My day had started off quite well. I had slept well, I woke up in time to get an early enough start to my day, and was up/showered/dressed and out the door by 8:00 AM. I wanted to go to Walmart for groceries and a few other items, and I always try to go fairly early because it’s easier to get a parking space not too far away from the store entrance and also close to a shopping cart return which is somewhat important to me. You see, when I walk my lower back hurts so I try to use the shopping cart to lean on to relieve the back pain. Anyway, I found an ideal parking spot and there was an empty cart in the cart return so I could walk comfortably with the cart into the store.
I found all the items on my list (plus a few not on my list), enjoyed a surprise visit with my neighbor Pete who was also shopping in the store, and only had one person ahead of me when I entered the checkout line. The checker was pleasant and I was on my way fairly quickly.
When I left Walmart, I had one other very brief errand to do before heading home. I had some mail that I wanted to get to the post office so I headed to the Olympia post office. (Side note: In my experience, the Lacey PO seems to have nice employees but they don’t really seem to know what they’re doing, so I take all my outgoing mail to the Olympia post office where I know it will be handled properly and sent on its way in a timely manner.)
With both tasks completed, I headed on home. I exited I-5 at the Martin Way exit, turned right onto Carpenter Road, then I turned left onto Mullen Road at the roundabout, and drove down Mullen towards home. Everything was going quite well. Traffic was moderate and I had hit mostly green lights instead of red all day. At this point I am driving behind a fairly large truck – the kind that is shaped like the U-Haul trucks I often see, and he was driving the speed limit so not slowing down any traffic. Anyway, we’re cruising along Mullen when suddenly there is a very loud crunching sound and the top of the truck is scraped totally off the truck body. The truck roof in its entirety is lying in the middle of the road slightly in front of the train trestle.
Now what do I do?? Should I stop and try to help? I certainly can’t help move the roof off the road. I watched the now roofless truck in front of me as it pulled ahead past the trestle, got off to the side of the road, and then stopped. The driver sat in the truck for a couple of minutes – whether he was just gathering his thoughts together or making a phone call for help I don’t know. Anyway, after a minute or two, he got out of the truck. He appeared to be in his thirties and was walking toward the roof resting in the middle of the road. By that time I had noted a couple of other drivers exiting their vehicles and I saw one of them heading towards the truck driver and talking to him calmly. I decided to let them work out whatever came next.
I figured I should continue on my way home with the groceries still in the trunk. I surveyed the scene carefully and realized that the roof was squarely in the middle of the road with room on each side for cars to pass cautiously. The roof seemed intact – by that I mean it seemed to be pretty much in one piece. There were no shards of metal or any other material scattered across the pavement. I drove very cautiously by the scene as did the driver coming in the opposite direction. After that, I don’t know what happened. I just knew I wouldn’t want to be that young truck driver talking to whoever was in charge at the trucking company!
And that was my first and last shocking experience of the day!!
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