Highway wipeouts getting closer and closer !

A few years ago, on another tour, I was in St. Paul, MN and it was pouring buckets as I was about to depart the hotel. As I got on to the highway, in morning rush hour traffic, a flat bed truck carrying a load of huge garage door sized steel frames wiped out, to what started out was my left side. The truck began to slide, at the same time, beginning a clockwise rotation with the cab of the truck spinning out in front of me but slowly turning inward towards me and coming closer and closer. The rotation continued, more and more, and the truck slid closer and closer toward me sitting still on my bike, awed by what was happening in front of me. The truck continued its clockwise spin, always coming closer and closer. Then, it slid just a little to my right, then, more and more to my right and I realized it was going to slide through the guard rail on my right side, which it did.
   I heard the squish, whoosh of the tires mushing into the soggy grassy behind the guardrail and watched as the load began to fly off of the back of the truck being carried off by its own momentum. Pieces of steel framing flew out on to the highway, landing all over the road but thankfully, not slicing into any cars. Cars spewed water gushes as they slid to stopping. The truck slowed by the soaked grass, bogged down and stopped with the driver, looking shocked, sitting just to my right looking down at me. I thumbed up to him to signal that I was asking if he was OK...he jerked his thumb back at me vigorously, indicating back that he was ok. I slowly got my bike out of the crooked steel pretzel works which the highway now had become.
   Torrential downpours are not new experiences and I still hate them, more for my fear of not being seen by car drivers, than for being drenched.

   In my newest tour, NEW ORLEANS, the American SOUTH and the Smoky Mountains, I again encountered these rain gushing tempests where I could not see the car directly in front of me, but had to hope that the driver was not going to make any sudden stop. If he did, I would know it, the hard way! Worse still, if I couldn't see the driver in front of me, what did the driver behind me see as a biker is a hell of lot smaller than a car.
  Then, your imagination begins to take over as you ride slower and slower, hoping and hoping harder as to what may be behind you and that whatever it is, you hope that the driver has good eyes, really good eyes, and that he will be able to spot my tail lights long before he is about to smear me off the map.
   What kind of vehicle is that behind me. I can't see a thing...nothing in front, nothing in my mirrors, nothing as I turn my head in various directions to see what I can see. Is it a car behind me? An RV? Another biker? A pickup truck? Or worse?

Oh man...
   The mind can create its own horrors !
   And if someone were to suggest, pulling over, getting off the road. \Not a chance...stopping at the side of the road, means you are a stationary target now, not moving ahead of the traffic behind but letting it catch up to you. Or worse still, hitting you as you sit at the side of the road. Sorry, that isn't a decision I make when I am riding in the rain. I continue moving...but let me describe my latest little adventure just north of Nashville.
   Again, the downpour would make Noah smile, but not a BMW rider.
   I am going along at a slowed pace, but in a steady, straightpath. My riding partner, the "boss" has her head buried deep behind me to shelter herself from the pelting rain. She sees even less than I do as her head is bent down behind my helmet and close to my shoulders.
   Then, out of the corner of my eye, on my left, I spot a red pickup truck trying to pass me. "Is he nuts or what!!!" I ease up on the throttle..."Let the fool go!" but to my surprise, instead of passing me, he begins to slide, sliding with a slowly beginning clockwise rotation. 'Across my bow, now,' so to speak but definitely in front of me, but rotated a full 90'. I would be hitting him broadside except that he is also sliding along at speed along the highway away from me. Remember I have released the thottle and so, I am decelerating.
   Next, his rotation continues, as he begins to slow finally, except his motion has now moved him passed my line of travel, over to my right and now he is facing traffic and sliding BACKWARDS, still at speed. His slide is now moving him toward the mushy, water logged grassy shoulder and he bulldozes his way into this green sponginess, still sliding backwards. His rotation has stopped, it seems, but the truck is still sliding, backwards and toward the trees along the sides of the highway. I have slowed my bike to a near stop  and  I look, the truck cab faces me, the driver behind the wheel, looking like he has been fighting that steering wheel for dear life. Hitting the trees backwards, has stopped the truck, seemingly undamaged, ditto for the driver, though undoubtedly shook up really badly. I guess he is unhurt from the way the truck has stopped, fully upright, tail into the trees, and front facing back toward the highway. I am too afraid to stop, but from the looks of things, I guess the driver is ok...I keep going, steadily, slowly.
   I never did go back to see if my guess was right. I was too afraid in that downpour to do anything but keep going until the rain broke enough so I could get off the at the very next exit. And then, the rain stopped, the sun broke through the cloud cover and I was riding safely once again.
   Oh if only what could be behind me was just a tad more historical than the new vehicles of today, with their drivers who think they can outmaneuver Mother Nature.

 Visit back again !