Trucker Wife Tip of the Day:
Don't stop on a highway.
If you must stop on a highway,
get your little body out of your car and very far off the road.
Because a truck is coming around that curve behind you.
We were on hour gazillion of our trek from Guelph to Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie to Long Island to somewhere-in-Connecticut and back home again. Whatever area we were in was mountainous. So ... not Long Island. Definitely not Long Island.
Lots of hills. Lots of curves. On a highway.
That's where The Amazing Spike managed to bring his fully loaded flatbed truck to a halt several feet behind a woman whose car was -- completely -- stopped -- on a 65 mph expressway.
Silent prayer of thanks to whatever crew of flatbed angels were assigned to us that day.
Being a much kinder person than me, Spike climbed out of the truck to see if she was OK. (I also wanted to have words with her, but for different reasons. We agreed I should stay in the truck.) She was fine, and smilingly explained that her car had just quit running. "It's the strangest thing," she puzzled aloud. It was running now though, so she was just going to call someone on her handy little smart phone.
Spike nicely informed her that she had very nearly gone to meet her Maker just then. "Yes," she said cheerily. "I looked in the mirror and WONDERED if you were going to stop!" Spike chose not to educate her on the physics of bringing an 80,000-pound truck to a dead stop from 65 mph, and instead suggested to her that perhaps she should get off the highway into the emergency pull-off area just ahead, and he would follow behind. You know, so that she could live to see another day and all.
She thought that was wonderful, and gave a happy little wave to us as she pulled to the side and we carried on. I doubt she heard me ranting as we drove away.
Probably for the best.
