Strange things in the road
 

I figured that we'd all need some comic relief after Tuesday's tragic events, so I figured that a true story would suffice.

Today, I just finished unloading at my second store in Baltimore, MD. I got on I-695 South and only got a few miles when traffic started slowing down. Mind you, this was at about 3PM, so I didn't think congestion would be THAT bad. Someone came over the CB and asked what was causing the backup. The response? "There's a *****ter in the road!"
After a nice, awkward silence, I couldn't help but ask... "Hoss, would you run that by me again? I wanna make sure I heard that right."
"Yes, there's a porta-john in the right-hand lane."
Turns out, he was only half-right. There were two of 'em, one in the dead center of four lanes of traffic, and the other in the far right lane. Before anyone asks, they were NOT loaded... with either humans or human byproducts.

The twin cities have some pretty bad and rude drivers.I'm on I-94 with a good 2 mile back up in all lanes.I get up closer and it was a family of ducks walking across that busy interstate,mom dad and 4 babies,not having a care in the world about possibly getting hit,LOL.It was actually quite cute and comical.Shows me that the twin cities traffic actually has a heart,LOL.

Other than the wild animals, I don't recall seeing anything that unusual. They say we have Chupacabras in west Texas, but I haven't seen any. :D

I'm from Sioux Falls,SD and nothing out of the ordinary ever happens here but when it does I make a big deal about it,LOL.One time while traveling on I40 just before Nashville a 4 wheelere comes up beside me and waves.Very nice looken and a smile that could lite up broadway.He passes me and five miles down the road there he is parked on the shoulder getting out of his bronko naked as a jay bird.At first I was speechless then thought wheres a cop when u need one then finally all I could do was laugh.Now i've been driving trk long enough that nothing phases me,LOL.

A porta-john? ON the road? Now, that's just about the most unusual story that I've ever heard of. I guess it isn't impossible, but that is really, really weird. Where, may I ask, did these porto-john's come from? Were they implemented there randomly by a company that was doing construction? Either way, if I would have seen that, I wouldn't really know how to react. I suppose slow down and bypass this unusual sight? O_o

Yes, ON the road. I reckon they came from where a guy didn't secure two of 'em. Yes, I just slowed down and bypassed it.

I've always wanted one of those mounted on my catwalk. :block:

I guess I missed the tragic part, or is it insiderinfo? or is it cuz I'm from Canada? ;)

Here is my most recent "strangest things on the road" experience. Going west on I-76 in Pa, right before the Breezewood exit has one of PA's finest sitting in the bushes on the westbound side. If you run that regularly you know that.

About a month ago, he had a hearse pulled over, yep, a hearse. I can just imagine the driver having to make excuses to the grieving family, on why the body didn't make it to the viewing or burial on time.

The tragic part (for some of us) was in reference to the elections back in the early part of November. I was particularly annoyed at the outcomes of them. So, I reckon it is because you're from Canada... in a way.

Maybe not so strange, but had a driver pass me the wednesday night before Thanksgiving on I-5 north bound with his DOT bumper crossbar bouncing up and down and only hanging on by the weld on the right side. I tried to get him on the radio, but no answer. Sure enough, 15 mins down the road, there it was in my lane and 70mph 4 wheelers swerving to miss it. Traffic was way to heavy for me to stop and move it, so call CHP was all I could do and hope it didn't ruin someones night.

Had a saw-mill laying across the road once. At night, a very strong wind blew the whole building onto the road... 8 X 8 beams and all. Also did a pretty good job of folding it up, so you didn't get to see it until just before you hit it. A guy in front of me was the one that hit it, and I slowed down to see why he stopped, so I didn't hit it. But, it flattened his tires, busted his oil pan, and I don't know if the tranny got away without any damage. Both fuel tanks had holes in the bottom too. Couple of his air-lines didn't do well either. Looked like he might have bent a couple of axles too, but I didn't hear any more about that.

:hellno:
In other words.... not much left of the truck?..

I found, tonight, what appeared to be an aluminum mirror arm off a tractor-trailer. Not the thin metal tubing, but a poured style for the newer aerodynamic style tractors. Two cars hit it (punctured tires) plus a State Trooper that hit the remnants of the mirror housing. Must have been ten pounds of aluminum scrap there,,,,,,,,not sure how you would lose one of those.

Have yall ever driven at night, and you look out the window or at the radio or whatever and.... thump!? You run over something.. and you didn't see it? I've done that.
you look to the side or something, and kaplupt..... you look straight ahead, and think, "what was that??" :lol: (most likely it was a dead animul, but it still makes ya wonder) :lol: ....

Simple... someone's wagon coulda come over into your lane. After all, I did have an auto hauler hit the driver's side mirror on a W900 I was driving in the Seattle area on I-5 two years ago, and a Roehl driver chickened out and crossed into my lane near a 'narrow' bridge on US-58 and tapped the passenger's side mirror on my first Century last year. Thankfully, both of those mirrors were intact, but the speed of impact was relatively low.

VPI.....true but it was found on a long curved ramp.....I saw no signs of it impacting with any part of the ramp or road sign. I should have thought about the scrap value of aluminum when I tossed it outta the road way.....this thing probably weighed 15-20 lbs...........once it hit the ground, the trooper snatched it up, mentioned the value and threw it in his car.

Actually, there was quite a bit of the truck left. Just that everything under it suffered. Front tires and axle, rear tires, trailer tires, air lines, fuel line, brake lines. Drive shaft bent, you know... Things like that. Otherwise, the truck really didn't look too bad. Front rims and rims on the front drive axle didn't look to spify anymore. One fuel tank was leaking, and both straps broken... And, that first step into the cab was a BIG one.

Some years back, there was blood all over the road, and the flesh looked like it went through a meat grinder. It was thought to be what was left of a deer, but someone, somehow, realized it was a human being. A woman that had been walking along the road. I was off duty, at home, when that happened. I heard about it the next day. No idea who was the first one to hit her, but it looked like more than a dozen trucks ran over her after that. Never heard who she was either.

About 3 months ago, driving south on I-5 thru Oregon a flatbedder lost his drive axle and took out a Chevy Suburban behind him, nothing serious, the Chevy busted a tire and had to pull off the road.

About 2 years ago I was driving thru S Florida thru the everglades and saw an Aligator's tail lying by the wayside... just the tail! The whole thing looked to be at least5 or 6-foot long!

It's a tie for me. On the one hand, I was coming up through Wytheville one night when a flatbed had lost part of a load of angle iron alllll over the road. I got slowed down some, but there was nowhere to go without running over some of it. I pulled off on the shoulder with dozens of other vehicles, and the only thing wrong with my truck was there was no longer a set of steps going up the side of the fuel tank. No punctured tires, amazingly enough.

The other one, I was coming up I-81 some way or other when this pickup truck with a load of stuff piled way up high on the bed merged on in front of me. He had this big metal shelving unit on top of everything, and it wasn't strapped down at all. I guess he figured it would ride, and he figured wrong. About as soon as he got up to speed, that shelf came off, and it kept sliding forward at 65 mph, losing speed slowly. I moved left to avoid it, and it moved into my lane. I ended up kissing the gravels off the side of the left shoulder avoiding that thing, but I didn't hit it. It's pretty amusing to think back on that little dance, and how moving left was the wrong thing to do in that particular situation, but there's no way I could have guessed which way that stupid shelf was going to track when it hit the road.

This one happened on Friday evening when NC and VA were getting some high winds. I was heading north on US-29 near Reidsville, NC and I noticed something amiss on the southbound side as a Celadon truck approached. A 100' pine tree was leaning over the road, and the top 10' or so had snapped off, falling down as the Celadon truck neared it. It shattered the windshield and the severed tree section bounced into the hammer lane. Thankfully, the driver escaped unscathed. I'm sure the folks heading south who didn't have CB's were rather shocked to see that tree in the road [without the trunk attached].

I once called the state police complaining about a naked pervert on the highway,(came up to my window and hung there whupping on his ding dong) and the operator told me to just not look at the scum bag. By the way did you see in the news about the naked devil that claims to really be a woman, sitting in a little girls school rest room. The DA will not prosecute. In saturdays news. Of course it also was in California. "where perverts hail from". I pray that God will severly punish such unsavory characters.

Was going north on route 61 in Mo. when a small pig fell out the back of a truck at 60mph bounced and rolled to side of road got up and ran into cornfield. Always wondered if he knew his future was grim if he didnt try escaping

This may explain why I had no Bacon on my plate this morning.