I took the Ridgeline to Bangor today to have a recall repair done to the rear view camera wiring, of all things. On the way home, I hit a foreign object that was uncannily disguised as a road marking and instantly destroyed both wheels on the driver's side of the vehicle. Both rims are, as I believe the technical terms goes, bent all to fuck.

Given that I hit whatever it was at 75 miles an hour in the passing lane and both tires on the driver's side went instantly flat, I'm mildly impressed that I managed to get back across the highway and to a stop in the breakdown lane, as opposed to spearing off across the median or slewing into some other vehicle, but even so, I'm not feeling great about myself right now. I mean, shit.

In my defense, whatever I hit was yellow, rectangular, and lying at a right angle to and touching the equally yellow stripe at the lefthand side of the road. from the brief look at it I got before I ran over it, my brain didn't have the slightest suspicion that it was anything other than some kind of transverse hash mark on the road--which the DOT does put on there occasionally, as some kind of metering mark or something, not sure what the purpose is. The fact that it was a three-dimensional object solid and heavy enough to wreck alloy rims on impact was such a surprise that it took me a good few seconds to parse what the fuck had even happened, once I finished wrestling the truck to the opposite shoulder and got it stopped.

At first, thanks to misreading the message that the TPMS computer threw, I thought all four tires were flat, which was even more confusing. While I was waiting for AAA, I called the state police, not because I particularly needed police assistance, but because I thought they might want to have a look for whatever the hell I hit. When they arrived, they said they hadn't seen anything, so hopefully I punted it into the median. Certainly none of the other traffic streaking past while I was stuck there waiting seemed to have encountered anything that inconvenienced them.

Also in the "what the hell was your brain even doing?" department: two state troopers and I replaced the front wheel with the spare, walking past the rear wheel on that side repeatedly in the process, and not once did any of the three of us register that that tire was also flat. I didn't notice until I had limped a couple of miles to a gas station at the next exit, where I planned to air up the spare. And yes, that does mean I had to call AAA and uncancel my tow request, which I had canceled after the state troopers and I changed the first wheel. At least that gas station was a safer place to wait for the tow truck than the side of the Interstate...

Fuck. Those wheels are really fucking expensive. I think I see steelies in the Ridgeline's future...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Please note that I am not admitting to speeding in the above, the speed limit where the incident occurred is, in fact, 75 mph.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I did the same once by hitting a small hole in the road. And AAA is invaluable, having saved my butt on numerous occasions.

*******************************
I'm really here, but I'm not
here, really.

25.807 - The square root of
all evil.

Holy crap on a cracker, I'm glad you are personally OK. That could have turned out really bad for you if the conditions were wrong.

Michael C. Fortner
"Maxim 37: There is no such thing as "overkill".
There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".

Yikes. Good to know the Ridgeline fulfilled its purpose of getting you out unharmed, as well as coming out in repairable condition.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Oh, -shit-! I'm just glad you're all right.

I just had to replace all four of my tires, and that wasn't cheap, but I'm sure the rims cost much more. Ugh.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

Yikes, that sounds awful. I'm glad you're okay!

Just as glad as everyone else to hear you're okay. Sounds like some shifty business and I'm annoyed the cops didn't do more due dilligence to whatever ish'd you up.

Holy shit. I'm reminded of the time my dad managed to run over a whole damn tree, with mom and I in the truck too. Apparently it had been knocked over during a storm sometime while we were away. SOMEHOW, the truck managed to come through with very little damage? But I'm pretty sure it fucked up my back in the process, to say nothing of mom's.

Sincerely glad you're still on the right side of the dirt and relatively unharmed, not counting the financial damage. Which... considering where and how it happened, I feel like the state should be paying you something for nearly punching your ticket. Just sayin', sounds to me like those officers might not have had much incentive to be thorough in their search.

...But then I'm a paranoid asshole who tends to think the worst of cops at the best of times.

>Just
>sayin', sounds to me like those officers might not have had much
>incentive to be thorough in their search.

To be fair, wandering around the Interstate on foot is incredibly dangerous.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Especially with the speed limit at 75. Which usually means normal traffic running at 80-85. Twelve inches too close and somebody riding the rail, yeah very very bad.

>Holy shit. I'm reminded of the time my dad managed to run over a
>whole damn tree, with mom and I in the truck too.

My Mother-in-Law (with my husband and brother-in-law in the car) once ran over a roundabout.

Not one of those small british things; a full size Spanish highway roundabout with a small copse in the middle.

Somehow she avoided hitting any trees; but all four wheels needed replacing.

L.

>Not one of those small british things; a full size Spanish highway
>roundabout with a small copse in the middle.

I misread that as "corpse" and was like, Whoa, whoa, hold up a sec, buried lede, yo.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>Not one of those small british things; a full size Spanish highway
>>roundabout with a small copse in the middle.
>
>I misread that as "corpse" and was like, Whoa, whoa, hold up a sec,
>buried lede, yo.
>
Heh, that would have been a really exciting evening.

L.