interesting experience on the ride home

[mrlich]

On my way home from my route today, I noticed a group of bikers in the right hand lane - I was in the left. I love that - seeing a group of riders. It warms me in a way I doubt I can accurately describe. It's that sense of brotherhood with complete strangers that you're just not likely to 'get' unless you know it.  It was all the better because the enormous guy in the middle of the group had an American Flag flying behind his bike that had to be at least four feet long. I could feel that sense of pride swelling within me.

I was following a tractor-trailer who was passing the group of riders. Suddenly, as I pulled up alongside the last in group of riders (the first I pulled up to), I noticed that something was hitting the front of my van. At first I had thought it to be bugs or something like that. Maybe a couple of pebbles from the road. But more and more came at me. It didn't take long before I realized that it was parts of one of the truck's wheels. He was going to lose a re-tread.

We've all seen them laying on the side (or even the middle) of the road. Large chunks and strips of black rubber. They come off sometimes when they heat up. I'm not 100% certain of the finer details, but I know this: you don't want it to hit the front of your car or truck when they come off the truck in front of you. I recently even heard a single account in the news of someone dying because the re-tread came through their windshield.

I looked to my right at the riders. They weren't wearing helmets.

Don't get me wrong. You're not likely to ever hear me preach about helmets. I'm more than a little happy that we got rid of that stupid fucking law in Pennsylvania. It's just that I knew that these people - who I already felt a kinship with - were now in danger. Real danger.

I pulled my van up as close as possible (within reason) to the guy's trailer. The idea being that if the tread should come of the truck it would (hopefully) hit my van first and slow or drop to the ground rather than fly into one of the bikes/riders.

Once he had passed the front most rider and a car that was in front of them, the truck pulled into the right hand lane in order to let me pass. I pulled up along side his cab and mouthed the words "You're loosing a tread!" twice before he understood what I was saying and nodded his head in acknowledgment. As I continued to pass him, I saw him heading for the side of the road. He had just started to pull to a stop when I saw the white plume of smoke in my rear view that told me that his wheel had finally given up the ghost..

Had he been on the road another 5 minutes, I'm certain he would have lost that tire - probably in front of the riders.

Okay. So maybe I have a slight streak of 'melodrama' in me. Maybe I like the idea of playing hero.

I most definitely do not like it when I actually see folks in (what I believe to be) danger. That just sucked. Like the train wreck you just barely missed.