Friday, September 10, 2021

Getting Run off road by truck

The second story I promised to tell you on this blog was what happened the day of the nails / shop. The truck had some freaking issue, nothing new. I was in the middle of Lord-knows-where. After my delivery that morning, I went to the nearest truck stop, which was a block away from customer and made an appointment. I'd to wait pretty much all day. What that usually entails is Catching up on TV shows and social media.Oh and painting nails and toes, you how that goes. Manscaping is important, kids! They finally get done and I would like to cover at least a couple hundred miles before the day is over. I got on my way right away. Idaho to California, I believe.

Man! The Highway I ended up on was kinda like being in a nightmare. My cellphone lost signal just as I got onto that road! I think I had downloaded Tom Cruise's un-authorised biography. I ended up listening to that. Unfortunately, the chapters were jumbled up, so I couldn't tell what came first: The chicken or egg. 

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Deep into the 95 Highway, not i95 on the east coast - one of the biggest freeways in The US. I'm heading south towards Oregon. There was nobody else on this ghost road other than myself. All of a sudden, lights. It's another truck. They were stuck behind me because we were driving in mountains and one lane highway. I couldn't drive faster than I could. His options were to pass me on the solid line or push me off the highway. He went for the latter. I'm not even kidding. We had a passing lane, in which case, I immediately stuck to my right as I was obviously slower than him. I usually take the slower lane in these cases out of courtesy, unless the other vehicle is clearly much slower than my truck. This guy, it seems like, didn't have the oomph to pass me on an incline. Totally understandable but this is your only chance bro! The two lanes merged. At this point, Jackass is as close as the tail end of my trailer, so he soldiers on. I see him in my side mirror. This doesn't feel right. Where's this guy going? We're up the mountain with not much to save me should he shove me off the road. HEEEELLLLPPP! Boom! I hear the loudest noise ever! It always sounds much more exaggerated than it probably really is. How would I know? I may have been in similar situations since, stay tuned!

Dude intentionally swerved his trailer to hit my mirror. When I saw him getting closer and speeding up right as the lanes merged, I sped up too. I was doing it to save my life! He was running me off the road! It's not like this was a busy road. If push came to shove, pardon the pun, he could've just gone onto the oncoming traffic lane. Cross the freaking solid line, just don't commit a vehicular homicide. The fck are you doing? He hit my mirror and moved so on with his life, it wasn't even funny. I was so in shock! I just sounded my air horn, something I don't do often. Only for the rare kid who gestures for it.

Guy kept on trucking. I sped up to catch up with him but for what? Pure adrenaline. My memory has a tendency to be photographic, so I wanted to at least memorize his trailer registration plate number. There was no writing on his trailer. It's dark out, I'm in shock and I'm trying to catch his plate number. I caught a few numbers and the trailer number. I then thought to myself: Let it go! Right away, just find something else to focus on. Otherwise, it's gonna be a long night. You don't want to attract more of this foolery along the way. I caught up with him at a light. He had to stop cos red. By then, I'd made peace with the whole thing. Another example of what happens when you release something... it comes back to you, or rather, you catch up with it at a red light.

I got into Oregon and dealt with the same road conditions. Other truckers get impatient on one lane highways and pressure me to do the impossible. Even if I could drive faster up the mountain with a heavy load, what if I don't want to? You don't tell me what to do? Why don't you do as I do and drive faster? I don't make the rules, pal! Slow your jets! Or Truck or whatever! Can you say, Road rage? Freaking serial killers!

First rest area after a very long time, I pulled over. It was around midnight. I got the last make shift spot, grabbed it. I ran to the restroom, and back into my truck. Just as I was winding down, Boom! Someone hit my trailer in the back. My whole truck shook! I jumped up and put on a jacket and got out. I took a breath because I didn't want to react in a way I was going to regret later. We all make mistakes. It's just a trailer, they are used to getting hit. I almost think they were made to get bumped. I said hi, and inspected my trailer. Driver of the other truck profusely apologized. There wasn't even a new mark on my trailer but he didn't know that. I helped spot him until his was able to squeeze into the spot next to mine. Apparently, the guy who was there when I got there had left. There aren't a lot of stops on that route, so we get desperate.Also, we have time limits, when your time is up, it's up... kinda.

I went back to bed, woke up early and continued on my journey to Southern California.

I've a 6am wake up call tomorrow. Not bad! It's 21:20 right now, let me call it. Thanks for popping in.

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