The road is a strange place. When you put people from all walks of life into big machines and let them loose, some pretty wild stuff is bound to happen. People seem to forget all about the fact that there are rules or laws or even basic concepts like gravity, which can result in some ridiculous situations. And we want to hear about the most absurd, unbelievable things you’ve ever come across behind the wheel.
I pulled a stupid cross-country drive from Austin, Texas to Watkins Glen, New York last summer. I had three days to do it and thought that eighteen hours of driving in one day was reasonable. So, loaded up with coffee and desire, I hit a quiet back road near Hot Springs, Arkansas at 2 a.m. And as I’m maneuvering my way back to a main highway, I saw the damndest thing. There, in the middle of the road, was a man crawling on all fours wearing a leather jacket.
I had two thoughts at the exact same time: “what the actual, absolute fuck” and also “oh my god get me out of here.” It was one of those things that sends the body into fight or flight mode, and I sure as hell picked the latter. I was outta there. I gave Leather Jacket Man a wide berth and continued on my way, repressing all memory of that moment until I made it to my destination that night. No one has ever believed me when I told them (“Elizabeth, it was probably just a deer,” as if I could not tell a human being in a leather jacket apart from a deer).
Your stories don’t have to be about strange encounters at 2 a.m. Maybe you witnessed a wild accident or someone doing something so impossibly dumb behind the wheel that you just couldn’t believe it. We here at Jalopnik want ‘em all.