We have a lot of traffic on these gravel roads. Mind you, a lot of it is farm equipment, but the farm pickups also travel them a lot and we get the drunks out here who are trying to avoid the state troopers. This time of year we also get the module trucks that are going to the fields to pick up the modules of cotton to take to the gins.
They drive like bats out of hell in those big ole trucks. I swear they are moving so fast that if they had wings they'd be airborne!! They throw up great, huge clouds of dust and an avalache of rocks in their wake. When you meet them on the road, it takes a full minute to be able to see where you are going after they pass, and forget about seeing where you've been. Last year one of those trucks threw up a rock that made a hole in my windshield, I honestly thought the damn thing was going to hit me in the face.
This morning I was driving out to take the kids to school and go to work and I met one of those monster trucks. I could see it coming about a mile ahead and I pulled over as far as I could with hopes that my windshield would not get another fatal blow. I still got several pings, but nothing too bad, that time, so I drove on. Fuming. Pondering. The more I thought about their lack of consideration to other drivers, the more pissed I got. I didn't know if there was a speed limit on a gravel road so I decided I'd find out.
On my way home just a little while ago, I could see another one of those damn trucks coming. This time I was ready for him.
When he was about 1/10 of a mile from me, I pulled my pickup into the center of the road and I stopped. After he came to a screaming stop, I got out and coughing and choking from the dust that was still fogging, went up to that truck and I told the driver that one of their trucks had smashed my windshield last year, and that his truck had put little dings in my windshield this morning, and that he wasn't going to do that anymore. I told him the speed limit was 35 MPH on that damned road and he'd better not be going even 1MPH over that, cause if I met another truck and it looked like they were going too fast, I was stopping in the middle of the road again, and I wasn't moving until the Sheriff got there.
This ain't no damn interstate out here, dang it.
The truck was just like the one above except he was loaded with one of those modules that this one hasn't picked up yet. Those modules weigh between 21 and 25 thousand pounds. Can you imagine that coming at you on a rock road at 60 MPH?
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