Tag Archive: intersection


(Submitted by reader Jim Hammond)

Many years ago, I was returning home after visiting my family in Tampa. I was driving north on US 19 and would be making a left turn on US 98 to go west to the Florida panhandle.

I knew my brother would be driving south on US 19 the same day as he was returning from visiting his girlfriend. He would be turning left at the same intersection to go east on SR 20 back to the University of Florida where he was in school.

The only place our paths could potentially cross would be at that one intersection. When I got to that intersection I was first in line at the red light in the left turn lane. I looked across the interesection and my brother was first in line in the left turn lane going the other way.

I waved at him and continued on my way. I thought to myself, what are the odds that we would meet?

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[Editor: This story made me think of the times I’ve seen friends driving when I’ve been on the road. I think this happens more often than one would guess. In Los Angeles, driving in the past twenty years has changed in one noteworthy aspect: increased population density has made it a huge challenge to find parking. Several times, however, I’ve seen friends in their cars on the freeway. You’d hardly think it’s possible because of the density, other variables such as drivers’ different schedules, distance from home, different reasons for being on the road – not much different from other reasons we think we won’t cross paths with friends and relatives. Another way to think of it is how many times were you on the road at the same time, and didn’t happen to see each other? – Wendy]

Double Down on Old Friends

(Submitted by reader Deborah Warcken)

My Volkswagen squareback died in Evanston, Wyoming on its third trip to Colorado in February of 1972. From there G’Anna and I had to take the bus to Greeley where we stayed in my dorm from the previous school year. I had decided that Colorado winters were not for me and had retreated back to California to old friends and my horse. G’Anna was a new friend and had agreed to accompany me on a visit back during February break. I had several friends I wanted to see as well as a sister who had moved to Greeley the previous year. G’Anna had two friends in the Gunnison-Crested Butte area.

It was wonderful to see my friends from freshman year and visit with my sister and her family. I was disappointed because one of my best friends was no longer in school there. It was rumored that she had either returned to Ohio or was going to school elsewhere.

After our stay in Greeley we were able to rent a car and continue south and west to our next destination. This already had the makings of something of an adventure as G’Anna did not have an address or phone number for her two friends, Bill and Dirk. She said we would just have to hit all the local night spots and ask around at the ski area.

We arrived in Gunnison an hour or so before dark and started checking around. No one seemed to know her friends. It was suggested that we try up in Crested Butte so we drove up there and continued to check in the local hang-outs. Crested Butte is (or was) a small ski town and it was crawling with young people.

It was getting late and we’d just asked at the last bar in the village. All these places were fairly dark and this one was no exception. As we were heading for the door we passed some people coming in. It was too dark to see them clearly but something about one of them was familiar. After we got outside I had to turn and go back in to see if my sense was correct. It was! One of the people turned out to be my friend Laura who was supposed to be in Ohio.

I’m not sure which of us was more surprised, me, Laura or G’Anna. As we still had not found or even looked for a place to stay that night Laura let us stay with her. We decided to continue searching for Bill and Dirk the next day.

The following morning we went up to the ski area to continue our quest. Laura had to go to work at a little cafe but we said we’d stop back later and have some pie and say “goodbye”. G’Anna’s friends did not seem to be at the ski area so we made one last trip into Gunnison to look around in the daytime. No luck.

About mid-morning we stopped in and had some heavenly raspberry cream pie at the café and said goodbye and thank you to Laura. We started on our way out of town and were at the last stop sign before the beginning of the highway back to Gunnison. As we waited at the stop sign a car pulled forward from the other side and stopped to let out two hitchhikers in the middle of the intersection. You may have figured out already that these were none other than Bill and Dirk.