Almost lost the Rodeo last night....

[Ramblin Fever]

not too mention my sanity!

I can be here to tell you now that it's not a roll-over happy vehicle as I could've very easily laid it down on it's side.

I was heading up a double wide road, in the left lane doing about 35mph or so, not a single car around me; out of nowhere this semi comes straight out of a parking lot on the right, and I mean he's coming STRAIGHT out. At a slight to the right angle, but otherwise straight across the two lanes.

Thank goodness for side mirrors as I saw a reflection of chrome in my passanger mirror, blinked hard twice and then it dawned on me that it was the front of a big gray semi. Just then I could see his front hood peice literally about to come in through the passanger window.

I swirved hard to the left, down into a somewhat flat grass median, but then had to swirve hard back to the right as there was a green poll, then back to the left as the semi was still coming.

Finally it dawns on him that someone's there.

He was a nice guy as he did stop and jump out, but talk about scared sh$$less.

I don't know how I missed him, I really don't. We technically should have collided we were that close.

I'm just glad I didn't have the kids with me, that would've really freaked them out .

Thank goodness for quick reactions

[rodeo02]

The heck with the rodeo, atleast you and the other guy got out of it unharmed!! That is scarry stuff.

G/luck
Joel

[Joihan777]

Thank God you're OK.
That's as big an arguement for the merits of situational awareness
and nimble vehicles.

Can you imagine if you were on an engrossing cell phone call or
driving a 88' Buick Century?.....or a Hummer?

Great Driving man!

[Gizmo42]

Nice driving. You probably need to go shopping for new shorts and clean the interior now but easy enough to take care of.

My close call y'day wasnt nearly as exciting but I did find out how fast a rodeo can stop. I was merging from one highway to another, looked in my mirror to get over a lane and looked up in time to see that everyone in front of me had stopped , and I was really close to the car in front of me. I slammed the brake, got a short chirp from the front tire and was stopped. Luckily nobody was right behind me. If that had been my mitsu pickup I would have slid into them.

Edit: BTW, I'm using Satisfied brand pads in the front with stock rotors. I havent done the rear pads yet (wanted to do them saturday but they havent come in yet and I had to help my sister move). I want to get braided brake lines eventually. Should be able to stop really good then.

[surferfletch]

Yikes. I had to lock it up at 20 mph on some residential streets when a guy on a cell in a pickup ran a stop sign Friday morning. My Jetta doesn't have ABS and the tires smoked pretty good. He gave me a little wave, but didn't hang up the phone. Gotta expect the other guy to do some crazy stuff or you'll be in the body shop (or worse) every week.

Here's another good one. Going to Tampa today with the family on a 2 lane highway. As I'm getting ready to go by an F-150 towing a small boat, a cinder brick he must have used to block the trailer wheels falls off the trailer fender, takes a couple of small bounces on the far side of his lane. It then bounces up about 6 feet and starts hopping across his lane towards us. It just misses the passenger side of my car. Dude drives obliviously on. Busch Gardens was still a blast! I'd much rather get my adrenaline rush at the amusement park than on the highway!