So, I spent the past year in Colorado, and I got to deal with all the Coloradans complaining about California drivers. About how all these Californians move to Colorado and can't drive, and don't know how to drive on snow, and cause accidents and how they should all just go back where they came from and make the roads a safer place to drive. When I reminded the friends that were complaining that I didn't know how to drive on snow either, they told me to stop driving.
My goodness. As I was driving back "home" last week, there was this guy in a truck pulling a trailer. The trailer was one of those pop-up camper trailer tent things, I don't know what they're called exactly. Anyway.
Actually, it was my sister who was driving at this point, and she was following my dad, who was going about 40 mph (which totally sucked btw, especially since my sister and I forgot to push the button that makes the a/c go on in my truck, I just thought that it was broken, or didn't work very well, it wasn't until about oh... 5 hours later that I discovered my foolishness). Anyway.
So we're following my dad and we get into this stretch of road with a limited passing lane, where the two lane highway opens up to three for a short while. And this guy, in the truck, comes up from behind and starts to pass us, no problem for Kristen and I, but then he starts to pass my dad, and we're like, "What is he thinking? The lane ends soon, there's not enough room. This guy is crazy." I thought that he would realize that there wasn't enough time, that he wasn't going fast enough to make it, and that he would drop back. Not so. This guy just keeps going. The man practically forced my dad off the road. My sister was freaking out. So was I. We were getting all excited and shouting, and sitting up and leaning forward, and pointing and carrying on. We totally thought the guy was going to hit my dad and that we'd be involved in some sort of hideous car wreck in the middle of the desert.
Oh, I was amused. So there are these blue signs along the road, ones for the Adopt-A-Highway program, where they name the person or group who is reponsible for cleaning that stretch of road in the program. So one of these signs, on the part where it's supposed to name the group, it instead says, "KEEP OUR "REZ" CLEAN. DON'T LITTER." Anyway, I was amused. It's not as funny without the visual. I think it was just the use of rez, in quotation marks, on a government sign, that amused me. Maybe it was a combination of the sun and heat and boredom, because, now that I think of it, it really isn't all that funny. Anyway.
So, a couple of miles down the road Kristen passes the guy, the one in the truck. We'd left my dad back aways and were trucking along pretty well. After a short time, we decide to let dad catch up, and slow down a bit (it was four lane highway at this time), and the guy passes us, and totally cuts us off. My sister had to swerve and brake, and at this point, she's really flipping out, screaming at the guy, bouncing in the seat, really getting riled up. She wanted to go after the guy, give him a taste of his own medicine, she was working herself up to full-on road rage, but then she calms down.
My sister is a much more aggressive driver than I am. She used to flip people off all the time. I never could bring myself to do that. One, I'm just not the kind of person to give people the finger, and two, I was always afraid of how they'd retaliate. I mean, you flip some people off, and they'll come after you. I've seen it happen. They'll follow you to wherever you are, and then get out of their car and start screaming. It's a dangerous place we live in, I mean, you can never tell what some people will do when properly provoked. Oh, so anyway.
Some time later, the guy is behind us again, don't know when that happened, but it did, and yes, he passes us again. This time, he seriously cut us off, started merging while the back of his truck was still even with the driver's window, and he was pulling a trailer, remember? Oh, my sister is pissed! So am I, and she lays on the horn, once I show her where it is. The guy is totally unfazed, just continues on his business, doesn't stop merging or anything. Idiot. Blind and deaf. And he didn't even have to merge, it was a four-lane highway, nobody else was doing any passing. Some people.
I think I got a sunburn on my eyelids during the trip. Nothing else got burnt, but my eyelids are this strange pink color. It looks like I'm wearing badly applied eye shadow, because it's like only on the inside half of my lids. I've considered actually wearing eye shadow in order to even out the color, but seeing as how I don't really wear makeup, I think all I'd succeed in doing is making my face look even sillier than it currently does.
Okay, so my friend's cat is now lunching on my jeans.
And then when we stopped again, and told my dad about the guy, how he'd cut us off too, my dad was like totally unconcerned. "Oh well, maybe he forgot he was towing a trailer. Nothing to worry about." Argh! This guy was a menace on the road, a repeat offender, and my dad didn't care. So frustrating. I shouldn't be surprised, though.
Oh! So, my point was, yes, Coloradans were right about Californians. People from California are scary drivers (at least, according to me). Not that people from Colorado are blameless, they're aggressive drivers. And people from Arizona are just plain bad drivers. Whatever happened to all those "defensive driving" techniques people learned in drivers ed? Where are the defensive drivers?