WWTBAM Bored

Took my dad to a doctor's app't in the Twin Cities today.

While driving the interstate in North Minneapolis at interstate speeds-a vehicle a few hundred yards in front of me lost a wheel and it went bouncing merrily down the road-It quickly jumped the 8-foot (or however high) concrete barricades into the other side of the interstate. Traffic was light and everything seemed to be OK on that side.

Things to worry about in the future-driving next to the concrete barrier and having a tire suddenly appear in your windshield.

That almost happened to me on I-40 around the Tenessee-North Carolina border at night in the winter in the mid-90s.

There was no other traffic; everyone else was smart enough to stay off the roads. That's a dangerous stretch of highway even in the day in summer.

Over the center barrier I saw a huge shower of sparks like from a grinding wheel. Then I saw something bouncing high above the barrier. As I got closer I could tell it was a tire and wheel. Then I could see what was causing the sparks: a Suburban going sideways down the other side of the highway.

There are no exits for at least 20 miles at that point so I couldn't go back and help and I had no cell service (this was before coverage was much better).