WEED, WHITES AND WINE

 I began watching TOURIST last night on TVOne. This is a drama set in Australia and looks quite promising.

The opening scenes are a bit like, and obviously a 'homage' to Duel, the Spielberg film from 1971.

It seems that I've got lots of events in my life that could have rendered me incapacitated or dead. One that TOURIST reminded me of was in 1984 when I was driving back one Sunday night from a couple of days skiing.

The road was SH1 between Putaruru and Tirau. I was driving a brand new Holden Commodore which was the company car I had when managing Macindoes wines and spirits store. The car was quick and safe with good brakes, suspension and lights so I felt secure.

On a hill I came up behind a logging truck which wasn't unusual in those days with the mills at Tokoroa and Kinleith a few kilometres back. Big logging trucks  would take export quality logs for loading in Auckland or Tauranga.

I safely overtook the truck having to zip up to about 130 kph and then settled back to 100 kph, crested the hill and continued on the winding road downhill. Soon after I was dazzled by full-beam headlights from behind and reflecting off the driving mirror. The logging truck was speeding up behind me. I had to increase speed, going to 120 kph and then 130 kph with the bloody monster close behind. The driver engaged the air horn a few times while continuing to tailgate me. This was a dangerous situation and I had to get out of it. Fortunately a straight was coming up with a passing lane so I kept left and slowed to 100 kph letting the logging truck whizz past at great speed. I couldn't see the driver as he engaged the airhorn again but could imagine his manic look. This was a decade  before the 'P' epidemic but long-haul drivers for a while before computerised tracking systems were installed in their vehicles used to rack up very long driving hours sustained by the use of methamphetamine substances:

"I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me weed, whites and wine
And you show me a sign
I'll be willin', to be movin' "

I allowed the truck to get way ahead before going to 100 kph again to the Tirau turn-off, half expecting to see the logging truck and rig upside down in a ditch or a field but ..... no such luck. Maybe it was him years later when I saw a wreck just south of Whangarei one morning. I wrote a post of it: HERE

Sometimes life does imitate art.