Avoiding boredom

Illinois is dry and pleasant. Nashville was not. Heavy rain. And apparently a history of it.

I came around a curve on the Interstate and saw a nice little pond covering ALL of the left lane. Several inches deep. At least.

Brake hard. Let go. Brake hard. LET GO!!!

Hit the puddle.

Laugh at yourself for calling it that. If you have time.

Feel the truck rise off the asphalt as the water roars beneath you. Feel it start to drift and yaw.

Steer gently. Hope you still have some rubber on the road.

Stay off the brake! The only thing worse than the excessive speed* would be a wheel locking up just at this moment.

I lost about 20 mph in less than a hundred feet. And about ten pounds. Then the wheels found solid something or other. Real steering. Slow acceleration. A gentle shift to a center lane--suddenly the crown of the road seemed like a good place to be.

***

Climbed out of Tennessee, crossed Kentucky. The rain faded, the roads dried.

And then the construction. Traffic slowed.

And abruptly stopped.

I was hanging back, but not (as it turns out) nearly enough. I hit the brakes, but not really hard enough. And came to a stop about 3 feet from the car in front.

I would have gotten stopped sooner, but there was another 18-wheeler right behind me. And I mean right behind me. I kept easing up on the brakes to give him the opportunity not to rear-end me.

When I came to a stop (three feet from the car in front of me, if you recall) I looked behind me. I couldn't see the tractor trailer behind me at all. But I could see its shadow. He was closer to my bumper than I was to the four-wheeler.

And I'm sure a good heart attack was had by all.

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*It wasn't excessive two seconds ago...