Flying Hubcaps

Back when the Daughter first got her drivers license we drove from NM to California to pick up a car for her, Cindy’s Dad had a Plymouth Sundance with a standard transmission that only two people in the Continental United States could drive.

Cindy’s Dad was one and I happened to be the other, it was a really nice car once you mastered the art of changing the gears, so after several days of training, screaming, crying, and grinding gears Melissa could now drive it.

We headed back to New Mexico, Melissa was excited thinking she would be driving on the freeway; Cindy and I were apprehensive because we knew that Melissa did not have enough experience for this type of a trip as of yet.

Following her for the very first time my fears were confirmed when I saw two hubcaps fly from her car straight into the wide blue yonder, the very next stop Melissa was sent to the passenger side of the car, I should have realized then how many tires she would eventually destroy, I had a flat became a common phrase in our house.

We finally set into a rhythm driving down the highway, Cindy was following behind me and Melissa was asleep on the passenger seat of the car I was driving, I was finally in charge of how fast we would be going, and for a bonus I was listening to the tunes I like.

All of a sudden right in front of me two cars come to a complete stop, side by side mind you and it appeared they were chatting with each other, coming up on them at about 80mph I pulled onto the shoulder and went around, Cindy followed and you would think the worst was over…Right?

Following Cindy was a Semi Truck that was not slowing down, Cindy swerves to the left and all I could see in my rearview mirror was his Chrome Bumper, I swerved back to the right onto the shoulder and looked to my left to see Cindy looking at me from underneath the trailer on the other side of the truck.

It was kind of like one of those scenes you would expect in a movie like Smokey and The Bandit, here we are driving toward Albuquerque, NM at about 75mph, 3 wide with Cindy in the left lane, a maniac trucker in the right, and me on the shoulder waving to my wife under the trailer of his truck.

He laid on the air horn as he went between us and I pulled back into the lane, the very next exit we pulled off because I think we were both shaking so hard by that time we couldn’t drive anymore without settling our nerves.

Just as I parked the car Melissa threw the blanket she was covered with aside, yawned and asked, “Why are we stopping?” I said that was a close one, we were almost run over by a truck, she then had the nerve to say, “Why didn’t you wake me up, because I would have wanted to see that”

I can’t imagine myself calmly saying, Hey Melissa you had better wake up because this is an accident you should really see, “Well you don’t have to be so mean about it” she said.

This was almost as bad as the time we almost ran into an airplane that was crossing the highway on our way to Texas.

Have you had any close calls that did not result in an accident?