a travel tale
Yesterday was a long day. We woke up at 6:00 am central time, and left my sister's place in Ames, Iowa to drive to the Kansas City airport, for our 2 pm flight. We flew through Kansas City because it was significantly cheaper than Des Moines. We saved some more money by doing two one-way car rentals -- one from Kansas City to Des Moines on December 18th ($80) and one from Des Moines to Kansas City on December 28th ($105). A car for the full week and a half would have cost over $400.
When we woke up it was snowing, and I wasn't looking forward to the ostensibly 3 1/2 hour drive to Kansas City, but we headed out and drove 40-50 mph most of the way, and arrived without incident. The snow plows were out all morning and the roads were icy, and there were lots of cars in the ditch and in the median.
In Missouri, we passed a double-trailer truck on the median, obviously a recent victim of the ice. As we drove by, I turned to get a better look (I didn't slow down, so mareklamo wouldn't berate me for rubbernecking), and I saw an alarming sight -- the driver was slumped over the steering wheel. It took a few moments for it to sink in, and then I reached for my cell phone to call 911.
"This is 911."
"Hi, I want to report an accident. There is a truck in the median of the highway, and the driver is slumped over the wheel."
"Where did you see it?"
"On Interstate 35, southbound, just before mile marker 67."
The operator laughed. "Is it a double-trailer, in the median?"
The light-hearted tone of the 911 operator took me by surprise. "Yes," I replied.
"He's asleep. He's waiting for the tow truck to arrive."
Clearly, I was not the only alarmed motorist who had been calling 911. I thought, 'you should go wake him up.' Who sleeps slumped over the steering wheel?
When I told the story to jackwilliambell over dinnner last night at Shalimar in Seattle, he answered the above question: "A sleep-deprived truck driver who just drove off the road."
When we woke up it was snowing, and I wasn't looking forward to the ostensibly 3 1/2 hour drive to Kansas City, but we headed out and drove 40-50 mph most of the way, and arrived without incident. The snow plows were out all morning and the roads were icy, and there were lots of cars in the ditch and in the median.
In Missouri, we passed a double-trailer truck on the median, obviously a recent victim of the ice. As we drove by, I turned to get a better look (I didn't slow down, so mareklamo wouldn't berate me for rubbernecking), and I saw an alarming sight -- the driver was slumped over the steering wheel. It took a few moments for it to sink in, and then I reached for my cell phone to call 911.
"This is 911."
"Hi, I want to report an accident. There is a truck in the median of the highway, and the driver is slumped over the wheel."
"Where did you see it?"
"On Interstate 35, southbound, just before mile marker 67."
The operator laughed. "Is it a double-trailer, in the median?"
The light-hearted tone of the 911 operator took me by surprise. "Yes," I replied.
"He's asleep. He's waiting for the tow truck to arrive."
Clearly, I was not the only alarmed motorist who had been calling 911. I thought, 'you should go wake him up.' Who sleeps slumped over the steering wheel?
When I told the story to jackwilliambell over dinnner last night at Shalimar in Seattle, he answered the above question: "A sleep-deprived truck driver who just drove off the road."