Relaxing Highway Drive, with Tailgating Assholes
Someone in a Monte Carlo SS roared passed me doing 160 km/hour (100 mph). I was doing 115 in a 110 zone (+5 over). Closely behind the Monte Carlo was a Nissan Maxima doing about the same rate of speed. While the Monte Carlo kept on going, the Nissan slowed right down to 115 and stuck ahead of me. Several incidences of police officers pulled cars over during my trip to PEI and from PEI. In one case two cops pulled over a car (it wasn't the Nissan).
My Subaru is no race car but it has pretty good speed from 3rd gear and 4th. I was all set to pass this car ahead of me when someone in a Ford Flex (behind me) decided to pass ME and the car ahead of me. I had none of it and dropped to 3rd gear and hit the redline moving quickly ahead of the Ford and the car ahead of me. The asshole in the Ford kept going at 140 and had little regard for other drivers.
There was a record amount of roadkill on the highway this time around. I counted at least 20 racoons, 10 skunks, and 20 rats. Big signs near Confederation bridge warned me of moose.
As I crossed the bridge some motherfucker in a huge Ford truck decided to tailgate me all the way across the bridge. My speed was 90 km/hour and the speed limit was 80. This fuck didn't care and rode my ass anyway. As we exited the bridge the speed drops down to 60 and that is EXACTLY what I did when we hit that area. Of course this fuck continues to ride my ass but fuck him, I'm not speeding because this is the exact area where I got pulled over last year for speeding. (Luckily the police officer was kind and let me go with a stern warning).
If anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with tailgaters, please send them my way. They are annoying and extremely dangerous. And guess how many Subaru Impreza's I found on the highway? Absolutely none. The only one I saw was an older Forester being pulled up to a tow truck. Bad karma? The car was flawless and I even got to use my old MP3 player with the audio broadcaster. Having the right music on any road trip is absolutely essential. Another essential piece of gear is sunglasses that block out the hard UVA and UVB light.
I use one set that is orange and makes the detail on the road 200% clearer. It really makes driving so much more enjoyable. At one point I took a turn off at a wrong road and found some loose gravel in a parking lot. So I decided to do a 180 degree burnout using my AWD and managed to make an arc that would have made the late Colin McCrae proud!
One odd sighting was a Dodge Challenger SRT-8 that was parked across the opposite end of the highway and apparently abandoned. I would have loved to have an opportunity to photograph that car up close. But it didn't happen.
My next bullrun is next Saturday when I repeat the same run again. Driving and doing the speed limit (or +/- 5-10) is so much more enjoyable, safer, and economical than driving like a maniac. I had consumed two extra large double-double Tim Hortons coffee's prior to my return trip...so you can imagine my kindeys were working overtime. I had to make 3 pit stops and fortunately there was never any need for an emergency "piss stop" at the highway edge.
If you have the opportunity to do any road trips, do them now before the winter time begins. I really dread the upcoming winter season. I am thinking about buying some quality winter tires, because my Potenza tires are just shit in the winter.
Good luck and enjoy driving!
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