OVERSIZED LOAD

As many of you already know, strange things happen to me on road trips. So in lieu of anything relevant, I'm am going to tell you a story.

To set the scene: It was late at night in the middle-of-nowhere Montana. Boyfriend and I were in the last legs of our 12-hour car ride and were ready to sleep forever. Then we saw flashy, orange lights in the distance.

Now, I'm sure that many of you who've been on road trips before are familiar with "Oversized Load" vehicles. In general, they are miniature convoys that usually consist of two flag vehicles and a semi truck hauling anything from half of a house to parts of a wind turbine.

This, however, was not your standard "Oversized Load" convoy.

We passed a flag vehicle vehicle with rather prominent lighting that said, "Oversized Vehicle Ahead SLOW DOWN." Then we passed another one with a sign that read, "Be prepared to stop." The next truck was not only driving in the middle of the road, but it was strapped with a gigantic light-up sign that was reminiscent of the glowy communication helicopter from Independence Day.

Which we then followed at 35mph (as opposed to the actual speed limit of 75mph) for the next ten miles.

Luckily the road curved nicely, so we could see the entire convoy. Which included two more flag vehicles, a pilot truck, a two unmarked cars (which ended up being a police car and a flag vehicle without lights) . . . all of which were behind the actual "Oversized Load" vehicle. In front of it were two more unmarked cars (another cop car and unlit flag truck), and two lit flag vehicles.

The real question is, of course, what in the world did these people need to transport that 1) required 12 different support vehicles, 2) needed to be transported in the dark of night, and 3) had to take up the entire road?

Obviously it was a UFO. *nods*

In all actuality, I can't tell you what it was. When the convoy finally pulled over to let the block-up of cars past, all I could see were metal bars and tanks and valves . . . and I couldn't get a picture thanks to the whole pitch-black-middle-of-the-night thing. Alas. Maybe it really was a UFO. *shrug*

So have you ever witness such a large "Oversized Load" convoy? Or, better yet, do you have any other good road trip driving stories? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!