Sorry for yet another long delay in blog posts. There has been a lot happening, it is taking a little time for everything to settle down so I can sum it up in a few paragraphs and photos.
Left the Columbia River Gorge as the autumn rain started to fall and headed south. Across eastern Oregon through Pendleton and Baker City, through Boise and Twin Falls in Idaho and down though Ogden, Utah. Turned to the east a bit and headed through Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Cut across the northeast corner of Colorado and entered the lovely state of Kansas. Turned dead south at Salina and made for Wichita. On the radio was a 50-50 mix of college football and fire and brimstone religious stations. Soon, I was in the dismal state of Oklahoma.
As I entered Oklahoma City, I was having Los Angeles traffic hell flashbacks; small foreign cars darting in and out of traffic, racing each other causing a flood of swerving vehicles and brake lights. It took about ten minutes for me to realize this was someplace I didn’t want to be. I tried to make it through the traffic as cautiously as I could, but with just a few miles left to get out of town, my luck ran out.
A sudden four into one lane freeway merge created a huge clusterf–k. Traffic was at a dead crawl as every vehicle on the freeway squeezed into one lane. After about a half hour, I was able to finally merge into the open lane. As I let another car merge in front of me, I felt a bump from behind. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that a semi had hit me from behind. Not an accident by any means, this guy decided he didn’t like the way I was driving and decided to “teach me a lesson” with a six ton truck.
I stopped and got out to see that this redneck asshole truck driver had wrecked both of my bikes on the trailer hitch rack. When the truck driver crawled out of his cab, it was clear he wasn’t sorry at all for hitting me.
What kind of gutless loser settles his issues by hitting somebody when they aren’t looking with a 12,000 pound truck? I was pretty mad, but what could I do? I was probably dealing with a guy who beats his wife and bullies little girls. I never thought too much about truck drivers, most of the log truck drivers where I lived in the Pacific Northwest were pretty cool guys who drove in demanding and dangerous conditions. This hillbilly jerk truck driver from Florida was nothing but a pimple of the ass of mankind. Comforting to know that the driver of the tractor trailer passing you at 80 mph may decide to kill you because he doesn’t like the way you look, the color of your car or what license plate is on it.
Anyway, thankfully I was shortly out of Oklahoma, a place I hope I never have to pass through again, and down into Texas. Through Fort Worth, past Texas Speedway and down through Waco(or was that Wack-o?). Finally, I reached the hill country outside of Austin. One last right hand turn down Ranch Road 2243 and into Leander, TX. Made it.
I was happy to see my friend here in Leander, relax on the couch and have a couple beers. The rain was right behind me.
I’m waiting for my bike wheels to be rebuilt so I can have a look around Texas hill country. More to come.
Ugh, I’m starting to hear more and more stories like this lately. My dad was on the way to the airport to drop my brother off for a weeklong trip out west, when a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel (we can only assume), and rammed them off the road, totaling my dad’s SUV. Think he stopped when he woke up and saw half my family fishtailing out of control in the rear view? Think again…
–Mark
I’m sure most truck drivers are responsible human beings but it only takes one jerk to cause a lot of damage.