As a driving enthusiast, I LOVE those kinds of roads. If I am faced with a choice between four hours on an Interstate highway, or five hours on a winding country road, I'll take the latter.
Bit of an annoying day today.
We'd planned to drive over to my folks' and my brother's places (they're near one another). The plan was to leave here about 10AM, get to my folks by 11:15AM or so, spend maybe 15 minutes there shouting at my parents across the yard, then do the same at my brother's. I gave him my cast iron dutch oven, so I needed to drop that off.
First of all, my mom asked that I swing by Kroger and grab something for her, no problem, I drive by three or four on the way over. Then I remembered that what she wanted wasn't available at all Krogers, and my local one happens to carry it, so I decided I'd pop into town around 7AM or so, grab that, then back to the house, breakfast, then on the road.
Wrong. Got called for work in the wee hours, that kept me occupied for a couple of hours, and by the time we were ready to go, it was 11:30AM. That already raised by hackles a bit.
The route to my folks is 75 minutes on a good day, but it's a hard 75 minutes, up and down hills and twists and turns, through small towns, all small state routes and backroads (think B roads and single-track roads for my UK/Euro friends). I hate that <bleeping> drive with a passion. You drive and drive and drive and feel like you're never going to arrive.
75 minutes on a good day, and today wasn't a good day. The first part is on the interstate for about 15 minutes, and as soon as I exited that onto the side roads, I got stuck behind a damn cement mixer truck that threw gravel and went 3/4ths of the way to my folks before I could find the first spot to pass him. I'll bet I didn't average 35mph the entire way. Up hills and he'd slow down to 10mph, then he'd have to lay on the brakes because of all the turns, and no where to pass for miles and miles, and on the rare occasion a spot would open...a line of oncoming traffic.
75 minutes...took me twice that. That made me pissy the rest of the day.
Later, left my brother's, and the whole reason MrsT came along was to go to Chick-fil-A (drive-through) for lunch. Saturday...Chick-fil-A, busy retail area...you couldn't get near the place. They had a two-lane drive-through going, cars were spilling out into the road, blocking regular traffic, and a traffic cop directing traffic in the Chick-fil-A parking lot. That's how busy it was.
That made her pissy for the rest of the day.
So we've been snippy with each other all day, and it's 5PM, and I'm ready to just go to bed.
My main issue with that particular drive is that for very long stretches of it, there's no way to pass, and it also happens to be an extremely busy stretch of rural highway that gets absolutely overrun with semis, cement trucks, combines, and any other oversized, slow-moving piece of machinery you can think of.
Ah, yes...the Texas Courtesy Pass, always very much appreciated, though I did know one out-of-stater who complained about it: "If I wanted to pass you, I'D PASS YOU MYSELF!!!"
When I bought mine, no Abarth here yet, but I wouldn't have bought one if it were. Definitely not my style. I'm a regular ol' driver. I don't go fast, I don't go slow (except on the interstate), I just go at a middlin' speed. I don't care for Jack-rabbit starts or zipping around things. I just want to get from here to there in a nice, calm, easygoing manner.
Bit of an annoying day today.
We'd planned to drive over to my folks' and my brother's places (they're near one another). The plan was to leave here about 10AM, get to my folks by 11:15AM or so, spend maybe 15 minutes there shouting at my parents across the yard, then do the same at my brother's. I gave him my cast iron dutch oven, so I needed to drop that off.
First of all, my mom asked that I swing by Kroger and grab something for her, no problem, I drive by three or four on the way over. Then I remembered that what she wanted wasn't available at all Krogers, and my local one happens to carry it, so I decided I'd pop into town around 7AM or so, grab that, then back to the house, breakfast, then on the road.
Wrong. Got called for work in the wee hours, that kept me occupied for a couple of hours, and by the time we were ready to go, it was 11:30AM. That already raised by hackles a bit.
The route to my folks is 75 minutes on a good day, but it's a hard 75 minutes, up and down hills and twists and turns, through small towns, all small state routes and backroads (think B roads and single-track roads for my UK/Euro friends). I hate that <bleeping> drive with a passion. You drive and drive and drive and feel like you're never going to arrive.
75 minutes on a good day, and today wasn't a good day. The first part is on the interstate for about 15 minutes, and as soon as I exited that onto the side roads, I got stuck behind a damn cement mixer truck that threw gravel and went 3/4ths of the way to my folks before I could find the first spot to pass him. I'll bet I didn't average 35mph the entire way. Up hills and he'd slow down to 10mph, then he'd have to lay on the brakes because of all the turns, and no where to pass for miles and miles, and on the rare occasion a spot would open...a line of oncoming traffic.
75 minutes...took me twice that. That made me pissy the rest of the day.
Later, left my brother's, and the whole reason MrsT came along was to go to Chick-fil-A (drive-through) for lunch. Saturday...Chick-fil-A, busy retail area...you couldn't get near the place. They had a two-lane drive-through going, cars were spilling out into the road, blocking regular traffic, and a traffic cop directing traffic in the Chick-fil-A parking lot. That's how busy it was.
That made her pissy for the rest of the day.
So we've been snippy with each other all day, and it's 5PM, and I'm ready to just go to bed.
I'm the exact opposite. I hate driving mainly because other people are horrible drivers. My dad, now a retired Chicago police officer, taught me to drive when I was 12 years old. I was the best female driver in the police academy. I had a good driver insurance discount when I had a vehicle.
You have a Kroger in your area and they are running Impossible plant based "ground meat" at a few dollars off. Perhaps now's a good time to try it. Soooo much better than Beyond.Bit of an annoying day today.
We'd planned to drive over to my folks' and my brother's places (they're near one another). The plan was to leave here about 10AM, get to my folks by 11:15AM or so, spend maybe 15 minutes there shouting at my parents across the yard, then do the same at my brother's. I gave him my cast iron dutch oven, so I needed to drop that off.
First of all, my mom asked that I swing by Kroger and grab something for her, no problem,
That made her pissy for the rest of the day.
So we've been snippy with each other all day, and it's 5PM, and I'm ready to just go to bed.
