The road home was not so safe.

It was a long and uneventful ocean crossing. The ship was beautiful but after so many days of riding I slept through most of the voyage. We had met several other motorcyclists on journeys of their own while on the ship and we waved goodbye as we continued in our own directions.

Our next stop was Woodstock New Brunswick some 740km or approximately 8 hours away, not including stops for fuel and food. The highway through Cape Breton was well maintained, very scenic and heavily travelled.   We were only 50km into our journey when a red pickup truck made a left turn in front of me. I hit the breaks hard and just missed a collision. Not a good start to the ride home. Another 100km later we encountered four vehicles travelling at a speed too slow for a major highway.  When the road opened up I took the opportunity to pass. I knew I could pass two of the vehicles safely and could enter my lane in front of another red pickup truck. I prepared to pass the other two vehicles when it was safe to do so. Signal on, I geared down and accelerated, passing the first vehicle quickly. As I approached the front of the red pickup truck I put my right signal on and began to enter my lane.  The pickup truck sped up, cutting off my ability to safely change lanes. I panicked as I realized that I was stuck in the lane of oncoming traffic! A car was heading straight for me and was flashing his lights. I could not stay where I was; the pickup truck was blocking me to the right. I veered off as fast as I could to the left hand shoulder of the road, I saw the look of fear in the face of the driver of the oncoming vehicle and I was sure it must have been just like mine. It was a split second decision but a lifesaving one. I eventually made it in front of the red pickup truck in the proper lane and continued down the highway. What is with red pickup trucks?

Until this day we had not encountered poor drivers or near misses. There would be another two other incidents on this highway, one involving a jerk of a tractor trailer driver and another with a car full of ladies.

Once in New Brunswick the drivers were much more considerate and shared the road. We made it to our hotel, tired but in one piece.  The following day would be full of laughs, mostly at David’s expense. More to follow.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/The_correct_way_to_pass_a_vehicle

This entry was posted in Canada. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to The road home was not so safe.

  1. Ivy says:

    I am glad that you are home safe. Next time try not to pass any trucks 🙂

  2. Sybil says:

    Clearly you’re not from Alberta. Guys who drive red pickup trucks are always trying to compensate for something. Be careful!

  3. greg says:

    I will keep this in mind when I drive through Alberta on my way to Alaska. Aviod red pick-up trucks.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What is 6 + 13 ?
Please leave these two fields as-is:
IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-)