<– Day 26 – Thursday May 24th: Architecture & Organs | Day 29 – Sunday May 27th: The Exley House Curse –>
On Friday we drove from Philadelphia to Chester, Virginia.
Day 27 & 28: On Friday we drove from Philadelphia to Chester, Virginia. I made a major miscalculation with this decision, as half of Philadelphia decided to head to the beaches early for the Memorial Day Weekend, so the 5 hour drive I expected took 9 hours.
We saw a few interesting things, but mostly it was a long drive in traffic. The drive on the Chesapeake bridge-tunnel was pretty neat. And, I thought that would be the most interesting thing we’d see.
But, no, it wasn’t.
As we drove north on I-64 through Virginia, about where Yorktown is, I was going 70mph in a 60mph, just keeping up with traffic, when this car roared up in the lane to my right, traveling about 85-90. Then, two other cars pulled up behind them. Finally, a noisy (muffler leak?) early black Chevy Yukon(?) appeared to our right in the slow lane, passing us and running at about a 2 O’clock angle to us, several car lengths ahead of us.
Suddenly, the rear driver’s side wheel started smoking. Then bits of tire started shooting across the highway. I slowed, not knowing what would happen. Then the tire exploded (no way he didn’t hear and/or feel it), flying across the middle lane and into our lane. The Toyota truck ahead of us didn’t have a chance and ran over the tire roughly.
I’d slowed enough to dodge the tire, but I wasn’t so much watching the tire as I was the driver, because he wasn’t slowing down. He was still driving about 55mph without the tire, bits of tire still flying off his rear rim. And, he didn’t seem to care that the tire was gone.
The Toyota truck that had hit the tire moved from the fast lane to the middle lane to either (1) complain or (2) notify the driver that he was missing the tire. Apparently, the driver didn’t care, as he never slowed down.
Seeing my chance, with a wide-open fast lane, I floored the jeep and created a large amount of distance between me and the Yukon.
Ann suspected the guy may have stolen the Yukon and didn’t want to stop driving. I don’t know why he wouldn’t stop, but it was one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.
So, we landed late in Chester at my cousin’s house. We spent Saturday helping her fix some things around the house. Other than that, we’ve been working on my cousin’s house in Virginia. That’s a nice change of pace.
<– Day 26 – Thursday May 24th: Architecture & Organs | Day 29 – Sunday May 27th: The Exley House Curse –>
Glad you made it safely through Hampton roads!! Welcome to Va
Your trip down the Delaware peninsula to get to Virginia is not the way anyone who lives in Philadelphia would ever take. We’d hop on route 95 south and stay on it until we reached our destination. The roads heading to the shore points from Philadelphia on a Memorial Day weekend are beyond horrific.
Craig … I can now understand why, lol!! We often lose track of the days of the week and, sometimes, holidays.
Josh … thanks for the welcome!
Glad you all made it through that unscathed. It really makes you wonder what people are up to, and how most of us make it home safely.
my home state , who let you in ? didn’t my family used to own your family ?
You didn’t see any Virginia State Troopers along the side of the road about the time the tire exploded did you? You may have witnessed a “tire spiking ” event and not known it, especially with a couple of other cars trailing after the Tahoe/Yukon!
Colin,
I didn’t see spikes or troopers. The other cars were just ahead of the Tahoe/Yukon, as if waiting for it. The whole thing was really odd.
– Dave