Let’s take a (road) trip down memory lane. It’s May of 2006 and I’m driving a then-new BMW M6 from Road American (in Plymouth, Wisconsin) to Los Angeles after attending the car’s press introduction.

I’ve decided to stop by my hometown of Denver on the way, and I’m intent on making it a one-day trip – even though it’s a 1000-mile drive. I leave Road America early on a Friday and actually drive east for a few miles to get a shot of the M6 next to Lake Michigan, then I head toward the Rockies.

Along the way I stop by several interesting landmarks, including a big tank in Nebraska.

Unfortunately, shortly after taking this shot I was forced onto the shoulder of I80 at approximately 70 mph by a large semi truck that decided he wanted my lane – whether I was already in it or not. Normally that wouldn’t be a huge deal because the shoulder was paved…but a long four-by-four board right in that stretch of shoulder made it far more interesting…

It was impossible to avoid the board or stop in time, so I took a firm hold on the steering wheel and hoped for the best. Given the noise and level of “hop” the car experienced I was expecting the wheel to be square-shaped when I finally got the M6 stopped and had a chance to look at it. Instead I saw no apparent damage…but felt a definite “thump-thump-thump” at highway speeds.

It turned out to be a bent front and rear wheel on the driver’s side, but you could only see the bent rims from underneath the BMW looking at the inside the wheels (apparently this is quite common).

I felt really bad about the wheels and highly enraged about the poop-for-brains truck driver that forced me to drive over a large piece of wood at 70 mph.

But I was able to continue on to Los Angeles (after a short stop in Denver), and I even got a great shot of the car near Lake Powell in Utah.

And I’ve never passed a large truck on the freeway without first having a clear escape path in view, since.