I was talking with someone at work today and was reminded of an incident that occurred several years ago.
A friend of mine had moved in with his girlfriend at the time. My wife and I helped him move ( have truck, will travel) about thirty miles away. We loaded up my truck, a van and his sedan and hit the road that chilly fall day.

We were in the lead of a string of furniture laden vehicles, going 65, turning a fairly sharp corner in the left lane when I saw an object right in front of me .

It was a dwarf, trying to move a white leather recliner out of the road.

When I say he was a dwarf, I mean it; his head would have been level with my headlights.

I thought for certain I was going to hit him. There were cars to my right, and a steep median to my left. I swerved into the median at full steam and then back onto the road before I could think. I'm lucky I didn't loose control and roll the truck.

I must have scared the living daylights out of the guy. I mean, if you were trying to drag an object larger than you out of the road, and you saw a big, black 3/4 ton truck coming straight for you, roaring like a bomber plane, wouldn't you be?

I came so close to hitting the guy that my sidewall may have left a mark on the recliner. If so, it undoubtedly matched the equally dark stain in his drawers.

The kicker? About two or three hundred feet down the highway, pulled off on the shoulder was an S-10, heavily laden with the rest of the sectional sofa, with two full grown men standing beside it, hands in pockets. I guess they thought the other fella would holler if he needed help.

What's the oddest thing you've had happen while driving?

-James Huston

 

Wasn't in my truck, but my previous vehicle (97 Civic)

Had a ricer ebay special exhaust on it and the O2 sensor was aimed downwards and was bout 2" off the ground, was cruising about 70 on the freeway and I noticed something in the road. Didn't even think to move in the other lane. It was a deer carcase. Tried to straddle it and I hit it with my brand new shiney exhaust. Heard it scrape ALL the way across the middle of it. Well, it ripped the O2 sensor off (thankfully not out of the threads) and I kept hearing this dragging sound. Didn't think anything of it cause Civics always make weird noises. Got home and sure enough it was that dang sensor. I just unplugged the broken part and routed the wires back into the engine bay. Who needs a secondary O2 sensor anyways I drove it like that for months. Sold it a few weeks ago like that too. lol.

 

I was on a powerline with my buddy many years ago and we were mudding with my '88 F-150 and his '66 Land Rover Series IIa. The Land Rover old and new are highly capable off roaders and will meet the abilities of the driver.

My fool buddy high centered his Rover some dried mud. Believe it not, his rover was heavier than my F-150 but I managed to pull him off the rut and get him moving again all the while my truck is wallowing in the mud and muck with no more rubber than Goodyear AT's.

I found this to be a very odd scenario as it should have been the Rover pulling my truck off the rut.

 

Driving my first car, a Vega station wagon with one fender and the nose piece bright orange and everything else a faded silver, I ran over the screen fabric removed from its frame.

I heard it passing under the car and then no more sounds from it. Looking in the rear view mirror, just as I was thinking "I should have seen it by now", a flap-flap-flap sound started from under the car.

All of this happened within seconds as I was traveling about 60mph. And the flap-flap-flap sounds was at a very fast, machine gun sort of pace.

The screen had wrapped around the driveshaft.

By myself, I had to reach underneath and pull, get in and reverse the car a few inches, get out and reach under and pull….repeatedly….of course the screen wrapped lengthwise so this seeming took forever.

Being on the side of a highway is a very lonely place, even with all the traffic.

 

Several years ago driving in downtown Springfield, OH I pulled up behind a pick-up truck loaded with what looked like old blankets. As I got closer I realized the "blankets" were really several dead horses.

Another time I was driving on I-75 through Cincinnati and passed a small truck pulling a utility trailer loaded with a recently unearthed concrete burial vault with the tombstone strapped to the top.