Traveling to Malibu over Malibu Canyon Road, Malibu being one of my most favorite places to go, on Jan. 6, at about 11 a.m., enjoying the ride and the view when all of a sudden we come to a warning sign about “Loose Gravel,” and another sign up the road warning the motorists that there will be a 20-minute delay.
Being that we were early for my birthday lunch appointment, a 20-minute delay wasn’t disturbing.
We got in line with the rest of the cars that were not moving and settled in for the wait.
In the meantime, the oncoming traffic is chugging along at a sensible speed, because they were just flagged on to proceed. Being in this type of delay before, there are so many cars that can proceed due to the one lane being closed, which I understand. But the flow of this ongoing traffic doesn’t let up! After more than 20 minutes we figured that it would be our turn to proceed. Still no procedure command that we would be the next ones to go.
Lo and behold, coming up the road, the opposing traffic is merrily chugging along. Figuring that maybe our flagman was out to lunch and the other flagman was on something, we had no choice but to wait this delay out.
Some cars were turning around, but we figured we had so much time invested in this standstill we would grab a snack that we had in the back of the car. Thank heavens my daughter went to Trader Joe’s before she picked me up and bought some snacks and bottled water. “Never leave home without food or water” when you know you are going to travel over a canyon road.
After satisfying our snack fit, wiping our hands and patting our mouths we were rare’n to go. To our surprise, and frustration, the opposing traffic was still rolling along! An hour had passed and we were are still sitting there in our car “with egg on our face.”
We were finally released from our confinement and proceeded to go about a half mile when we are stopped again to let the privileged oncoming cars go. This song came to mind, “What kind of fool am I?”
Arrived at my birthday lunch, which was delicious, one and a half hours late; I was still very delighted to be in Malibu. Eating in Malibu is always a treat. The highlight of the day was that I was in Malibu, and my only disappointment for the day was that I had lunch too late, ate too much, and consequently I couldn’t eat dinner, which is one of my favorite meals, but to be in Malibu the delay was worth it.
The point of this tale is where have all the capable and organized people gone? They sure don’t work for the department of Traffic and Road Maintenance.
Lois Eisenberg