The road to Purgatory is pretty narrow. While it is technically two lanes wide, care must be made when passing oncoming traffic as there are no curbs or guard rails anywhere along the road. When one meets a much larger vehicle, like a firetruck or even an 18-wheeler heading down the hill, the standard operating procedure is to reverse back down the hill to the closest driveway. This can sometimes mean driving backwards for close to a mile.
Once the main road reaches Purgatory, it splits–the right fork becomes our driveway and the left branch continues up the hill where six more homes are located. About 60 yards up our driveway a branch forks off to our nearest neighbors’ houses; another 40 yards up our driveway lies our main gate. Below is a shot of our driveway and main gate just after the split.
Now the road up the hill past our driveway is even narrower, just wide enough for one car. It only continues for another mile or so, and after the first three properties is a gate barring entry to the last three. On weekends, we often get motorcyclists and bicyclists riding up our way, and those who don’t turn at our driveway ride up the hill only to come back down a few minutes later. It is a bit eerie at night, when it’s just the single light of a bicyclist struggling up the hill after six o’clock when the sun is long gone. The bouncing and jerky light reminds one of a drunken ghost.
My office windows afford me a view of the road as it goes up the hill, and any visitors coming down our driveway. The amazing thing, though, is that no one ever notices me sitting and watching the goings-on, which is especially amusing when we have lost souls bumbling down our driveway and turning around in confusion.
Since my camera is usually next to me, I often capture their license plate just in case–you never know when something like our past mini-invasion will happen again.