I have lived in the country off and on most of my life. It amazes me that people do not understand the rules of the road for country, two-lane road drivin'.
First of all, the older you get, the slower you drive. It is a fact of life. When one of those old fogeys gets in front of you doin' 30 in a 70 mph zone, don't honk, don't get agitated, just pray that there is an opportunity to pass within the fifteen miles. Of course, as soon as it is safe to pass, they will pull onto the shoulder. Face it, it is just that way. They will back up traffic for miles and miles and only when it is completely safe to go around them will they feel safe enough to pull out of the way.
Secondly, around every curve is a piece of farm machinery that is enterin' the highway. Of course, they go slower than 30, but they will likely only go about 1 mile before they turn off of the road. This only happens on those rare occasions when you have clear highway to your fore and clear highway to your rear.
If there are 5 car lengths between you and the car immediately in front of you which is followin' a long convoy, and there are 500 car lengths behind you before the next car, at the very next intersection, someone will pull out in front of you and take forever to get up to speed. They never wait for you to pass so that they will have the much longer space and decrease the amount of impediment they cause in your progress.
You will be continually delayed by dump trucks haulin' gravel. Every time you speed up to pass, a piece of gravel will bounce out of the bed of that truck and plonk your windshield. You can pass if you get a clear half mile of highway because you have to stay so far back that it takes a quarter-half mile of runnin' room to reach passin' speed. The more gravel trucks on the road, the fewer the passin' lanes.
At night, if you see a deer standin' still on the side of the road, it will not move until it darts right out in front of you without givin' you time to react. If you see a skunk, you just hit it. If you see an armadillo, the last car just hit it.
You can generally drive safely between two country towns without gettin' a flat unless you are not carryin' a spare or a jack. Then you will always have a flat. There will be no place to pull over for miles. No one will stop who has any teeth.
If you are in a hurry, you will encounter road construction. Either you will be stopped for 15 minutes waitin' on the lead vehicle or you will be sent on a 20 mile detour. If you are unfamiliar with the detour route, you will run out of gas. There will be no gas station for miles. You will not have a gas can. No one will stop who has any teeth.
This is all I can think of right now, but I am sure there are about a million more I forgot.
Posted by notGeorge at November 10, 2003 07:14 PMWhy, when crossing a long bridge, does the oncoming traffic drive on the yellow line in the middle of the road and/or all traffic slows down to about 35 or 40 miles per hour? This has always been a mystery to me.
Why, when driving on a multilane interstate highway, when attempting to pass a slower vehicle, the vehicle being passed will nearly always accelerate to try to keep from being passing?
Posted by: Frank at November 10, 2003 09:49 PM