Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Tryin' To Catch Me Ridin' Dirty - Or - Fast & Furious: Budget Drift

Note to self: when they post "Passenger Vehicles Only" that's exactly what they mean. Imagine driving behind your spouse, who's racing along in his 24' rental truck. You're following Mapquest directions and you see the passenger vehicle sign only as you enter the onramp of a parkway. 3 minutes later, you see the truck crash into and scrape under a low bridge with sparks flying - and then, well, then you see the roof of the truck hanging off the back like the lid of a sardine can... This is the cell phone conversation that ensued:

Molt: How does it look? [At this point he is still driving and thinks he just scraped the top and maybe Budget won't notice]
ME: You better pull over. Right now.

It could be worse. I could be decapitated, along with my mom, who was riding with me, by flying metal. But, thankfully, everything hung onto the truck and, amazingly, none of our belongings flew out (in fact, we finally got our stuff back yesterday and practically nothing is broken!). I am grateful. But I wish it hadn't been on the NY/CT state line. This means: 1 citation from CT for driving a truck on the parkway, 1 citation from NY for driving a truck on a parkway, and 1 citation from NY for hitting a bridge - did you know you could get a ticket for hitting a bridge? Oh, and about 4 cop cars surrounding us until 2am. Good times. Here are some visuals:
This is the view behind the truck - after the towing company cut off most of the loose sheet metal.

This is looking into the truck up towards the sky - which, as you can see, is visible above our mattress. Incidentally, it rained the night after we got all our stuff out of the truck. Phew. That was close.

Hopefully, Molt will soon recover from his fear of low-clearance bridges - he winces everytime we go under one.

6 comments:

hap said...

HOLY CRAP I'M SO GLAD YOU GUYS ARE OK! Umm, welcome to the East Coast!

Oh, are you guys in New Haven? My friend and I are stopping there tomorrow for lunch on the way to NYC. . .

noirah said...

Oh my god! That's horrible. That could have been really bad. Glad everyone is alright.

Bird On A Line said...

OH NOOOOOOOO! I can't believe this happened to you guys! I sure hope you elected to have the insurance, which was always immediately say, "no thanks" to because we're already paying a crap load for the truck. How are the kitties?!?!?!?!?!?

Melvin Ming said...

It's still too close to laugh about really, but I hope to be able to soon. I didn't choose the extra insurance. But no matter, b/c I read later that their policy explicitly excludes overhead damage!! But, looks like State Farm will cover it (hopefully). But, of course, rates will go up now. Aack. Kitties were following behind in the car, so they are ok. Slowly adjusting to new place. Marlowe seems to have finally stopped his day-long burrowing under the blankets.

Bird On A Line said...

God. I can't write can I? I meant to say...I sure hope you elected to have the insurance, which we always immediately say "no thanks" to because ....

Bird On A Line said...

Glad to hear that about Marlowe. Poor boy. Glad you guys are okay and that your stuff wasn't ruined.