Each evening, I get off of work right around 9:30. I set the alarm, lock up, and start walking down the street to my bus stop, which is about four blocks away. As I’m walking, I walk next to and then underneath one of the I-5 off ramps (Exit 162 to Corson and Michigan, in Georgetown), so there are always cars and trucks driving by.
Last night I was walking my merry little way along, when suddenly I heard an absolutely horrendous sound over the music from my iPod from behind me — the scream and cry of tortured metal. I turned around just in time to watch a car that had just made it off of the ramp skid to a stop in the middle of the street with sparks flying out behind it, as its front left tire went rolling and bouncing across the road, eventually swinging around and rolling to a stop about twenty feet behind the car. Luckily for the driver (and anyone else), it was a slow night, and no other cars were around when the tire fell off. The scene was still for about ten seconds, when the driver’s door opened and the driver got out and started walking back to retrieve their tire.
Kind of scary, and not a little impressive — that’s just not a sight you see every day. As there wasn’t much for me to do (I know jack all about cars, don’t carry a cell phone to summon help with, and the driver appeared to be okay), I turned back around and continued on my way to the bus.
Man that was a nasty sound.