<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoTitle><STRONG><U><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma>BLOWING IN THE WIND</FONT></U></STRONG></DIV>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">By John Del Santo<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoBodyText><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma>Do you want to talk about exciting !!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’re toolin’ down the road on your bike on a beautiful, sunny day when out of the blue comes a 4’ X 8’ piece of plywood, flipping off the roof of a car, tumbling through the air at you!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Wow !!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Super Adrenaline Rush !!!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Do I have time to move to another lane?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is someone in the next lane?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Will the plywood shift to another lane before it lands?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If I have to hit it, at what angle should I try to hit it?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If I brake hard enough to avoid it, will the car behind me have enough room
to stop before he squishes me?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Decisions, decisions, decisions, and you only have about one second to make them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Seeing the problems a little earlier would be a definite advantage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Are you aiming far enough up the road to see cars swerving around something, or to see a bunch of brake lights come on all of a sudden?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just about <I>everybody </I><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>is driving a van or SUV these days.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you’re following one of those, you can’t see through it, so leave enough following distance to see <I>around </I>it?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Do you have enough space to stop or accelerate out to someplace safer?</FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoBodyText><o:p><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma> </FONT></o:p></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoBodyText><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma>The most common foreign objects to find laying on the road are bungee cords, and the hook on those can puncture a tire.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The next most common things to find laying on the road, are the things that bungee cords <I>were </I><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>holding down.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As we’re riding down the highway, we check out the cargo on the vehicles in front of us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If we can’t see any visible tie-downs, we <U>don’t stay there!</U><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The average driver has no clue as to how much force the wind can create.</FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoBodyText><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma>They’ll watch the news on TV and see a 65 mph gale blowing down houses and tall trees on the <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Florida</st1:State></st1:place> coast,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>and yet they’ll put wooden chairs, a mattress, or an empty garbage can in the back of a pickup and drive down the highway at 65 mph and expect the stuff to stay there!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Expect<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>sudden attacks by beach chairs, empty coolers, barbecue grills, couch pillows, living room chairs, and aluminum ladders.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When this stuff appears on the road, how will the car in the lane next to you react?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Will they brake in a straight line, or will they get all Freaky and Swervy?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you’re in their blind spot when things go bad, be ready to alert them with your horn.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can run across these anytime, but more so in the hotter weather you’ll find big pieces of truck tire, “road ‘gators”, on the highway.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you see a piece fly off a truck, expect more pieces to be launched at you real soon.</FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoBodyText><o:p><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma> </FONT></o:p></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoBodyText><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma>Once that foreign object is on the road, will it stay still where it is?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Big plastic Bed Liners have a nasty habit of popping out of the back of pickup trucks.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Recently, a rider saw a Bed Liner laying in the next lane of a freeway as he approached ….”Whew, got lucky on <U>that</U> one!”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And as the van in front of him passed the Bed Liner, the vacuum in the air behind the van sucked the Bed Liner into his lane where his motorcycle smashed into it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Major Damage!… Major Bummer!</FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoBodyText><o:p><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma> </FONT></o:p></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoBodyText><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma>It sure would be nice to expect a clear highway in front of us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But until we can fence off a couple of hundred miles of road, and not allow anyone else on it,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>we’ll just need to stay alert<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>and be ready for just about anything that’s out there where it shouldn’t be. </FONT></DIV>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoBodyText><FONT size=3 face=Tahoma>So, be aware, get your knees in the breeze, and….Ride Safe!</FONT></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV><FONT color=#00007f face="tahoma, new york, times, serif"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#00007f face="tahoma, new york, times, serif">John Del Santo</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>( 619 ) 223-0421 <FONT color=#0060bf><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"> </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"><BR></SPAN></FONT></DIV><FONT color=#0060bf></FONT>
<DIV><FONT color=#007f40 size=1 face=Tahoma><FONT color=#00bf60><EM><SPAN id=yiv814819942yiv252332337lw_1256638713_1 class=yiv814819942yiv252332337yshortcuts></SPAN></EM></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#80ff00><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"><SPAN id=yiv814819942yiv252332337lw_1256239249_1 class=yiv814819942yiv252332337yshortcuts></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#80ff00><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"><SPAN class=yiv814819942yiv252332337yshortcuts><A href="http://www.attractworldpeace.com/" rel=nofollow target=_blank><SPAN id=lw_1295433781_3 class=yshortcuts>http://www.attractworldpeace.com/</SPAN></A></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#007f40 size=1 face=Tahoma><FONT color=#00bf60><EM><SPAN id=lw_1256638713_1 class=yshortcuts></SPAN></EM></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#80ff00 size=2><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"><SPAN id=lw_1256239249_1 class=yshortcuts></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#80ff00 size=2><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,255)"><SPAN class=yshortcuts></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV></td></tr></table>