So I Pull Out Onto the Main Street . . .

I don't like boxing people in on the freeway. The main reason is I can barely get my tractor up to the appropriate speed to stay alongside another driver.

I was trying to pass this ragged tractor on Mass Ave today on my bicycle. The damned thing was crawling and sputtering, burrying half the street in black smoke. I nearly lost it and uttered "Baszom az apat az angyalat" or something to that effect, which is so unlike me...but then I noticed it. There was a clear and distinct halo hovering above the tractor. It must have been the Saint Ratzenhoffer Himself. You just never know who is in front of you. Could be Jesus.

That was me, dag, and thanks for the laugh. I have never seen a more pathetic bicycle in my life.

Where in the hell did you get that thing?

why, it's the christmas present from your mother. she sent it to me in 1993, i believe.

Quoting - I too like to box in the agressive driver between me and the car in the next lane. That really pisses them off.

I admit a certain pleasure from that, for milliseconds at a time, but I try to get out of it, one way or another.

I was fast on my trip from CA to NM, once I got out of the rainstormed world... but am much more temperate in the city - the city... y'know, all those people psyched up in different ways.

I used to have real road rage, but, life is too short and precious to waste that way. I know a guy that will drive 20 on the feeder road to "punish" the ones driving behind him. He becomes enraged if someone passes him from a merge lane, even though they are, simply, faster and not crowding him at all. He swerves on a parking lot, just to make others dodge him. He keeps his attention split, watching the cars coming up from behind as much as the ones around and before him. He used to try to involve me in his insanity by saying of other drivers, "He almost killed YOU." I got in the habit of settling back, with my eyes closed, as if asleeep, until it was over with. Once, he followed a person that was guilty of no more than having a fast car, just to throw a soft drink in her face. I keep expecting to learn he was killed on the roadway, but, so far, he is surviving.

Some damn fine driving on that trip. I-5, sure, but then once you hit those desert roads in Arizona... Nothing finer.

Except that there's no more Twin Arrows Trading Post, or much of anything else from old 66. Just like 99 -- all run out of business by the newer freeways and the "travel centers."

No, I never do that on the freeway. I have a whole different set of rules for that, mainly because it feels so much more dangerous at those speeds. My freeway etiquette says that the left-hand lane is for passing, no matter how fast someone is going.

Anyway, I'm not proud of my road rage. I usually feel pretty guilty once the adrenaline wears off. I should try harder not to be such a self-righteous dick.

Well, it's more of a sensible thing up here, I think. People drive like it's icy (or like they're a little drunk and wary of the police, which is entirely possible) all the time here. I'm a perfectly orderly driver, but I'm a rural California kid, and I like to drive fast...

No, I went 101 to LA (family, friends). First of all, I plenty hate 5 and I've lifetime mems re 101 - who knows if I'll do that again, am sentimental; took ten east from LAh, as I didn't need to hit snow.. It was at Christmas last year, lot of flooding whooshing around, including San Berdu. I was in a wild scenario just north of SF, but once through that it was smooth and gorgeous, if only a day after or before various other scenarios.
Not many on the road after I left LA...
I don't drive from twilight on, re my eyes, but in daytime I'm the same as other drivers. So, I took more days than most but probably went faster in the hours I was on the road.

Ah, the southern route, so no old 66 for you. I know what you mean about 101, though. Now places like Gonzalez give me a little pang when I go through them, even though I never paid them any mind when I lived out there.

I drove out on 40 last year, just ahead of that storm (I think we left Sacramento on the 26th). My family thought we were crazy for going south and over, instead of just taking 80, but 80 was a snowed in disaster for days, and the whole trip across and up to WI we were ahead of the weather.

I make up for highway speed, in my mind, with my temperateness in city.
More loonies in city...and you can't tell them by the age and value of the cars.

I can't quite remember.. I was aiming for Dys and Diane's. I think I got there the afternoon of the 26th, but it might have been the 27th.

I was also dealing with Pacco, in that I had the route worked out for what hotels or motels would take a dog.. and for what money. That plus that I can't drive in the dark added a certain piquance.
Glad I worked that out beforehand, I didn't have trouble, although a slight bit, forget where, would have to look back at the thread on it - maybe Petaluma.
Whatever, past that cloudburst north of SF, it was smooth.

But, the point... beautiful ride..

On 66, I did it as a kid, a few times. Well, not me, my parents, me in the back of the car.
I have memories of 37 miles to Blackies....

You took I-10 all the way, Osso? I started out that way, but it was killing me. I mean, you drive along at 70 or so for an hour or more, aren't you entitled to see the scenery change just a little bit? I finally dodged north on some little two lane to Needles, thence eastwards.

I'm with osso here...

I think slowing down, boxing the other driver in so they can't pass, and so forth just increases their road rage. That will make it worse for you because they are now both more pissed and more irrational. Just as important, or maybe even more, you may have made a dangerous/deadly situation for another innocent person. On a lesser note; Isn't that making you as bad as the other driver? It's a deadly game you're playing with people lives, and the tools you're using weigh several tons.

Frankly, I couldn't live with myself know that the few moments pleasure I got from keeping someone from passing me caused someone elses death or permanent injury.

I've said this before, and polly anna-ish as this sounds, I try to drive like ever other car has a baby in it....because any given car could.

I have a temper, like everyone else, but when I get behind the wheel I put that aside as far as people who either have road rage or are just plain jerks, and let them get as far away from me as possible.

edgar,
I'm just trying to figure out why you and the missus had to get in the car and leave home just to pass gas. It's much more relaxing to fart around home.

It was getting smelly in there. Had to air it out. Thanx for inquiring.