I Saw It on I-25

Bruce Ediger

I’ve been commuting somewhat less than 3 days a week, from Fort Collins to Denver and back. I’ve seen some mighty strange stuff.

I saw a tiny, model dump truck strapped on the bed of an otherwise empty 18 wheeler.

I saw an 18 wheeler with a 20-pound propane tank bouncing along the highway behind it on a chain. You better believe that as soon as I figured out what was bouncing behind that truck, I gunned it, passed the 18 wheeler, and got well away.

Every day I see a trailer full of poorly-strapped-down porta potties cruising down I-25 at 75 mph. Seems like that would make an… impressive wreck site. Today I spotted a honey wagon truck with 2 porta potties on the back from a company named “Onsite Services”. More generally, apparently the term “onsite services” means “porta potties and porta pottie support”.

I saw a pickup truck pulling a trailer full of landscaping tools from a company named Omerta. The logo claimed that Omerta is in the business of erosion control, but that’s a strange choice for a company name.

I saw a chopped and lowered Subaru BRZ (?) with license plates reading “SIX GOD”. I saw a noisy, white pickup truck, New Mexico plates, with brass Truck Nutz™.

I’ve seen some unusual, or terrifying truck cargo, too:

  • Sulfuric acid. A dark blue tank completely surrounded by a crash cage of maybe 4-inch square steel tubing
  • Liquid argon
  • Compressed Hydrogen, in a multi-tube trailer.
  • “Oxygen Refrigerated Liquid”
  • “Nitrogen Refrigerated Liquid”
  • “Carbon Dioxide Refrigerated Liquid”
  • Dielectric fluid

US industry hungers for bizarre raw materials.