Sunday, 5 July 2009
Safe driving
I may be preoccupied with safety, at my age and stage of life you cannot blame me, but since we logged 1800 km on our Lake Superior Trip, and Sunday drove 200km south for a rendez-vous with our granddaughter's parents in a small S. Ontario town, I did a lot of drive-by shooting and vehicle watching.
We normally travel a normal rural 35 km to the nearest 'town' for major shopping and groceries, and we do a fair amount of driving for medical purposes. It is amazing the near-misses and the other things I see.
Big vehicles, small ones, motorcycles, motor homes, 4-wheelers being hauled home, happy and dirty!
At one point, two school busses were stopped, due to bikes on the highway. With much traffic going south, the bus drivers did not want to risk passing around them. I am sure their mothers thank them!
We were stuck in a busy intersection of a tourist town, with motorcycles and cars going which way and that. Motorcycles are quite frequent, and it is a succinct way to travel! For the most part they follow the rules and respect other drivers. They seem to understand the Sunday afternoon driving spirit: take your time, enjoy the scenery, follow the rules of the road. Those in larger vehicles are very important, though, and act as if they must beat you to their destination! On a gorgeous, sunny, Ontario afternoon there should have been joy and gladness about us.
Turning left onto a main street was well nigh impossible without the good graces of those waiting at the stop light. One young woman stopped to let us turn before she did. But then I could not believe the man in front of us. His licence plate said, 'I FIXUM', but I would have liked to fix HIM!
He was sitting on his cell phone, in really busy traffic, at this intersection full of Sunday afternoon shoppers and tourists.
I am further amazed by the number of vehicles that pass on on double lines, or people who drive under or over the speed limits.
The drive home was wonderful! The Sunday afternoon cottagers and campers were desperately motoring south, we headed back north.
Cows, horses, goats, hay, and many vehicles. We were happy to make it home safely.
Things were busy there, being followed too closely for our liking, you can see the 3 men in the truck in our rear0view mirror, but we made it. We took our time, let others pass, and kept an eye about us!
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