Well this is just crazy

I’ve seen a few unusual things during my 44 years running and walking the streets of Asheboro.

From a lone guy on the sidewalk orating up a storm with no cellphone in sight, to a nice lady who offered, “Me for you.” But what I saw recently has to take the cake.

I was doing a fast walk on Presnell Street headed east in the area of Ross Street when I heard a loud noise behind me. I looked back and saw a sedan coming my way with smoke billowing up from the left rear.

My first thought was a blown tire, but I saw some sort of fabric flapping along the bottom. It reminded me of a deployed airbag. But, I thought, airbags don’t deploy outside the vehicle.

I watched the car as it slowed down, smoke still rising, and pulled onto the grassy shoulder. I crossed the street to see what was the matter.

A young lady climbed out and looked at the side of her car. 

“What happened?” I asked.

“I ran over a tent,” was her response.

I was tempted to ask, “So, how far off the road did you travel before you crashed the campsite party?” But, instead, I bent down and tried pulling on the tent, which had wrapped itself around the rear wheel. 

I had made no progress when a man pulled his car in front of the woman’s and got out. “Can I help?”

“Do you have a knife or something sharp?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said and ran back to his car. He came back with what looked like a putty knife.

He bent down and started ripping the tent fabric, which I pulled away from underneath the car. He kept ripping and I kept pulling.

We worked at it until the man said he couldn’t get any more of the tent, the remains of which was solidly wrapped around the wheel and axle.

He had the woman drive her car forward a bit and saw that the car was driveable. He told her she needed to take it somewhere to have the tire taken off and the remainder of the tent material removed. 

She asked if she could drive to Ramseur, where she was headed to work. The man said it wasn’t a good idea to go that far.

Meanwhile, a policewoman arrived with the blue lights flashing on her squad car. We told her what happened: “She ran over a tent.”

The victim of the tent-in-the-road told the officer that she lived close by, just over on Peachtree Street. The officer said she would follow her to make sure she got home OK.

But first, the young victim gathered up the tent debris that we had removed and dumped it into her backseat. She said she would dispose of it rather than leaving it to litter the roadway.

Another cop had arrived and blocked the road while the victim and the officer drove off toward Peachtree. When the traffic cleared, I crossed back to the other side of the street and continued my walk/run.

Later, I ran the length of Peachtree and looked for the car in question. When I didn’t spot it, I assumed the lady had gotten the rest of the tent from her wheel and went on to work.

I could only imagine her calling in to let her boss know she was going to be tardy. “Hi Joe. I’m gonna be a little late. I had to get the tent pulled from my rear wheel.”

“Wait, what?”

“You see, I ran over a tent and it got stuck in my wheel.”

“Yeah, and the dog ate my homework.”

“I’m serious. The tent must have blown onto the road and I ran over it before I could take evasive action.”

“I hope nobody was in the tent.”

“No, there were no human remains visible. And there wasn’t even a sleeping bag.”

“I see. Well, come on in, but be careful. You never know when you might collide with a runaway kayak.”

Later I thought, I could have left home that morning and taken a different route. Then I would have missed all the action.

Some days you just get lucky.

Larry Penkava is a writer for Randolph Hub. Contact: 336-302-2189, larrypenkava@gmail.com.