Nerve Wrecking drive to Calaveras

Few days ago I told my hubby that after our trip to Lake Tahoe we didn’t go to any mountain trip. So, last Sunday morning suddenly he suggested going to hike at Sunol Regional wilderness. We also had some work to be done in Pleasanton, so I agreed to go hiking. After finishing our work at Pleasanton my hubby started driving on Calaveras road, not knowing where to go. After sometime we realized that we were not going to any hiking area, but we were going upward on the mountain. The road was extremely narrow. First, the road was not scary. However, gradually the road started getting narrower. Moreover, the other side of the road was the gorge. I was just missing my heartbeat in every moment. On the top of that, from the back-seat of car, the little one was constantly calling, ‘baba baba’ (daddy, daddy). Whenever I was telling him to stop, because his daddy was driving on a mountain road, he stopped for a while before started calling his daddy again. I was too scared to watch through the window of the other side of the car. While going upwards it was better, because the gorge was on the other side. I was anticipating our condition at the time of coming down. At that time the gorge would be just next to us. There was no option to make u-turn, like any other mountain road. Also, there were very, very few turnouts. On our journey, I only found two turnouts. I was just searching any place to make a U-turn. However, when we reach such a place, my hubby stopped the car to check the route in GPS. He told that the Calaveras reservoir was only few miles away. I agreed to go. Again, same kind of road appeared in front of us. I was just cursing myself for agreeing with him. At last we reached a small turnout. I asked him whether, he could make a u-turn. 

He told that he could do that easily. Anyway, I got down there to see the vast reservoir. I didn’t even know that there was a huge reservoir, from where most of water supply was done to bay area. Actually some projects were going on there, and the work was closed on Sunday, so we landed in a total deserted place. When I saw the huge machineries from the top, I was just wondering, how people drove such huge machineries on the top through a narrow serpentine road. My husband asked me to go and see the reservoir. As I crossed the road and went to the other side a huge blue lake came in the view. In the calm and serene place the lake added a beauty there. I didn’t want to stay in such a deserted place for a long time. I was just thinking about taking U-turn such a place. When my hubby took the u-turn I felt that we were going down to the gorge. I again missed heartbeat. 

The downward road was more dangerous, as the gorge was just beside us. Whenever my hubby wanted to tell something I asked him to concentrate on driving. Each and every moment was a challenge. In such a deserted place lack of mobile network added much owe to the situation. This is the first time I felt that how the mobile phone became indispensable in our life! A decade ago I didn’t even think about taking a mobile phone with me, though it was already in the market. It seemed that my hubby facing difficulty to control the car. The car was just rolling down the hill by itself. I was waiting eagerly to reach the plain land. It was a great relief after getting down. 

I just poured one full bottle of water in my mouth. It really a nerve-wrecking drive. We just went there without knowing what was ahead there. Though we didn’t go to the end of the road, whatever distance we covered, was really dangerous. The elevation was not much. We went to Mariposa Grove in Yosemite, where the elevation was more than 5000 ft. and the road was more dangerous. However, today, I really got scared. However, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, such a sudden adventure was really freshened up our mind. Here I should mention the funniest thing happened in this journey. After coming down we saw a herd of cattle on the ground. I showed them to my son. He watched them thoroughly. After, we passed by, he told me, “Mama, why didn’t you take picture of them?”. For a moment I couldn’t find what to answer? Then all of us laughed out loud. He always saw his mama to take snaps here and there. so, he knew that whatever mama would see, she should take a picture. .. innocent mind… but they observe everything very minutely.