due to that I failed stopping to pay the toll charge too and drove ahead lost in the road where I had never in my life come to. The road went broader and there were at least 4 lanes on either partition of the road. Now, this was indeed getting too much for me to handle and I was almost in the verge of tears and asked my husband for directions. I didn't know what to do. My brain stopped working. I even Jumped Red while taking a left on the Irvine Blvd. I found, I was making all kinds of critical traffic violations !!!! Though I was very much lucky enough to not get my picture captured while jumping red nor were there any cops who cited me and stopped me for a ticket, I must say my luck indeed favored me a heavenly great deal in such chaotic situation. After I got on to Irvine Blvd, life started getting a little simpler for me as my husband started directing me over the phone and finally I hit the Red Hill Ave.

Seeing Red Hill Ave was such a major relief to me. But heyy, with all these terrific situations on the road I had in the last 1 hr, did you think I would have gone back home and pondered about the whole scene ????? Nooh !!! I didn't want to get back home !! ;-) And definitely not !!! I had all the courage and I started fresh again from San Juan I and went on my usual route to LAF smiling all alone in the car and wondering about my situations and imaginations lining up and thinking what would have happened if the cops had caught me ??? Or what if I was chased for not paying the toll charge ??? And my imaginations going a little more weird and wondering what if I never stopped even after the cops chased me ???? Hee heee !!! ;-) Nevertheless, I was still smiling and wondering how very unlucky could I have got to have missed that initial One Simple Right Turn to Very Very Lucky to not being caught in the hands of Cops even after Jumping Red, which definitely is a terrific traffic violation and a life risk too just not only to me but also to other people driving on the road !!!

It was a definite Bless and a Bliss to be safe and have one of the very energetic workouts that evening at LAF !! Ohhh .... really ..... trust me on that !!! And one MUST really need to have such menacing adventures in life, I say !!! And that's because 10yrs down the line one could always humor about it and giggle about the fun parts of life one had had !!! And hadn't I missed that initial right turn, could I have been sharing my little crazy nightmare here ???? hee hee ;-)

Love :-)