I happen to live about 25 miles from Grants Pass, Oregon. There is no sign from 1-5 that would route one over this road from Merlin, Oregon to Gold Beach. The I-5 signs for the coast are at Grants Pass which routes you onto Highway 199 towards Crescent City. That is a long roundabout to get to Gold Beach but really is much quicker than trying to drive the highway down the Rogue River to Gold Beach.
Driving southbound on 1-5 like the Kims were there are no signs at the Merlin exit that tell you not to go to the coast that way. The "Coastal" sign is at the next exit South. I have never driven the Merlin-Gold Beach route to the coast. I have driven on it in the Merlin area, however. I do remember my surprise to see a highway sign near Merlin stating how many miles it was to Agness and Gold Beach. I remember thinking, it may be only 93 miles (something to that effect) but the bulk of it is windy and from what I've heard that route takes several hours in good weather. I think that signage near Merlin which gives the distance to Gold Beach is very misleading and could have contributed to their wrong choice.
I used to work for one of the car rental companies at the Medford airport and over the years there were numerous people I had to dissuade from taking that route to the coast. Some were amateur map readers but not a few had gotten the directions over the internet. We also had people who took 4 x 4's out into that area and they ended up severely damaging the vehicles. (Never take any rental car off a paved road! They'll void any coverage you bought if you do that!)
An interesting article in the local paper today on the Kim story and the confusion the "Gold Beach" signs on that road give to visitors:
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2006/1208/local/stories/signage-mf.htm
Someone from Oregon "ME" - View on this James Kim event
by free2beme 38 Replies latest jw friends
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cabasilas
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katiekitten
I agree with the very first post.
People would die less if they werent so stupid or careless as to their own safety.
We used to hav e a programme on telly here called "999". In my opinion it should have been called "Stupid people nearly die because they think nature is a Disney park"
It basically had stories of rescues of people who had got themselves into ridiculous positions and couldnt see how they had contributred to the accident. Every story started along the lines of "It was a lovely day, and me and my family were merely walking along the cliff edge / potholing / driving up a mountain / absailing with the dog WHEN SUDDENLY we got blown off the cliff by a freak wind / we slipped on a banana skin that some careless person had thrown away and fell into a huge underground river / the ropes on our absail got snagged on a glass bottle someone had dropped and we plummeted 1000 feet.
The rest of the programme was about how they defied death. They never ever said "Im a stupid asshole who let my precious 4 kids play right at the cliff edge when it was nearly dark, and when one of them goofed around and fell off the edge it was totally my fault".
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katiekitten
I have no sympathy for stupid people.
I was driving home last night, in the dark and the rain and my usual road home was closed. I followed the diversion sign and it took me into a wood - no lights, no tarmac, no other cars on the road.
Do you know how long it took me to back up and get onto a road I felt safe on? 9 days? 3 hours? 40 minutes?
NO. About 30 seconds cos I was shitting myself, and I thought if I break down here im not f00king walking even 10 minutes through a wood in the rain and the pitch black.
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FlyingHighNow
Free, naivete, misinformation and being disoriented can spoil winter travel plans. I know: I've been there.
In the blizzard of 78, I was traveling with my first husband from Atlanta to Chicago(we were 19). I had no idea that you needed to check weather and road conditions before traveling up north during early February. In Atlanta you get daffodils in February. It was raining very hard from the time we left Atlant until just south of the Kentucky/Indiana state line. We drove through Indianapolis. There was nothing on the radio about getting off the road. No travelers' advisories. The snow was very heavy. We got off the free way for gas north of Indy. Someone said, "Ha, you ain't makin' Chicago by midnight." They didn't tell us to stay off the road. It was around 10 PM. We got back on the interstate. Soon, there was a white out. We could only see the red tail lights on a semi-truck ahead of us. We followed them, not even daring to look for the shoulder to pull over. Then the lights disappeared. The excelerator froze. He got out to look at the engine. It was solid ice. The temp was 28 below fahrenheit and 60 below with the windchill factor. Visability was zero.
He, a native northerner, started to cry and panic. Me, a native Gulf coast girl, sprung into action. He wanted to try to walk towards some farm house lights that would show up here and there between wind gusts. I said, "No, you're not going anywhere and neither am I !" I put pillows against the doors, for insulation. We sat in the front seat facing each other with our feet and legs on the seat, our backs to the pillows. I covered us with four blankets, one of which was an unzipped sleeping bag. We sealed them completely around us and under us, not leaving anything exposed. We were actually hot and sweaty inside the blankets. There was ice on the outer blanket. We were stranded until noon the next day. Some guys stopped in our car for a few moments to warm up. They had icicles on their beards and signs of frost bite on their lips and noses.
We were rescued and brought to the National Guard armory. They tried to leave us at the rest stop first, but I refused because I knew we wouldn't have heat, food or water. We spent three days at the armory. What an experience that was. Most everyone else stranded there were semi-truck drivers, save a couple of very nice Amish guys. Truckers do check the weather, but they were caught, too.
My mo-in-law told me that I didn't panic because I didn't realize how much danger we were in. I told her, "No, they teach us what to do in case of a blizzard, even in the south." There was an Indiana family traveling home from the hospital that same night. The father had open heart surgery and it was his trip home. They drove into a snow drift and were caught. They had no blankets. The man died.
When we got our car thawed out, the KFC chicken we had brought with us thawed, too and we had lunch for the rest of the trip.
My point is that sometimes people who know better still get caught in blizzards and icestorms and sometimes people who shouldn't know how to survive, do know. Ya just never know.
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FlyingHighNow
I have no sympathy for stupid people.
I was driving home last night, in the dark and the rain and my usual road home was closed. I followed the diversion sign and it took me into a wood - no lights, no tarmac, no other cars on the road.
Well, golly, Katy doll, what the heck were YOU doin' out on a dark, rainy night, unaware of road closings? The unexpected can happen to the smartest people and blind side them. I wonder if you found yourself in a strange place, in a blinding snowstorm, how much more quickly you'd have found your way out than Mr. Kim? Him being so stupid and all, and you being so much smarter. Not to pick on you, but you're kind of laying yourself wide open for criticism here.
If we were all true geniuses, we'd have taken one look at the outside world and headed straight back into the womb. This world is fraught with dangers and perils and all humans are basically idiots to degree or another. If any of us hasn't figured this out, it's only a matter of time. It's a question of when, not if.
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sammielee24
Excellent Flyinghighnow.....well said and I couldn't agree more. sammieswife.
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outoftheorg
I started 1st and 2nd grades in Grants Pass and have been to Gold Beach and the Red Woods a few times.
It is fantasticly beautiful but you never mess with the winter weather. It is close to the Pacific Ocean and the storms that come in are loaded with water and the forests are tightly grown with huge trees very close to one another.
Some of the unpaved roads in the woods are not easy for a car or pickup truck, even in the summer, since they are there for mainly logging trucks and earth moving equipment.
It is beautiful like no where I have ever been.
Outoftheorg
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FlyingHighNow
Excellent Flyinghighnow.....well said and I couldn't agree more. sammieswife.
I humbly admit that everytime I get smug about anything, life knocks me back down to size. Anytime I don't have sympathy, empathy or compassion and am judgmental, God has a way of kicking me in the butt when something similar happens to me and allowing me to see how NOT-brilliant I am. I guess I'm lucky this way. Otherwise, I'd be ten times, maybe a hundred times more obnixious than I currently am.
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outoftheorg
Obnoxious? You?
You're not obnoxious FHN.
You'r just saying it out as you see it.
With your knowledge of the coastal storms and having lived there.
Why not?
Outoftheorg