Cuisin' at 60 (55 zone) coming up on an intersection at the crest of a hill near my domicile and I notice the unmistakable top of a U-Haul van oncoming up to make a turn in front of me. Ok-no problem. Foot off gas, hover over the brake pedal, just in case...Holy ****-He's gonna' do it!
And it was no 9' mini box Chevy 150 cube van, oh, no-it was the 26' GMC house-hauler.
So, plan #2-slap it down to 4th and apply brakes-medium. That billboard of a truck was coming up real quick, but I'll miss him without going into the oncoming traffic lanes.
But, as soon as he cleared 45 degrees of his 90 degree turn-I saw that he was pulling a 30' twin axle CAR HAULER behind! With a '95 Buick on it!
Plan #3. Downshift again, snap a left with no brake, snap a right to clear the car trailer and hit the gas a skosh with counter lock to stop the inevitable spin. Missed him.
Went about my errands and returned to the scene of the near-mishap when I see the offending U-Haul at a new gas station at the intersection. I decided to seek an explanation from the driver. I pulled in nose to the door of the Mini-Mart and saw there was no one else in the store but the clerk.
I asked: "Is anyone here the driver of that rig"? One smallish fella' replied in the positive. I asked him if the nose of my Crossfire looked familiar. This segued into a cascade of apologies for what he acknowledged as a serious blunder on his part. He explained that he had driven straight through from West Texas and was on the last leg of his trip to North Carolina.
He said what I did was "Some of the best God Dammed driving I've ever seen"!
Well, to make a long story short-I brought them home (Bill, Jimmy and their mother, Caroline) fed them, had a couple of beers while Jimmy slept, made them all a late breakfast, and sent them on their way.
Nice folks. Just glad I didn't meet them 1 second sooner.