Whoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! What a rush!!!!! Decided to ride the bike
in to work again today and it was almost my last trip. I stopped on
Six Forks Road heading north to wait for oncoming southbound traffic
to clear so I could make a left turn. That portion of Six Forks road
has one lane heading north, one heading south. No traffic light at
that intersection. So when someone stops at the intersection where I
stopped, traffic behind them has to wait for them or drive around them
on the right by driving off of the side of the road. It's pretty rough
there so it's only safe to drive around at probably 10 mph or so. So
I'm sitting there in the leftmost portion of my lane in case someone
wants to drive around when I heard it. That sound. The sound nobody
wants to hear. The sound of tires on pavement starting to squeal as if
though they are on the verge of locking up. I look up in my side
mirror and sure enough... a white pickup truck is coming up on my ass
FAST. I could tell he was having trouble controlling his truck. I
didn't have time to think or do ANYTHING. Apparently he figured out
that there was no way he was going to be able to stop in time so he let
off of his brakes and at the last second he ran off the road on the
right and passed me at about 50 mph. Came within about a foot of me,
but it felt like a couple of inches. I could feel the blast of air
from his truck as he passed me. Hair stood up on the back of my neck.
Man, that will make you aware of your mortality in a hurry. Another
car stopped behind me a few seconds later, southbound traffic cleared,
and I was on my way. There was a woman sitting at the intersection in
her van who had been waiting to turn southbound onto Six Forks who saw
the whole thing. As I rode past her, she had a look on her face that
said "Dude, you *almost* just got killed." Yeah, no kiddin'. Maybe I
should get one of those strobing brake light thingies too. Me - 1.
Death - 0. Y'all almost lost me today. :-)