The drive from Stonewall to Ft. Stockton was uneventful...almost. I was east of Ft. Stockton on I-10, just driving along and minding my own business when I was passed by a gang of about 6 or 7 motorcyclist, all riding one behind the other. As the last motorcyclist passed me, I noticed what appeared to be smoke coming from the bike. My first thought was the bike was burning oil but then I realized the smoke seemed to be coming from a nylon type of bag on the rear of the bike. It seemed unlikely to me that smoke would be coming from the bag itself so I didn't give it much more thought. Once the bikes were out of sight, they were also out of mind.
A couple of miles down the road, the driver ahead of me swerved to miss something in the middle of the interstate so I followed his lead and swerved also. As I passed by the object in the road, I looked at it and it appeared to be a T-shirt...that was on fire. It seemed unlikely to me that I had just seen a burning T-shirt in the middle of I-10...but that is certainly what it looked like. No sooner had I passed the flaming T-shirt when the driver ahead of me swerved once again, this time to avoid other flaming objects. I swerved also and once again, tried to get a good view of what was on fire this time. It appeared to be straps...or maybe a belt, I wasn't sure. Not a hundred yards further down the road was yet more burning stuff. This time it looked like it might be part of a bag of some sort...and then it dawned on me...it wasn't my imagination that the bag was smoking on the motorcycle that had passed me earlier, it truly was smoking and apparently, eventually, burst into flames.
Another couple hundred yards down the interstate, I saw 5 or 6 motorcycles pulled over to the side of the road and all the riders were gathered around one bike, a bike that appeared to be smoldering towards the back of the seat. They seemed to have the situation under control so I continued on my journey.
Another 2 or 3 miles down the interstate, I passed one more motorcyclist that had also pulled over to the side of the road. The rider was looking longingly back towards the east, the direction from where he'd came. He had a puzzled look on his face so it didn't take me long to figure out that this guy was the leader of the gang of motorcyclist...apparently a leader that didn't check his rear view mirror very often. He was wondering where the other riders were. I knew something that he didn't know...I knew the other riders were back about 2 or 3 miles, busily stomping out the burning bag that had been on one of the other motorcycles only a few minutes earlier.
I've posted 3 pictures this time. Imagine the 3 pictures side by side, with the top picture being on the left. That is the view from the RV park in Ft. Stockton, Texas. Need I say more?
Until next time.
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