Great balls of fire
18th February 2006
I was supposed to get on a train to Stockton from San Diego at 10pm Thursday night, but when driving to the station on CA-94 we came face to face with a rather nasty accident that had occured much less than 20 minutes prior. It seems a van or SUV had been involved in a high speed chase with a police car and had crashed into the side of the road, rolled, and caught fire. This is a guess from what I could see at the scene, as there was also a police car with some damage to its front less than 10 meters from the burning veichle and there was a seachlight helicopter hovering overhead.
Soon there were hundreds of cars behind us and at least 50 in front, so we were stuck for over half an hour. Needless to say we were quite late for the train. The reporter in me wanted to jump out of the car and see what was going on as well as take better pictures than the blurry drive-by ones I did get. Smoke and hundreds of car lights do not help the cause of a digital camera. Interestingly enough, there was no press around. They missed a great opportunity with the chaos of the time the westbound traffic was completely blocked. I’d have had a monopoly if I had any way of broadcasting.
It seems like this kind of thing is not unprecedented.
So, eventually got to the station, argued with the desk staff for a while (”Dammit, there was a car ON FIRE in front of us on 94!”) and got on a train at 7:05 Friday morning for an additional $5. Iron Chef, Daily Show, Colbert Report and a Baileys coffee made the annoyance not quite so bad. But really, how many times do you get to see a car ON FIRE less than 30 meters from you? It was cool.
So, had pizza after a three-leg train ride, met up with Bill, and went to some random house parties and room gatherings. There was also a half-hearted poker game in which I came second of six after being short stacked in the sudden death. I though I had him til he pulled a flush on the only had I went all the way with. Not that anyone was playing properly anyway.
Outta here to Spokane tomorrow night at almost midnight for a fun-filled 25 hour train ride. Hopefully my coat will have arrived in the mail by then after I left it in Colorado.
P. S:Bill has just informed me that his team lost their rugby game against San Francisco University 49-8 and only 12 of their players showed up. Lame.
I was supposed to get on a train to Stockton from San Diego at 10pm Thursday night, but when driving to the station on CA-94 we came face to face with a rather nasty accident that had occured much less than 20 minutes prior. It seems a van or SUV had been involved in a high speed chase with a police car and had crashed into the side of the road, rolled, and caught fire. This is a guess from what I could see at the scene, as there was also a police car with some damage to its front less than 10 meters from the burning veichle and there was a seachlight helicopter hovering overhead.
Soon there were hundreds of cars behind us and at least 50 in front, so we were stuck for over half an hour. Needless to say we were quite late for the train. The reporter in me wanted to jump out of the car and see what was going on as well as take better pictures than the blurry drive-by ones I did get. Smoke and hundreds of car lights do not help the cause of a digital camera. Interestingly enough, there was no press around. They missed a great opportunity with the chaos of the time the westbound traffic was completely blocked. I’d have had a monopoly if I had any way of broadcasting.
It seems like this kind of thing is not unprecedented.
So, eventually got to the station, argued with the desk staff for a while (”Dammit, there was a car ON FIRE in front of us on 94!”) and got on a train at 7:05 Friday morning for an additional $5. Iron Chef, Daily Show, Colbert Report and a Baileys coffee made the annoyance not quite so bad. But really, how many times do you get to see a car ON FIRE less than 30 meters from you? It was cool.
So, had pizza after a three-leg train ride, met up with Bill, and went to some random house parties and room gatherings. There was also a half-hearted poker game in which I came second of six after being short stacked in the sudden death. I though I had him til he pulled a flush on the only had I went all the way with. Not that anyone was playing properly anyway.
Outta here to Spokane tomorrow night at almost midnight for a fun-filled 25 hour train ride. Hopefully my coat will have arrived in the mail by then after I left it in Colorado.
P. S:Bill has just informed me that his team lost their rugby game against San Francisco University 49-8 and only 12 of their players showed up. Lame.
posted by Nic White at
3:47 PM
