The crossroads

Early Sept. and it was a beautiful Sunday to take a ride and do some scouting, so he packed the car with the family and they headed out of the park down into the Klamath Forest.  At this location the forest is mostly Ponderosa Pine with a scattering of Black and Sugar pines.  The logging road they were traveling on was just 2 tracks in the sand and everything looked the same.  The old adage "You can't see the forest for all the trees" was made from this location.  The road meandered through the trees and finally they came to a clearing about half the size of a football field.  In the center was a crossroads.  He came to a stop and said "which way", they shouted back, "Straight ahead", so off he drove.  His trusty friend, the sun, suddenly disappeared behind a low overcast sky.  He has always had a great sense of direction and was not at all worried.  He never uses a compass and normally he would know exactly where he was at by watching the sun, but today it had turned cloudy and everything looked the same.  Moss only grows on the north side of the tree doesn't work in the high plateau's where there is little rain.  He could use his watch to tell directions, but needed the sun for that too.  Soon he came to a fork in the road, just as an owl swooped down to catch a mouse and again asked for directions, "left they said", so left they went.  A half hour later he came to another clearing and crossroad and staying to his pattern for crossroads, he went straight again.  Soon he came to another fork, just as an owl swooped down to catch a mouse, this time he went right.  All thoughts of seeing wildlife had vanished and his speed had increased.  He drove for some time, his gas tank about half full, when he came upon another crossroad the car had become silent, sensing the urgency of finding their way out.  He stopped and looked, thinking he had been here before, that was the same old gnarly snag he had seen hours ago?   He said, “I know where we are, this is the same crossroad, we’re on our way home”, and took a left.  The car had come back to life and they began to laugh again until he came to the same crossroads, this time he could hear, "do do do do-do do do do, as he approached.  With the sound of Hotel California faintly in the background  he could hear Rod Serling talking about a family lost on the logging road of no return, one way in and no way out, he had entered the “Twilight Zone”.  He stopped, checked his gas and beyond worried now, he took the road left.  He came to the same fork and stopped.  Now starting to panic, he went right this time.  The gas tank was near empty and the car was dead silent when he approached the crossroads again.  Suddenly the sun peaked out from beneath the clouds and he breathed a sigh of relief, nodded to the dark haired man in the black suit standing in the crossroad as he drove by and took the road south and went home.