It would have been even more hilarious if he had called the cops because of a spare tire thief.
One irritant around here is farmers parking in the roadway. It’s not only just plain ignorant but dangerous. A couple of examples.
Traveling down the county 2 lane I see a pickup ahead straddling the center stripe with both doors wide open. Slowing down to a crawl due to no road shoulders to speak of, I had to veer off in the narrow patch of grass to get around. The operator of the truck? Both driver and passenger were 50 feet away down in a ditch repairing a barbed wire fence; and there was several spots to safely pull over less than a 100 feet away.
Another one involved my coming around a corner and finding 2 pickups parked on the 2 lane; with each truck facing opposite directions. Both farmers were between the trucks and leaning against the front fenders carrying on a conversation in between spitting chewing tobacco into a cup.
There was a wide open area on both sides of the roadway located within 30 feet or so where both trucks could have safely been pulled off of the road and that’s where I had to drive to go around them.
A crop duster here has been known (and I’ve personally seen it) to use a county highway for a landing strip while tanking up on chemicals. The wingspan blocks both lanes along with any traffic and I’ve even seen a state trooper take another turn just to avoid being held up by an aircraft.
While cruising south on highway 99 in the central valley of California, a TransAm passed me doing 95 to 100 mph. That is not unusual in the valley. What was unusual was that the TA’s engine was hammering to beat the band. A rod was loose and really hammering.
As the TA progressed down the road, I mused to myself “I wonder how long that is going to last?”
About 10 miles further I saw a black stripe starting in the #1 lane; progressing across #2; and over the shoulder. At the end of the stripe, in a cloud of smoke sat the TA with its hood up and two individuals doing inspection.
I always wondered if they were hurrying to the service department to get the noise fixed before the engine let go.
And state law around here requires us to slow down 20 MPH below the speed limit when we approach an emergency vehicle stopped on the shoulder, or pull left (or both). I understand that only DC and Hawaii don’t have a similar law. Of course, there are very few places in DC where this law is practical. A good rule, IMO.
I had mentioned previously in the thread about someone starting a grass fire locally after towing a vehicle with a flat tire which created sparks and the roadside ablaze.
This evening’s paper had an addendum to this incident. Apparently the pickup being towed was actually stolen and was being towed to a metal recycling facility.
A police officer on the scene noted scrape marks on the pavement near the scene of the fire and followed the roundabout trail of scrape marks for about 3 miles to the recycling facility.
At that point he noted the missing tire on the pickup as it was about to be shoved onto the scales.
The man and woman who towed it in came up with half a dozen lame excuses before being arrested.
A look at the court record on the man shows he’s been arrested almost 20 times over the last 15 years for burglary, assault, theft of copper, lewd molestation of a childconcealing stolen property, assault with a deadly weapon, etc, etc. so one would assume the only thing this arrest will do is add to the total.
At least the police officer was on the ball and caught them quickly.
Strangest behavior I’ve seen on the road was on highway 260 northeast out of Phoenix on the Mogollon Rim. In a rural mountain area, we caught up with a highway-department flatbed truck driving east at about ten miles per hour. A guy in a hardhat and reflective vest was leaning off the back of the truck, picking up orange safety cones as he passed, and stacking them onto the bed.
After a mile or two of this, we came to a stretch where we were able to pass safely, and as we did, we saw another guy in a hardhat and vest on the front of the same truck, taking one cone at a time off the bed and placing it carefully in the middle of the highway.
We called the process “your highway tax dollars at play”.
@dadoctah–this is similar to what my wife did. She held a university administrative position and one of her colleagues failed to bring enough diplomas to the commencement ceremony. Now all that were given to each graduate as the graduate crossed the platform was the diploma cover. The actual diplomas are mailed out. At any rate, my wife knew that the president of the university would be very angry and probably fire her colleague. As the graduates descended from the stage after receiving the diploma, my wife would take the diplomas away and then discreetly take a bunch of diplomas to the other side where the diplomas were then passed out to the next group of graduates. Her colleague did go back in bring in the missing diplomas and these were distributed quietly to the graduates while they were seated.
Holy cow bait and switch? I was driving through CA, and for whatever reason there were Road construction signs, warning fines double. Then the end road construction sign with absolutely nothing different from the first sign to the last. No cones, no barrels, no construction, luckily no police car.
