Here's My Sign

I was rollin' north on I-75... probly 25 miles south of Choo-Choo... That's Chattanooga for all you folks who's daddy's ain't truckers... anyway... It was a gorgeous day... I had new tires on the bike... Life was just good.

On up the road aways I notices a ton of black smoke pouin' into the air and suddenly traffic slowed way down. Clearly life wasn't good that day for everybody... Whatever it was had just happened... because traffic was still movin' pretty good... and as I got closer, even though I couldn't see it, it was somethin' burnin like hell on the side of the road. Now one of the cool things about bikes is... if you want to see something, you can. So I popped over to the far right side of the far right lane... and.. aw hell...

There on the side of the road sat a F-350.. burning like hell from tailgate to grill. I know it was a Ford... because it was on the side of the road on fire.

Anyway I figured I was armed... and whoever was in that bad boy wasn't in no position to be much of a threat... so I pulled over... along with a trucker who'd decided the same.

Next to the burnin wreck... I found this ol' boy... just standin' there starin' at it... Eye's all wide... I tell ya boys.... this feller was white... I mean pale as anything I've ever seen. He was all shook up... and ever so often... he'd curse... Not an angry curse... more like... a "I can't believe I'm alive" curse.

I stood next to him silently a little while... and without makin' eye contact I said... "anybody else in there?"

"Umm.... naw man..."

"You ok?"

"Ummm... naw... naw.. well I mean... yeah... I ain't hurt I mean..."

"So... umm... what happened?"

Then... for the first time he got a little color back... He turned an looked me... gave me this blank expressionless.. stunned look...

"ummm... It caught on fire."

"Yeah... Yeah I kinda got that part... but I mean... How did it manage to catch on fire like that... and still have the common decency to let you get out first?"

"well.. I was rollin' down the road there... and I smelt somethin' electrical... and I thought... hell... that smells like somethin' electrical... Then I seen smoke... and I pulled over, jumped out... and..." As he trailed off he just held his hands out to the truck... as if to silently say.. "that happened."

About that time the trucker walked up. I asked him if he had a fire extenguisher... he just shook his head...

"yeah... I got one... but it won't touch that."

Anyway... the trucker said he'd take care of the boy... and the law was about to get there, so I figured I'd go ahead and bail out... I'd already earned my sign anyway.