Cruising up Highway 273 toward Redding, in no particular hurry the other day, I almost lost control of my car after hitting a rough spot on the road. It had either been poorly patched or the section of asphalt had sunk leaving behind a gaping hole.

That’s not the only place I’ve nearly ended up with a broken axle on my car because our roads are in the worst shape I’ve ever seen, and I’ve lived here my entire life, so far.

We seem to be going backwards. With the price of gas, how much more taxing can we bear? Those fuel taxes are supposed to be helping our roads. But with everything out of whack and more and more motorists on our roads each year, we have a real problem. The new sections of asphalt on Bonneyview Road that is widening the lanes to the river bridge are nice to roll over these days, but we still have to negotiate the bumpy sections in between the glassy coating.

It used to be that somebody was responsible when a road caused damage. Of course, everybody would jump on that bandwagon today making it even more costly to maintain our roads. The city, county and state would be sued to death.

So we must pay the price by letting our personal auto insurance address the damages that are incurred. It doesn’t look like it will get better any too soon, either.

My advice: Watch the road ahead of you and tread lightly.

I am not joking when I say I almost lost control of my car. When the steering wheels – two fronts – hit too rough a spot traveling along up to speed, it can literally pull the car to the right or left. This can be dangerous if another motorist is anywhere near you.

It’s not just one place in this whole county. I’m talking about city streets, state highways and county roads. They are all in bad shape in certain places.

I was driving the same stretch of highway a day ago and had forgotten my previous near-accident. We motorists have a lot on our minds and we don’t always remember where these danger zones are until it’s too late. I keep saying I’ll watch the road ahead of me really close to see where are the bad sections. But, each time I just cruise through them. This usually shakes my car so badly that I almost lose my temper.

There is something about being caught off guard that triggers instant frustration that usually reverberates into anger.

“Fixed the blasted road” or worse instantaneously emerges from our mouths, usually in higher volume – as if anyone out there cared a hoot or holler. Boy they would if it shook their “nice, nearly new” vehicle.

I’m thinking about giving my SUV a rest and driving my old blue Chevy truck. It is a bit more geared for rougher roads than the little putt, putt that gets me around most of the time.

I guess we have a lot to fix these days and roads just aren’t that high on the list of priorities. But that day is coming when the old squeaky wheel will get some grease and run smoothly again.

The last time I hit a really bad pothole on one of our roads, I remembered back to my childhood days. In my mind, I was riding in the car with my parents on the worst road I have ever traveled – the “Old Buckeye Road.” Well, now it’s known as Lake Boulevard. But in the olden days when Buckeye was Buckeye and Summit City was Summit City and the heart of Shasta Lake City was Central Valley, the roads on which we thought nothing about were horrid to travel on. The smoothest route to Redding from Summit City was Shasta Dam Boulevard that went though Central Valley to Highway 99. It was also the main road from Highway 99 to Shasta Dam. But the shortest route from Summit City to Redding was the Buckeye Road, the pothole-riddled, chip-sealed route that motorists took most of the time. You had to drive very slowly if you didn’t want your old 1940s or late-model ‘50s vehicle to shake and shimmy.

For years, my dad took that old road home from his job in the PG&E garage on North Court Street in Redding. So, that’s the route the rest of the family always took. Besides we had aunts and uncles and cousins that lived at the half-way point and we’d stop and visit on some trips.

I’m looking forward to the day the road from home to town is a smoothly paved, double-lane expressway that won’t beat my car up anymore.