Road Warrior

 

What frustrates us about driving? That suggestion was mentioned to me today when commenting about blogs and topics. Of course my mind can immediately think of lots of things as I am sure you can also come up with several things off of the top of your own head. Most things that frustrate me when driving are other drivers, traffic, weather, car problems, road work, etc. etc. I guess I should have asked the fellow blogger for more clarification on that subject.

Just the act of driving can be a pain in the butt. I get lost easily. I get turned around, can't figure which way is north or south and never realize I am going the wrong way til having to travel even more miles out of my way to find an exit or place to be able to turn around. Detours can make me hyperventilate, or feel like it some days...

Add to that factor is usually a ton of roadwork. Seeing those little orange cones can send me into a groaning dispair. One road gets repaired or widened, or torn up and replaced, resurfaced, repainted, or some other project that lasts for months and months. Once it is completed, those orange cones migrate to another nearby section, never really ever leaving, just being shuffled about and herded onto another area.

Vehicles themselves. I know I am going to come off sounding like such a girl complaining about spare tires that seem to go flat in the trunk when you ever get around to needing one. Lug nuts put on too tight that requires you trying to hop up and down on the lugwrench without a whole lot of success. Seat belts that were invented by a guy just to deter women from considering driving. Seriously, they should come with some sort of optional boob protection attachment. Vehicles are suppose to be some sort of extension of ourselves. Color choices, model choices, a reflection of our personalities. Personally I have never rushed out to buy a new vehicle off the lot. I have never chosen exactly what I wanted or spied or lusted for. The purse strings rule any and all vehicle purchases, which I guess in a way is an extension of my frugality. Those days stretch back to my very first vehicle which was neither new or shiny and tended to use almost as much oil as gas most weeks. New plugs and points were replaced often with the oil clogging them up quickly.

When you are young though, you are happy to just have any mode of transportation, and I guess that can be held true even now as I age. We just like to be mobile, or have the opportunity to be mobile if we choose to be. Some days I think it would be so easy to give up driving. Public transport, if available in my rural area would be my mode of transportation. No more pumping gas, scheduled vehicle repairs, insurance, car payments, scraping frost, snow and ice off windshields. My garage could house new things, like more garden tools, more storage, more things I think I need but can never find after putting out there...

When asked about what is most  frustrating though, most people will mention other drivers. I myself learned how to drive on the back roads of Nebraska. Rock and dirt roads were my first miles logged, well until it started raining, and one really shouldn't be on a dirt road in the rain. But back to what frustrates me with other drivers, so many things when I think about it.

People who wait til you are almost upon them before they decide that yes,... yes they have time to turn in front of you.

People who pass your vehicle and force you to brake because they really aren't going any faster than you, but still want to be ahead of you. I think this is some kind of syndrome myself. I have known people who feel the need to pass anyone ahead of them, speeding up til they catch them and then slowing down upon passing them. This is almost always a given on rainy or snowy days, ..just expect it.

People who use the turning lane for passing is a big peeve of mine. Or people who upon seeing two lanes merge into one, suddenly zoom ahead on the outer shoulder space to get in front. It can be just you and that other person on the road and they still feel compelled to do this.

People who tailgate, people who don't use blinkers, people who slow down and speed up and never keep the speed at an even keel.

People who cut you off, refuse to let you merge, become lane hogs.

People who rubberneck. Now this is a big thing in Nebraska, and 9 times out of 10 it is a farmer ahead of you who is checking out his neighbor's corn or bean fields along side the road. They usually are found in pick-up trucks, but can also be found on numerous pieces of farm machinery, which is another frustration. Combines and tractors are not built for speed and long lines of cars quickly form behind them when traveling on the roadways. Just trying to pass an over sized combine can be a feat in it's self. Weaving your car to the edge of the yellow line or just past, in order to see around the monstrosity. You will find yourself quickly ducking back in your lane a time or two before being able to find a clear lane ahead.

I guess a lot of things annoy or frustrate me, and I should count myself lucky in that I don't live in a bigger area with more traffic, more lanes, more noise and congestion. I couldn't be one of those people who commute to work an hour or more each way every day. I would go nuts. I think that is the problem with most of us. We are in a hurry. Time is short. Days aren't long enough. We want to go from point A to point B in the shortest, fastest way possible. Most times when we arrive at that final destination we aren't rushing around so much then...

Road rage, I think there is a little bit inside of all of us. Whether we admit or not, there is always a bit of annoyance at something or someone when on the road. Sometimes I wonder if our world is too mobile. Yet, I can't think of not being able to take off at a moment's notice when the notion takes me...

Road trip anyone?