The things you see when you’re driving up the road without enough death insurance!

First, the construction crews are out in force around here. Flaggers alert us to people who are filling potholes, trimming tree branches away from power lines, digging ditches to clear the storm drains, and fixing utilities. The thing is, though, that all of these folks are out and about restricting traffic to a single lane all at the same time.

Then there are the strange people. I was following a red Cavalier today that just looked weird. After awhile, I figured out why. The left rear wheel wasn’t a real tire; it was one of those stupid little spares doughnuts.

My understanding is that those things are only good for use at speeds under 45 MPH, and for no more than 50 miles. I’m not sure how far this car had gone, but I know for a fact that the safe speed was ignored. I stayed way back, hoping to avoid the aftereffects of a blowout. Fortunately, it turned onto a side road before anything bad happened.

Then, not two miles later, there was the big truck hauling bricks. I don’t know how it is where you live, but usually, loads of this type around here are carried on a very sturdy short truck with a solid frame. This huge load was on an tractor-trailer flatbed — the kind with the pivoting fifth wheel.

I came up behind this truck on a bridge crossing the river which narrows at the end from two lanes into one — just as it veers into a hard right turn. Since everybody wanted to pass the truck, they were speeding up into the bend to get around (NOT a good idea, especially when it’s just starting to rain!). The truck driver slowed, which was perfectly understandable, but he almost came to a complete stop. I was this close to wearing red bricks!

It’s good to be home again, safe and sound. I just hope everybody got it all out of their systems today, because I’ll be out on the roads again tomorrow!