The perils of the Mojave: A very close shave for MT
Monday 7th June
Leaving Vegas was not difficult. MT was pretty drained, but the promise of cool comfort in San Francisco was enough to force them on in their Hertz hire car.
Pete was driving the newly acquired Pontiac Malibu down the single-lane highway 58 towards Bakersfield, California. Nick was lost in thoughts of how to possibly end Maurice’s life in a number of elaborate ways (most of them involving blunt metal instruments) when an enormous plume of brown dust erupted from the left, about 50 metres in front of the boys. Out of this plume of dust flew a silver 4-door ford, at least 5 metres in the air, and rotating slightly with its nose pointed towards the ground, and the back of the car raised high in the air, almost perpendicular to the road.
The car driving towards them at 60 mph had presumably hit the verge, jumped several metres towards the desert sky, and for what seemed like an eternity, hung in the air, pirouetting noiselessly before falling down to earth with a shockingly violent crash, and skidding ominously towards MT’s Pontiac. Pete took evasive action and swerved right as the oncoming car slid upside-down on its roof towards them – thankfully the vehicle then somehow curved towards the left hand side of the road, flipping once more onto its tyres and then coming to a rest on the desert beside the road.
Nick sprang out the passenger side and moved towards the smashed up Ford. Almost immediately two men were now at the car’s side, wrenching off the driver’s door. The driver then miraculously staggered out of the car clearly shaken, but seemingly unhurt. More passers by were coming to her help now and after a few minutes MT decided that the best they could was to move on, still in a dream-like state of nervousness, shock and awe.
The local country and western radio quickly informed MT that the driver had in fact been a victim of a hit and run accident (the actual mechanics of which remain a mystery), and that the suspect had just been apprehended heading west. In another moment of outstanding coincidence, MT passed 2 police cars arresting a man 10 minutes west of the position of the accident. MT were left feeling rather perturbed by this whole adventure and, with a new-found respect for life, they made for Frisco hoping to eradicate thoughts of death and debauchery with some cool Pacific air and some liberal nancy-boys to laugh at.
