Tarps, Cars and Driving

Yesterday I was driving home from work. I was on Bangerter Highway when I came across a small tarp in the road. Traffic was pretty bad, so there was no way to go around, so with much anticipation I just drove over the tarp. I checked in the rear view mirror afterward and saw the tarp floating away, I was relieved. You may be wondering why I was a little nervous to drive over the tarp or when this actually becomes even slightly funny, well, let me tell you. It all started in the fall of 2002….
I was living in South Jordan and driving to the U for school almost every day. The route I found to be the quickest was to take I-15 North to the 215 belt and head East. One nice sunny morning I was headed to school, about to merge on the 215 belt, when I saw a tarp off the side of the road. I thought nothing of the big black construction tarp until I was about 5 feet from it. Just then a gust of wind picked up the tarp and it landed on my window and it covered the whole thing! I was going 65 down the freeway with no way to see. I panicked, it was probably the longest 5 seconds of my life…driving blind on the freeway in traffic, I was so scared. I decided to throw on my windshield wipers and see if that would move the tarp, luckily that did the trick, the tarp went flying.
So, I continued to the 20 minute drive to school without a care in the world, assuming everything was fine. Once I arrived, I parked, got out and noticed the big black tarp was STUCK to the bottom of my car! I was running late, so I had to get to class and figured I would pull it out later. After all my classes were over I headed back to my car, put down my bag and crouched down to pull the tarp out. As I gave it a tug, I realized it was stuck. The stupid tarp had melted to my car! I pulled harder and harder, I couldn’t believe how difficult it was to get off. Finally after several minutes of trying and pulling with everything I had, it came loose and I went flying backwards into the car next to me. I hit my head on the side view mirror of the truck fell on the ground laughing and rubbing my head. This kid came up to see if I was ok, noticed I was laughing and holding a huge, dirty black tarp and I’m sure he thought I was crazy.
And that’s why I’m a little nervous when I see a tarp on the road and check my rear view mirror to see it floating behind me as I drive by!