Don't Be Oh-Feared!!

Like most couples, Jeff and I have catch phrases that make us laugh. Quotes from movies like Fargo (It's my DEEEL), Pee Wee's Big Adventure (It's not for thale, Fran-this!) and the Ren & Stimpy cartoons (Eeet's so Beeg!) never fail to crack us up. We've even come up with some of our own, and those have evolved in their own special way while we've been on the road.
The most popular one is "o-freared". It started off as a cute way to say "afeared" instead of "afraid". One day we were driving through Auburn California and Jeff saw the sign for a little town called Ophir, and at that point we began saying "oh-feared" whenever panic was in the future.
More recently we were in upstate New York and saw a sign for Frear Arena (say that ten times really fast!) and again our little catch-word has evolved. Now if we're really frightened we say we're "oh-freared". Just plain old fear is "oh-feared".
Got it? Pay attention because there's a quiz at the end of this blog! :)
Based on our personal vocabulary, here is a typical conversation between co-drivers on any given day:

Julie: Oh no, here comes a bridge!
Jeff: Are you oh-feared?
Julie: No, I'm really scared! I'm oh-freared!
Jeff: Don't be oh-freared-- just BEEEEEE careful!

There have been a couple times that both of us have been seriously oh-freared on the road. The one that comes immediately to mind was our jaunt over a 9,000 foot summit that we weren't even supposed to be on.
I know I've already ranted in this blog about misguiding road signs. The ones in Reno, Nevada nearly got us (and some innocent bystanders) killed.
We had just picked up at a shipper in Reno, and were on our way to Phoenix. We were following the route our company suggested, and came to one of those forks in the road. We went the way the sign seemed to imply, and soon found ourselves climbing up and up and up, on a tiny two-lane road that winded continuously around cliffs and spectacular views.
We crested at 9000 feet, with no road signs in sight, and no way to turn around. All this time we assumed we were still on Hwy 395, because that's what the last sign had told us.
After the crest we began descending, and I could see Lake Tahoe in the distance. What a view! I took a picture. Down we went, taking the curves very slow. It seemed to take forever but finally we could see a stop sign at a three-way intersection ahead. We also saw a highway identification sign, and it was NOT the highway we thought we were on. There was no time to vent our frustration about that, however-- what happened next was very quick and reflexive.
There was road construction going on down there, and lots of cross traffic. Jeff started applying the brakes-- and the brakes weren't there.
I shouldn't quite put it like that. There were brakes, but barely. We were experiencing what is known as "brake fade", and this phenomena is what inspired those "Runaway Truck Ramps" you see along Hwy 80 and other mountainous roads. It's a situation no truck driver ever hopes to find himself in. Using your brakes excessively can cause them to overheat, and at that point they're practically non-existent. This is what was happening to us. We could smell the brakes burning and could see the smoke pouring out from under the truck.
Of course, that was after the fact. At the time, all Jeff could concentrate on was controlling the truck, and I was frantically trying to motion to other cars to stop.
We rolled into the intersection, and thank God Jeff didn't panic. Somehow he managed to stop the truck just a few feet beyond the stop sign. The cars in the intersection must have realized what was happening because they stopped too.
It all worked out in the end, but I can't help thinking-- even to this day-- that the results could easily have been so tragic. I'm really grateful to Jeff for keeping his cool, and I'm so thankful the other drivers were paying attention.
We now know what not to do when it comes to driving in mountains. And a few weeks later, we rolled through the Rockies without any problems.
Famous last words: Don't be oh-freared, just BEEEEEE CAREFUL!