Hi Don & All,

We just got back from Tofino, (rain rain rain rain rain!!! )
Anywho, saw a Van ahead,
in the dark rainy day,
with a bunch of yellow
diagonal stripes on the rear hatch
and one long horizontal red / white
strip along the bottom of the hatch.

Could see that puppy from Seattle I'm sure !!!

I don't like the look, but I'm sure
it would look better than an a** ended Vanagon !!!

I will be going this route for sure !!!

Vanagon taillights a way too dim !!!

jon

On Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 3:08 PM, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:

> This morning I headed up to Olympia, Wa. from Lyle-land in the Gorge for a
> bike race.  It was so nice I decided on driving home the longer way, over
> White Pass (between Mt Ranieer and Mt Adams) through Yakima and back to
> home
> from the east.  Quite a beautiful drive, first along the Cowlitz R. then
> the
> Tieton and Natchez rivers and finally back down the Columbia River Gorge.
> Well, it being Sunday and quite hot in the cities, everyone was out with
> all
> their toys (like me) and I got to see some pretty 'bone-headed' moves.  One
> really stands out, since it almost caused me to die in a multi-car and
> truck
> crash...
>
>  As I headed west on Wa. Hwy 14, a two lane road with average (about 6'?)
> shoulders and a lot of semi-truck traffic (they avoid some Oregon DOT weigh
> stations by using the smaller road)  I topped a blind rise and encountered,
> almost rear-ended, a big ole Buick.  He was backing up, having missed a
> turnoff to the Maryhill Museum.   Two older couples, out for a Sunday
> drive.   I just barely got the van stopped before I smashed into his
> bumper...with lots of traffic whizzing by in the oncoming lane and a pretty
> deep ditch beside the road on 'our' side...I had nowhere to go and almost
> pushed my brake pedal through the floor getting stopped.   So now, this guy
> just KEEPS coming back until he's almost against my bumper and then
> just sits there...He wants ME to back up so he can continue on backwards
> for
> another 3-4 hundred yards back to the turnoff to the Museum..it is a left
> turn, too.  He makes no attempt to move over...He's just sitting right in
> the middle of the lane...looking at me like ...I dunno what.   I am
> thinking..'well,  this guy may now pull ahead and move as far to the right
> as possible and we MAY be able to squeeze two cars into our one lane as I
> get past him...but he'll probably just go ahead, like he should have in the
> first place, until he finds a safe place to do a U-turn or
> something... Then, over the rise behind come a semi...at about 65mph and HE
> locks em up....Smoke pouring off his tires, horn blasting...And I have no
> where to go because Buick Man is almost against my front bumper and the
> traffic is still whizzing by in the oncoming lane....  The semi got it
> stopped, too, just barely.  So I finally yell out my window, but the
> BuickMan is not hearing...So I slip out of my drivers door and walk up
> sideways and knock on his window and ask him to get the ----out of the
> road...all the while cars whizzing past and now traffic is backing up
> behind
> the semi...at least you could see his truck over that rise...
>  This fellow finally got it and went on up the road to the next place to
> turn around...Maybe he was expecting all of us to back up...What a
> bonehead.
>
>  It just reinforces what I learned in another crash I had while I was
> stopped by a flagger and got rear ended...Life is uncertain and even if you
> do everything just right..sh--  *still* happens that is not your doing...
>
>  Sorry for the semi-rant, but that was pretty unbelievable..
>  Don Hanson
>