So, Saturday was the big day for me. I finished packing up after starting early that day at 3AM. Unfortunately, didn’t get on the road until 6PM for a normal 10 hour drive to Charlotte, NC.Had a 27’ Uhaul with a car carrier towed behind. Uneventful, until I got below Pittsburgh, when I noticed sparks flying behind me. Pulled off the shoulder to discover that one car carrier tire had disintegrated. Nothing left but a piece of sidewall on the rim, which had begun dragging on the road,- thus the sparks. Had to wait for road service, which took another 3 hours... At one point while I was waiting with a vehicle full of my guns, a state trooper stopped. Instead of asking what the problem was, he demanded my license, and then radioed dispatch to check if it was valid, and then told them “to associate my license with that vehicle”. Have no idea why.
At about 2AM or so, as I was driving the winding hills of I79 in West Virginia and looking for a place to pull over and rest as I was pretty beat, I lost focus for just a second. That was all it took.
In an instant, while doing 70MPH, the road curved a bit and I was suddenly launched over the shoulder and into the median! I was an out of control runaway as the roadway turned downhill. There were several other cars traveling near me when it happened, and I can only imagine what those drivers must have been thinking.
As for me, I went from tired and a bit drowsy to suddenly fully fucking wired! I found myself headed down into the median, feeling very much like a runaway freight train. I was doing my best to keep from turning over. The truck and car trailer was bouncing all over as I tried to avoid what looked like obvious ditches, and thinking: Oh God, I hope I don’t run into some concrete drainage culvert or who knows what else! I was trying to slow down without locking it up and flipping over, but it was a pretty steep downhill, and I just kept going. I remember dodging a few poles, - it was kind of similar to ski racing in giant slalom courses I did in my younger days. I couldn’t stop, and I’m not sure that I was slowing up very much either. I think I must have run in the bottom of the median for at least 1/2 mile or more.
During this, I suddenly remembered thinking about what they told me when I rented the truck: the damage waiver covers any and all damage to the truck EXCEPT for any caused to the roof from going under a too low of underpass, and I thought: well, at least if I crash here, it’s going to covered!
All of a sudden, the road curved again, and I found myself headed up out of the median toward the road in my same direction. I was hoping I didn’t stall out or get stuck at that point. I actually gunned it a bit and made it up onto the roadway without hitting any other cars! I found a spot to pull over a ways further down the road to check on things. No obvious damage, although my van tie down straps had come off the left side. Good thing it was also chained down.
I did end up finally getting to a rest stop, and snoozed for a couple of hours. Didn’t get to Charlotte until almost 4PM Sunday (22 hours later). I was pretty beat, but needed to offload the van and to unload the truck. I did find that despite my best packing and tie down efforts, that some items got destroyed during that wild ride. Oh well!
I have always loved actual roller coaster rides, but this was one I could have done without. Scared the shit out of me! Glad to be here in one piece.
And, before I forget, - FUAC!
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