the story of the unluckiest man ever
Jumping ahead in the trip before I talk about the drive down Big Sur, the Monterey Aquarium, Napa Valley, etc... On our way up the northern part of the California coast we were listening to a radio station and heard the following news update (which was repeated every thirty minutes so we had a number of chances for it to sink in):
"...A missing man was found dead on ??? road near ??? point [it was described as a deserted backcountry road]. Apparently he tried to turn his minivan around, got stuck in a ditch, had a tree fall on the minivan, fell and was trapped under the vehicle which at some point caught fire..."
How unlucky is that? Clodagh pointed out that any one of those events on their own wouldn't kill you. Probably you could survive two or three of them at once, depending on which two or three. All four of them together at once? Not a chance.