Those of you who know me have probably heard this story but I thought it would entertaining for a Friday.  My first trip after September 11th was to Nashville, TN for a simulation project review.  I rented a car from Hertz (Ford Escape).  I got about 30 miles from the airport and the engine basically blew-up.  I think they forgot to put oil in the car or something.  Anyway, I called Hertz and they said they would send a flatbed with a Taurus on the back.  The driver would swap my Escape for the Taurus and I would be on my way. 

So I relaxed with a copy of USA today and waited for the flatbed to show up.  After about 45 minutes, I saw the flatbed crest the hill behind me with a white Taurus on the back.  As I put away the newspaper, the flatbed started to pull past me.  When the flatbed was directly next to me it was rear-ended by a semi-truck going about 70 miles per hour!!   The noise was deafening. 

Luckily, the flatbed narrowly missed the front of the Escape but that was just the beginning.  While the flatbed was careening down an embankment, the semi-truck went left across several lanes of traffic and a grass median.  The Semi ended up about 200 yards into a farmer’s field and miraculously, it did not hit another vehicle.

Back to the flatbed…..   About 50 feet in front of my vehicle, the chains holding the Taurus on the back of the flatbed broke.  This resulted in the Taurus launching into the air like a gymnast on a tumbling run.  I would guess that it was about 20 feet in the air when it entered a stand of trees by the side of the road.  The Taurus never hit the ground.

After several more calls, several more hours with the State police and another car from Hertz (driven down by an employee), I was back on the road to my meeting a mere four hours late.  Later that night I had to fly to Toronto.  While we were in the air space near Toronto, an F-16 was scrambled to talk to an Air Canada flight from LA that was not responding.  Our flight had to clear the airspace around Toronto because as the pilot put it — ” There is an F-16 that really wants to talk with one of our colleagues….”   This put a cap on quite a day.  Whenever I feel like I’ve had a tough day on the road, this day puts things in perspective.   I consider myself very lucky.   In case you were wondering, I had one on of the first Handsprings (Palm Pilot Predecessor) with a camera.  The photos from that day are below…..

 The Appropriately Named “Ford Escape”

Semi Truck in the Farmer’s Field

 The Flatbed Truck (the driver was shaken but not hurt)

The Taurus in the Tree