Mastering the U-Turn

Several years ago four of us guys climbed in a SUV for an evening road trip to St. Louis for a Cardinals baseball game. The plan was to park the SUV near a pub that I had visited before with a friend named Allison and ride the trolley to the park, and while the trip to St. Louis was uneventful, locating the pub was a bit of a problem.

After searching for some time, and losing our way in a myriad of downtown oneway streets, I called Allison and put her on speaker phone hoping she might help, but to no avail.

Finally she says, " Why don't you guys just stop and ask someone?"

There was a momentary silence, then a burst of laughter erupted and gufaws from the four of us in the SUV.

"What's so funny?" Allison asks.

"There's four guys in a SUV, and you think we are gonna stop and ask for directions?" I ask incredulously at the mere suggestion.

Again, another roar of laughter.

Since then, it still never occurs to me to ask for directions; but I do make a point of either mapping out my trip and use a GPS, yet I have still found the use of the U-turn a great tool. In fact, I cannot over-rate the usefullness of the U-turn; a skill frequent travelers must master in order to navigate through life's turns and missed directions.

Rules to mastering the U-turn.

Of course the first thing to consider making the U-turn is recognizing that you are indeed going the wrong direction. Here is an important note; making U-turns before your certain you are going the wrong direction will only confuse the situation more. Therefore, be certain that the direction you a have taken is truly moving you further away from your goal.

Before engaging in the U-turn keep safety in mind. Be on the lookout in all directions before initiating your manuaver; is there sufficient room for turn, be sure there is no one coming the other direction to avoid head on collision. In other words, make sure you aren't going to hurt anyone when you change course.

Make your U-turn quickly. Nothing worse than doing a U-turn in slow motion for everyone to gawk at and be the laughing stock on the road. No need for long apologies, partial turns, or creation of a commotion, just remember avoid impeding the flow of traffic for others who do happen to know where they are going.

I must admit having not always followed all of the above advice and on occasion made so many U-turns I could have been performing figure eights, though these days I try to make a clear and straight course.