Car Dream

1966 Pontiac Bonneville

I'm driving a big old Pontiac Bonneville and my wife is asleep in the back seat. I'm driving on a thoroughfare in the city and I come to a freeway overpass. I miss the on ramp for some reason, but then I see another on ramp. There is no gentle bend to get on this one, it just runs right into the road I am on. You obviously are not intended to turn here, it's like it's intended for cross traffic or busses or something, but there's no traffic, so I slow down and negotiate the corner and head up the ramp.

It's late in the day and after I've been driving for awhile it gets dark and the freeway has turned into a dirt track covered with dry, yellow grass. I realize this is probably not the right road, but let's see where it goes. I mean we're heading in the right general direction, maybe it will come out someplace useful.

It doesn't. The road gets narrower and now we are heading down a hill into what looks like a scrapyard for old mining equipment. The road continues down the side of the hill and then makes a U-turn at the bottom and heads back parallel to the road I'm on now, but at the bottom of the hill. Down there is looks clear. If we can make it past these piles of scrapped machines we should be okay. 

We can't make it through, path gets narrower and narrower. I keep going but now a piece of iron scrapes along the side of the car, probably scratched it, but if that's all the damage we get I can tolerate it. But that's not the worst just a bit farther on the scrap has encroached on the path to the point that there will be no getting through without moving a bunch of this scrap iron, and most of it is too big to move by hand, so I start backing out.

About this time a man walks by and says something about this being a mine and I'm not supposed to be in here. He doesn't stop and he's not chatty, just a quick mumble and then he's gone.

Eventually I find myself at the entrance to the mine. I don't remember going through here on the way in, but now I have to go through the gate to get out and there is a vehicle blocking the way. There is no one around. There is a single story wood framed building next to the gate so I go inside to see I can find out something. It's a largish room, like a mining company cafeteria from 100 years ago. I might have talked to some people in there, but it's hazy. Now I head back outside and for some reason I can't see the door. It's made of wood, very similar in construction to the walls, so there aren't a lot of visual clues as to where it is. My perspective changes and now I see it, just a couple of feet to the left of where I thought it was.

Back outside, the vehicle that was blocking the gate has been replaced by another smaller one. A guy gets in and drives it away. Yahoo! I am home free. But then a box truck backs across the gate opening, the driver has done this deliberately because he wants to talk to me. We exchange a few words, he was just curious what I was doing there, and then he moves his truck. I drive out through the gate, but a few dozen yards later I pull over to talk to my wife. She isn't in the back seat anymore. There are a bunch of tables set up outside, like the contents of the cafeteria have been moved out here, and she is talking to a group of women. I tell her I am taking off. I think she is staying there and I'm going on ahead, but it's very hazy.