Unknown to the mother, when Joe had first driven into her driveway he had loaded two five-gallon plastic cans full of gasoline into the trunk of her car.
It was now time to get settled into their vehicles.
“Here, let me get that,” Joe said, offering to load the kids into their car seats. Joe could tell the mother and her sister were nervous too, and they murmured appreciation for his help.
He was satisfied the kids’ seat belt mechanisms holding their car seats didn’t click in solidly, but did hold enough to not come loose on their own. When he gave a good tug, the upper part of the latch pulled loose in his hands. Perfect.
“Phone charged up and working?” Joe asked the mother.
She nodded yes. Looking very nervous.
Joe backed out of the driveway and started driving slowly down the street to give the mother a chance to catch up.
Unknown to Joe, in the few seconds he was gone and had his view of the mother’s car blocked by the tall bushes, a neighbor lady and her teenage daughter came from next door, opened the car’s back doors and removed the kids from their car seats.
The mother then backed out, and blew a kiss to her children, who were being cradled in the arms of her neighbors.
Hugh’s trailer was unloaded fairly quickly as unloading goes, which Hugh was happy about, as he wished to get to the truck stop early enough to get a good spot. The Tolleson truck stop was one of few in the Phoenix area, and it filled up fairly early.
He got his delivery papers signed, and he threaded his truck out of the Boeing manufacturing complex and onto the Red Mountain Freeway heading west.
“We’ll get on the 10 in a bit, and then take it west to Tolleson,” Hugh told Jenny.
Joe saw the women pull in behind him as he took the on-ramp to Interstate 10 heading west. It was becoming late afternoon, and the sun in the west was beginning to be an aggravation. Give it a little more time, and it would be a full-blown driving hazard.
He got set up as they had done during the two practices. He immediately spotted a likely target truck belonging to a major carrier.
“Maybe this one,” Joe announced over the phone.
The way was clear for him to pull into the truck’s lane, but when he pulled ahead he could see there was no way for the women to come up from the right side, as cars were lined up and slowing down in her lane to take the off-ramp.
“OK. We’ll try a different one,” he said.
Hugh and Jenny both pulled down their visors to try to get some relief from the sun that was setting lower by the minute. Jenny was so short the visor didn’t provide much relief from the intense light.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be there soon,” Hugh said.
Traffic was heavy. Expected for this time of day heading westbound on 10 out of the city.
Joe spotted another possibility. It was a rig from another large trucking firm, with a company trailer being pulled by a white semi.
“Let’s try this one,” Joe announced to the mother.
“I’m sorry,” the mother responded, “I’m hemmed in again and can’t get ahead of the truck.”
By this time, Joe felt they had gone far enough west. He told the mother he was going to take the Litchfield exit, double back, head east on 10 for a bit, then get back on 10 heading west again.
“Follow me,” he said, and began to maneuver to the right lanes to make the exit.
Hugh had caught the 10 just before entering the tunnel heading west. The bright setting sun hit them like a physical blow as they exited the dark tunnel.
“Homestretch,” Hugh told Jenny. “We’ll be there in a little bit.”
Joe didn’t want to go as far as Interstate 17 to cross over, so he picked the 27th Avenue exit before the 17, made a left and crossed over I-10, then took a left onto the on-ramp to get back onto I-10 heading west.
With the mother following closely behind him, they entered the freeway at speed, with Joe taking the third lane, and the mother in the slow lane. Traffic was lighter on this particular stretch.
Right away, Joe spotted a rig with a trailer belonging to WestAm Trucking coming up in the second lane. The truck had a huge following distance, and no cars were obstructing the mother’s planned move.
“OK. Here we go. This is the one,” Joe told the mother. “We’ll do it past the 35th Avenue off-ramp so you don’t get bogged down with exiting traffic again.” He was nervous, but excited too.
Hugh had crossed Interstate 17 at the giant spaghetti bowl stack of interchanges between the city’s two major freeways.
The setting sun was brutal at this point. He slowed down to increase his following distance because visibility ahead was becoming so poor.
Right after the 35th Avenue exit Hugh saw a car at his left speed up and swerve recklessly into his lane. At the same time, a car on the right sped up and looked like it was going to attempt to swerve into his lane as well.
“Don’t!” Hugh yelled, startling Jenny.
The driver of the car on the right, a woman, didn’t hear Hugh, of course, and she tried to cut her car into Hugh’s lane. It looked like she was trying to pull in behind the first car that had come from Hugh’s left and had swerved into his lane.
“She’s not going to make it,” Hugh said. He slowed down to give her more space.
Then to Hugh’s horror, before the lady’s car was fully in Hugh’s lane, the driver of the first car jammed on his brakes. Not a tap. It looked like an attempted full-panic stop.
