Death defying ride....NEW ORLEANS Tour, 2010 !

Great luck, alert rider, good motorcycling capability...I was tested a lot!
    I have been writing about NEW ORLEANS VOODOO...and how it kept challenging me my whole tour. In this report, I must list the many close calls I had. But I am writing from home...so NEW ORLEANS VOODOO...I won !!!

   A few years back, I was riding through St. Paul, MN, enroute to the Canadian west. Morning rush hour traffic, roiling rain, and a flatbed truck with steel garage door framing, dumped its load, so to speak. I was lucky in that that chaotic crash happened all around me, within feet of my bike, but no contact, no injury, no damage to my bike or to me.
   The NEW ORLEANS VOODOO tour had a number of potential disasters, bike crashing, injury possible incidents. Let me tell you about them...no special order of danger, crisis level or potential result.
   The 'boss' and I were 'streaming along' in another downpour, somewhere along I-70, midway between St. Louis and Kansas City, enroute to KC. The rain was a sudden deluge, making visibility like standing in the cascading waterfall at Niagara Falls. If I could hardly see, I hate to imagine how non-visible I must have been to vehicle drivers behind me. To stop along the side of the highway was likely an even worse decision, so we rode steadily onward. Glancing to my left, a red pickup truck was gliding past me in the passing lane in the downpour. As the driver nosed ahead of me, his vehicle began to slide, maybe hydroplaning. The truck began what seemed to be a mesmerizing spin, sliding totally perpendicular to my line of travel, 'fully across my bow.' And the truck kept moving along the highway, at speed, at right angle to the road. It also kept spinning, now crossing my line of path but moving toward the shoulder. Now, facing me and still sliding backwards along the shoulder. This would have been awesome, on TV or at a movie, but not so in real life.
   The truck was now going backwards, again at speed, but now moving into the grassy shoulder and beginning to plow out its own path as it slid into the mushiness alongside the highway. I had released the accelerator but was now passing the truck along my right side. It was now slowing itself in the sloggy mess of the shoulder, still moving, fast...and still spinning slowly. The rear of the truck now slid into some trees along the highway shoulder and spun around again to face back on to the road. I rode past, too afraid to stop, too shook up to pull over for fear of being hit by an upcoming vehicle. I could see the driver sitting behind the wheel,  upright, peering out of his windshield. I rode on. The "boss" with her head buried behind my shoulders, shielding herself from the rain, never saw a thing. Thank goodness!

NEXT, BMW bikes, not all they are cracked up to from the accessories consideration, anyway.
   I-70, just past Columbia, MO, the rain had finally stopped and the sun, bullying its way through the clouds, had dried the highway.  Riding conditions were good now. Suddenly I felt a 'whump' under the bike as if I have ridden over some obstacle on the road. But I knew I hadn't for I am a very alert rider always watching the roadway for accident causing road kill of any sort. I glanced in my right side rear-view mirror and saw obstacles flying out to the side of my bike, from my bike. My right side case had popped open and luggage was exploding out on to the roadway behind me as if a window had popped open on a jet plane. The "boss" was thumbing on my side, a panicked action indicating the need for appropriate driver action from me. Meanwhile, my bike was pulling to the ride and I fought to keep it in an even line but decelerated as smoothly as possible given that I am traveling at highway speed, about 70 mph. I managed to pull over to the side of the road as soon as possible, maybe a third of a mile down the road. Dismounting, we both looked back to see a man, car parked along side the road, on the highway grabbing our belongings and flinging them to the roadside. Meanwhile, vehicles were veering around him and around the road debris. We later learned this was Daniel, a recently returned Iraq vet who said, "Last few months, I have been saving a lot of people." He saved things for us.

   In short, other than having things damaged from abrasion with being thrown onto the pavement at highway speed, everything was OK. We were uninjured; the bike seemed OK, except for a hard case damaged by being fully open and being dragged on the road. Luckily, I travel with tie straps and we were able to collect recovered belongings and tie the case closed. This was the second case now tied closed, as the top case had its closing mechanism fail the day previously.
   The deep abrasive damage on the shoulder of the case indicated why the bike was pulling as we rode. The cover was acting like a rudder, scraping the roadway and pulling the bike to the right. Again, talk about good luck or good rider capability. Only the hard case and some luggage was damaged. We were both fine! Thanks Daniel...whoever you are !
   I wish this ended my dangerous incidents writing, but there was more.
   Leaving Cleveland, riding along highway I-90, in the express lane, a safe distance behind a passenger car, suddenly the car began to swerve one direction, then, another. I realized the driver was dodging something in front of him and I decelerated immediately also, veering left and right to avoid flying debris, rubber tire shreds. I then realized that just a little further up the road, to the right, a pick up truck towing a flatbed trailer with lawnmowers on board, was shredding a rear driver side tire. He had shred off the rubber tire totally and was riding on the metal rim, sparks flying out behind him like shooting stars! The truck driver was not slowing down at all. I sped up to pass the danger, glanced at the drive so I could jab my hand downward to signal him he was having major problems. No point...the driver was on the phone !!!!

   Again, luck, skill, or alertness...I don't care which it was but I was safe, once more. Still it wasn't over.

  Arriving at the USA-CANADA border mid-day, I was in no rush and was about to get into one of the waiting queues. Glancing to my right, a car was totally disregarding me and driving into my lane/line. I hit my horn, veered left to avoid being hit and the driver finally recognized that there was a bike on his left. Whew...another close call and I was simply going in a straight line. At this point, I could hardly wait to get across the border. Better yet...home!
   As a riding friend has said about my riding capability. "You are a very good rider, just too fast!" I don't agree. I was very careful with my speed, using both my cruise control and my common sense to always obey the speed limitations posted. I never got one ticket or even a warning in over a month of touring the American south and central USA.
    Visit back again !