by ddruxton@yahoo.com » Sat Jan 16, 2021 12:11 am
My family move to the S.F. Bay Area in the early 1950's but we drove back to Fresno 5-6 times a year to visit all our relatives who remained there. On one of our trips while on the old Pacheco Pass, the tule fog was so bad that we couldn't see the hood ornament (remember those) on our car-no exaggeration. My father had to drive with his car door open to see the white line. It was terrifying! Dad had to stay over in his lane for fear that a driver coming the other direction, having to do the same thing, would crash into us. We were just crawling and the highway was only 2 lanes then & there were steep drop offs on either side of the road.
When Dad got finally got down to the bottom of the hill, he got out of the car shaking uncontrollably walking around smoking for about 15 minutes. I was about 10 years old but even I knew how dangerous that had been. Oh, did I mention it was at night in the dark too. It was not unusual to hear about multiple car pile ups on highway 99 because of it. I lived in Morgan Hill (just south of San Jose) for a while & they used to get tule fog there sometimes. But by that time my car was equipped with fog lights so it was a little easier to navigate in it. Oh, the memories of Fresno...
My family move to the S.F. Bay Area in the early 1950's but we drove back to Fresno 5-6 times a year to visit all our relatives who remained there. On one of our trips while on the old Pacheco Pass, the tule fog was so bad that we couldn't see the hood ornament (remember those) on our car-no exaggeration. My father had to drive with his car door open to see the white line. It was terrifying! Dad had to stay over in his lane for fear that a driver coming the other direction, having to do the same thing, would crash into us. We were just crawling and the highway was only 2 lanes then & there were steep drop offs on either side of the road.
When Dad got finally got down to the bottom of the hill, he got out of the car shaking uncontrollably walking around smoking for about 15 minutes. I was about 10 years old but even I knew how dangerous that had been. Oh, did I mention it was at night in the dark too. It was not unusual to hear about multiple car pile ups on highway 99 because of it. I lived in Morgan Hill (just south of San Jose) for a while & they used to get tule fog there sometimes. But by that time my car was equipped with fog lights so it was a little easier to navigate in it. Oh, the memories of Fresno...