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Re: [ST] The Smiley Bag incident



On Wed, Nov 06, 2002 at 09:30:42AM -0600, STeve Duncan wrote:
> I slow and notice a small grey bag float over the roof of the car.  
> No sooner do I notice this than it seems to have radar and *smack*, 
> attaches itself directly to my faceshield!!  For a nano-instant     
> I think this is cute.  Because what I can see most clearly (in      
> fact the only thing) is a big yellow "smiley" face staring at me    
> eye-to-eye 2 inches away.                                           

[I wrote this the day after it happened.]

I have to say, this was THE most bizarre thing I have ever seen.  I   
was watching Steve and saw the bag floating around ahead of him.  I   
figured it would go right over him, as I've seen lots of things like  
that blowing around the road and have never had one even come close   
to me.  When I saw it hit Steve's face, I thought, "Damn that is      
weird," but expected him to just swipe it off.                        

I saw him losing control of the bike and realized that he couldn't
get it off and thought "Oh, mother*#$(!@."  Super slow-mo cam kicked
in.  I saw his rear end slide one way and then the other and got a
sinking feeling in my stomach and started braking, myself.  I didn't
see him fall off, but the image of his bike with air between it and
the pavement is stuck in my brain.

For a second, I couldn't see Steve at all.  Then, I saw him tumbling and
I was actually relieved because I had been afraid the car behind him
might have hit him.  I was still braking and could now smell the smoke
from his tires.  Still watching him rolling down the road, I thought
"Goddam, I am glad Steve always wears good gear."

As soon as he stopped moving, he jumped right up and started walking,
and I felt a wave of relief as I pulled onto the shoulder, which was
really narrow, not even wide enough to park my bike on the sidestand
without it hanging into the roadway.

I knew he was probably mostly okay, and John and a car driver were with
him, so I went back up the road to slow down oncoming traffic, as we
were on a straightaway, but had just come around the corner.  Once the
bike was out of the road, I helped to search for the missing sidebag,
which had gone sliding down the road and off the slope on the other
side.  I left my red helmet sitting on the shoulder at the exit of the
oncoming curve so that cars would see it and hopefully slow before they
came up on us there trying to get Steve's bike rideable again.

His leather pants were scuffed all over the knee, rear, and hips.
Steve said, "I don't think I would have come off this well wearing
blue jeans."  Stephanie and I looked down at our own jeans and
agreed that getting some riding pants had just become our number one
priorities.

The whole thing was very surreal.  It just proves that anything can
happen to you at any time. 

> I kept the Wal-Mart, "smiley" bag   :)

Heh.  I still remember us riding the rest of the way home that day and
giving the finger to wal-mart 18 wheelers.

Laters,
Brian
- -- 
'99 ST (one of the now extinct black ones)                                      
Dallas, TX   

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