Not So Clever (And Also a Skunk)

I thought I was so clever.

Fort Bragg, where we spent four lovely, cool nights last week, hosts a glorious Fourth of July fireworks display every year on the first Saturday of the month. Also, they hold the “World’s Largest Salmon BBQ” on that day,  a fundraiser for the local salmon foundation. I love to time our annual ocean trip so that we can enjoy both of these.

So it wasn’t our first time at the fireworks show. The city sets off the majority of them, explosions of light and sound and color. Private citizens add their own touches, too. They sail boats out into the harbor and fire off their own. These start before the main part of the show, are breathtaking, and keep hundreds of folks in the audience entertained while waiting for the main show to start. If you park near the event, there is a $20 charge. We parked just outside the gates by Taco Bell and walked in.

So did many other people.

Clever, we all are!

There was a gigantic traffic jam after the show as all the people who paid tried to exit the park at the same time. But not us! We walked speedily out to the car, crossed the street, and buckled up.

“Maybe we should sit for a second and get our bearings?” my wise son suggested.

“No!” I said. “We need to get on the road so we can beat all this traffic!”

Because not surprisingly, many, many people enjoy the annual Fort Bragg fireworks extravaganza.

Unfortunately, we were parked facing away from the road that we needed. And to turn left? That would take us back toward the main part of town. And that was where most of the traffic would be heading, I was sure. We were staying south of town, a few miles beyond Mendocino. There was no reason to get into traffic that was heading back to Fort Bragg.

So because I am clever I turned right.

Ha! I thought. All these people in a traffic jam going the other way!

Except what I didn’t realize was that the roads that would have led me back to the highway and our cabin were closed. By the police. We passed them, one by one, and they were all blocked off.

There was no turning right. There was only straight ahead. And the further we went straight, the more cars we passed going the other direction. They were stopped. I was speeding along! But I was still hopeful. Because surely there must be a way to turn right somewhere up there!

Until I realized:

We actually were going the wrong way. Because the road we were on ended at the harbor. Yes. Our road ended. Because? the harbor, of course. And what’s more? We were suddenly facing the wrong direction. At the end of the very long line of cars that I had so gleefully passed a few seconds earlier.

So we sat. And sat. And waited. At the end of a long line of cars. That was not moving. After close to an hour, the three cars in front of us that were also facing the wrong way finally managed to turn around. And then we turned around. And eventually we chugged back up the same hill that I had raced down so confidently and made it to the main road and back to our cabin.

Incidentally? It was dark by the time we got close to the turnoff for our cabin, and my navigator son was temporarily distracted, so we missed the road and had to turn around. Sometime in that process of trying to do a U-turn on Highway One in the dark, I accidentally ran over a skunk that was already dead.

It was dead, but its odor was not.

We brought the odor back with us in the car. We didn’t realize it that night; we got back to the cabin and thought there had been a skunk in the area. It wasn’t until the next day when we got back in the car that we smelled the skunk again. Quite strong, this time. 

The skunk wasn’t just around the cabin; the skunk was us. It stayed with us for the next few days, even after a panicked car wash at the car wash in Fort Bragg. I even smelled it a little today when I got in the car, nearly a week later.

Some days are like that, no?

But it’s days like this that teach me. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to sit in the car for a minute to get your bearings and wait for the maps program to load, especially if you are not sure where you are exactly and there is a road near you, one that looks ever so convenient, that actually dead-ends at the harbor. Also? Try very hard not to run over dead skunks on the road.