On the way home yesterday on the bonnie I'm laying into a few turns on 251 toward Marshal. I come out of one of my favorites (I take the route on the way to and from the house a lot) a blind right hander and there's a pickup truck at a dead stop in my lane. I have about 20 yards and a lot of quick decisions to make/questions to answer.Why is this guy stopped in my lane? Nowhere to turn...Did he hit a deer....looking for a spot for his moonshine still....goin fisin....????
I get on the brakes hard, lock both of em just slightly and get back off...not enough time to stop before I hit the truck so where am I going? I look ahead to try to assess the situation and lo and behold there's a shirtless dude just standing in the road straddling the center lane opening and closing his hands repeatedly. He's facing away from us and he isn't moving...okayyyy...this is why the truck is stopped.
Can I go into the left lane? No, two bikes oncoming. Well let's get on the brakes hard one last time and see if we can get stopped before the truck, again lock both of em up a bit....no luck, not stopping in time. So at the last second I decide to ride the center of the lane directly toward captain freak out and whip it back into my lane in front of completely stopped truck. With some quick stealthy moves I weave through this nebula of weirdness and go on about my ride. The shirtless guy straddling the center lane does not move and does not stop making his weird hand gesture. I don't stop. About 1/4 of a mile further down the road I see a Buncombe county patrol car headed that direction and I flash him a few times to let him know he's headed in the right direction/possibly about to encounter a situation where his services are needed.
This is probably the weirdest thing I've ever seen while driving anywhere. Let it be a lesson to us all...never get too comfortable even when you're on very familiar roads. You never know what's around the next curve.
