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March 21, 2007
The Trip Out West: Part II -- The Breakdown
When I left you last time, Tom had just taken over driving and I had just drifted off to sleep.
A cut and paste indicates I said it like this:
I’m certain that it was just a moment or two after sleep overtook me that I was awakened by a quick jarring sensation followed by a loud thump, and while I don't remember any actual screeching I've got to believe there was some as I look back on what had happened.
I sat up in my seat and noticed right away that the car was sitting at an odd angle. I also noticed that the front driver's side tire was accelerating away from us and heading off into the median.
Tom didn't say a word. He had his hands on the wheel and we seemed to be heading toward the breakdown lane on the right-hand side of the road. I remember wondering if he was steering us toward the berm or if we were being sucked off to the side of the road and that Tom was doing everything he could to keep us from whipping from side to side. He did seem very calm.
The car had slowed dramatically when the tire came loose. Tom was probably on the brakes a bit too. In any case the driver's side front tire seemed to be making a hasty getaway as it continued in the westbound lane of I-70. It eventually took a turn into the grass median.
I'm not sure what the interstate is like where you live, but here in the midwest we have lots of flat land and we like to have some green between our opposing lanes of high-speed traffic. It isn't uncommon for our medians to be at least two lanes wide. I don't know that this is important to the story, I just thought you might need a break from being all worked up about my safety.
We'd been doing about 70 when the tire came off and I really expected it to do some TV-style bouncing and jumping into the air when it went into the grass. It didn't' I just went into the median at a pretty shallow angle as it heading west toward eastbound traffic.
Eastbound traffic at that hour — it was daylight so it was probably on the far side of 5:30 a.m. — was light. Well, it was made up of a single car that I'm guessing was driven by a guy. I say this because the car never slowed as the tire came toward it and I think it's possible the driver saw the tire, noticed the angle, estimated the speed of the tire and realized that at the speed he was going there would be no impact. Of course, maybe he just didn't see it.
I'm not sure what the interstate is like where you live, but here in the midwest we have hillbillys and rednecks all over ours. There's just as good a chance that the driver saw the tire, looked over at his passenger, said, "God-dam! Ros-coe. Lookit this! Think we can beat it?! Hand me a beer." And before you get all hey-I'm-a-hillbilly on me let me, first, congratulate you on your ability to read multisyllabic words, and secondly, say that I've never had a hillbilly almost run into me; twice in the last two weeks I've had soccer moms on phones try to bash my fender or clip The Mighty Schwinn.
So, the tire eased out of the median, missed the only car on the road aside from us, and then went into the ditch on the other side of the road. It did a very eye-appealing TV-like bounce out of the ditch, shot down the grass a little further and stopped at a fence.
Tom and I had come to a stop in the berm. Despite what you are used to seeing on TV — tires bouncing in medians … girls bouncing on trampolines … explosions anytime a car has any sort of trouble — there was none of that. Just two guys and a broken Firebird.
A broken Firebird with a really sweet radio.
Tom and I got out to assess the damage. I'm not a car guy and I'm not sure of all the car-part names, but you know that part of the car you see when you take the front tire off a car? The part the brake pads are mounted to? And the rotor? Well, ours was on the pavement which made the front end sit low enough that it brought up thoughts of "how are we going to get a jack under that?" So, what have we got there — brake pads, rotor, tire — which sums up about all I know about automobile front-wheel assemblies.
And lugs! I know about lugs. And all ours were sheared off flush with whatever it is they attach to.
I could go on. But do you really want to read more than this in any one setting?
Tune in tomorrow.
Posted by delmer at March 21, 2007 6:29 AM
Comments
Dag! Serialization. I'm going to not read WDALL for a week at a time because the suspense is killing me. Who do you think you are? Stephen King? The phrase "sheered off flush" strikes some chord deep within me(shivers) but then again so does "sheared off flush."
Posted by: icymt. at March 21, 2007 11:40 AM
Everybody's a critic. I get absolutely no credit for all the words spelled correctly or used in the correct context.
Would it help if I said I was listening to Queen's "Sheer Heart Attack" when I wrote that last entry?
Posted by: delmer at March 21, 2007 12:49 PM
Sure I want to!
Oh well... it gives me something to add to my "to-do list" for tomorrow... :-)
Posted by: Dave2 at March 21, 2007 1:56 PM