Flying Crane
Sr. Grandmaster
Recently, my wife and I have begun driving down to San Jose on Tuesday nights to study under another martial arts teacher. Last night, we were driving down Interstate 85, into San Jose. We were cruising along in the Carpool lane, as the other lanes on the right sort of crawled along.
Suddenly, a big Chevy Suburban pulled out from the slow lane, into the Carpool lane, right in front of me. I can only surmise that he was a scofflaw who just got tired of the slow lane, and decided to drive in the Carpool lane even tho he was a Single Occupant Vehicle. Otherwise, I can't imagine why he would have stayed in the slow lane all that time, if he could have been in the Carpool lane. But of course this is only my speculation. I never got the opportunity to shake the Jackass's hand.
There he was, right in front of me, half in my lane, and we were approaching at about 60 or so miles per hour. I swerved to the left and went around him, without hitting him. Of course trying to straighten out again, at that speed and with that tight turning radius, caused us to begin to fishtale. Suddenly I was staring straight ahead at the cars in the slow lane, as my tires began screeching. I cranked the wheel hard to the left, the car fishtaled back and I was staring at the concrete divider in the median. I cranked to the right again, and again I was looking back at the cars. Tires continued to screech, but nothing blew out, I heard no snapping or popping or crunching to indicate I had hit anything/anyone yet, or that my car was beginning to disintegrate. I cranked to the left again, and there was the concrete divider again. Back to the right, and the cars. I honestly don't know how many times I switched back and forth between the concrete divider on the left, and the traffic on the right. I think I remember seeing each of them at least twice. But I got the car straightened out. Didn't hit anyone or anything, didn't damage my car, didn't blow any tires. Didn't spin out into traffic. Didn't roll my car.
I am grateful for the extra wide shoulder between my lane and the concrete divider. Without that room, I would have smashed up against the divider and probably been flung into the other cars. I am grateful for my younger years when I drove in the ice and snow of Wisconsin, and I learned how to recover from an out of control fishtale. I think experience kicked in and I reacted in a way that worked. The whole thing probably took between 5 and 8 seconds, and I am convinced that we almost died on the highway last night.
Please remember to drive safely and cautiously. It scared the hell out of us. I am sure it also scared the hell out of the drivers in the other cars, who suddenly had my headlights shining thru their side windows.
Class was good as well. Glad we made it in one piece.
Suddenly, a big Chevy Suburban pulled out from the slow lane, into the Carpool lane, right in front of me. I can only surmise that he was a scofflaw who just got tired of the slow lane, and decided to drive in the Carpool lane even tho he was a Single Occupant Vehicle. Otherwise, I can't imagine why he would have stayed in the slow lane all that time, if he could have been in the Carpool lane. But of course this is only my speculation. I never got the opportunity to shake the Jackass's hand.
There he was, right in front of me, half in my lane, and we were approaching at about 60 or so miles per hour. I swerved to the left and went around him, without hitting him. Of course trying to straighten out again, at that speed and with that tight turning radius, caused us to begin to fishtale. Suddenly I was staring straight ahead at the cars in the slow lane, as my tires began screeching. I cranked the wheel hard to the left, the car fishtaled back and I was staring at the concrete divider in the median. I cranked to the right again, and again I was looking back at the cars. Tires continued to screech, but nothing blew out, I heard no snapping or popping or crunching to indicate I had hit anything/anyone yet, or that my car was beginning to disintegrate. I cranked to the left again, and there was the concrete divider again. Back to the right, and the cars. I honestly don't know how many times I switched back and forth between the concrete divider on the left, and the traffic on the right. I think I remember seeing each of them at least twice. But I got the car straightened out. Didn't hit anyone or anything, didn't damage my car, didn't blow any tires. Didn't spin out into traffic. Didn't roll my car.
I am grateful for the extra wide shoulder between my lane and the concrete divider. Without that room, I would have smashed up against the divider and probably been flung into the other cars. I am grateful for my younger years when I drove in the ice and snow of Wisconsin, and I learned how to recover from an out of control fishtale. I think experience kicked in and I reacted in a way that worked. The whole thing probably took between 5 and 8 seconds, and I am convinced that we almost died on the highway last night.
Please remember to drive safely and cautiously. It scared the hell out of us. I am sure it also scared the hell out of the drivers in the other cars, who suddenly had my headlights shining thru their side windows.
Class was good as well. Glad we made it in one piece.
