What caught my eye particularly were the tire tracks that carefully negotiated between the cones into the freshly asphalted side of the road. As I continued my decent down the as-yet unaltered half of the road, I became increasingly dumbfounded that the tire tracks continued dutifully down the right and freshly asphalted side of the road. I could tell that the driver was keeping the vehicle out of the shoulder with increased difficulty as there was obvious slippage and large clumps of asphalt that belied this otherwise careful driver.
Nearly approaching the bottom of the 2 mile hill and rounding the last bend I saw a brand-new (temporary tags still affixed) white (mostly) Range Rover stuck in the shoulder with a confused-looking smartly dressed middle-aged woman behind the wheel talking to someone on her phone. The tires were still turned to their maximum as she probably desperately attempted to steer herself out of her slide. Yet for all her careful and brave maneuvering, there she was, stuck in the ditch.
I have never seen so much asphalt compacted so tightly in such a small space as I saw in her wheel wells. The once shiny white fenders and entire side and quarter panels were caked with inches of asphalt. She was literally stuck in her car which was stuck to the road. Even if she could have extricated herself from her prison her heels would have sunk into the asphalt still on the road.
I can only imagine the phone call to 1) her husband, 2) the police, 3) the towing company, 4) the insurance company, 5) the asphalting company.
I was just driving in La Jolla... and she’s still stuck there.