A Bat Out of Hell

I moved this week, from just outside Boulder, Colorado, to rural Ridgway, Colorado, in gorgeous Ouray County.

Actually, I’m not even in Ridgway (population: about 700; the entire county only has around 4,000), but outside town, on a mesa looking at two mountain ranges. I’ve long said that as a writer and online publisher, I can live anywhere I want — so why was I in a city when I truly prefer more rural areas? As long as I have a decent Internet connection, I can live anywhere I want.

On my way over to the new digs, I finally got the opportunity to give a cop some Get Out of Hell Free cards — but it wasn’t to get out of a ticket.

I was driving along in the middle of nowhere when I saw a squad car coming the other way on the two-lane highway. Like everyone else, my first reaction was to check my speed. No problem: I was 2-3 miles under the limit. So I was a tad surprised that as soon as he went by, the cop whipped a very fast u-turn and chased after me, lights flashing and siren blaring.

Huh?! What did I do?

He explained that he pulled me over to let me know that I had blown a tire on the small trailer I was pulling. I had no idea! It must’ve blown less than a minute before I saw him, since the rim wasn’t destroyed yet. I didn’t feel a thing, and I didn’t hear anything, even though there was little left of the tire, since I had the stereo going. (Playing at the time: “Pick Up the Pieces”. Yes, really.)

I profusely thanked the cop, who turned out to be a National Park ranger from the Blue Mesa reservoir, and gave him a few GOOHF cards as a good will gesture. He got a good chuckle out of them and slipped them into his pocket.

Thanks again, Ed!

– – –

Bad link? Broken image? Other problem on this page? Use the Help button lower right, and thanks.

This page is an example of my style of “Thought-Provoking Entertainment”. This is True is an email newsletter that uses “weird news” as a vehicle to explore the human condition in an entertaining way. If that sounds good, click here to open a subscribe form.

To really support This is True, you’re invited to sign up for a subscription to the much-expanded “Premium” edition:

One Year Upgrade
Comments

(More upgrade options here.)

Q: Why would I want to pay more than the minimum rate?

A: To support the publication to help it thrive and stay online: this kind of support means less future need for price increases (and smaller increases when they do happen), which enables more people to upgrade. This option was requested by existing Premium subscribers.

 

1 Comment on “A Bat Out of Hell

  1. That reminds me of my first motor home trip. About an hour north of Las Vegas, Nevada, a car passed me with the passenger waving energetically to get my attention. She then pointed to the rear. I slowed down, pulled off on the shoulder, and stepped out for a look around. When I got to the little car I was towing, I found the tread of the left front tire completely missing with just the side-walls remaining! I likewise never felt a thing and was lucky that it didn’t set the towed car on fire.

    As soon as I got home, I ordered a wireless tire pressure monitoring system for all 10 tires on my rig. It has since saved me one tire which had a slow leak. It may not be cost effective for slow leaks and is useless for blow-outs, but it does provide much peace-of-mind.

    Reply

Leave a Comment