Travel

Zip it!

Posted on by backuphill

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NOT a zipper merge, but an example of how it feels when it is done wrong.

One thing I is for sure, Americans don’t like to merge on to highways. What’s worse is that we apparently also have no manners when it comes to merging, which stresses people out about merging even more. Thus, it becomes a never ending cycle.

One thing is also for sure, if the zipper merge was done correctly we’d all spend less time sitting in traffic. Look at the example below:

zipper20merge

Or better yet, take a look at the video below!

Come on, people, get with the program and we’ll all get to where we wanna go faster and more safely. Oh, and have a little patience already!

It’s rain people…

Posted on by backuphill

blur cars dew drops

Photo by Kaique Rocha on Pexels.com

News flash: We live in the Northwest and it rains here. It rains here a lot.

Now, I know that isn’t news to those who live here but DANG it already! Why do you all have to forget how to drive in the freakin’ rain??? We have rain pretty much 9 months of the year (yes summers are not as rainy) so why is it so hard to remember how to drive in such conditions?

I swear, for so many smart tech people in this area, they are a bunch of idiots behind the wheel of a car. Drive slower, leave more space between vehicles. Simple. When you do that, you have to step on the brake less and you don’t bash into others as often. Duh!

Now do it.

#SMH

When you don’t want a chip off the old block

Posted on by backuphill

abstract break broken broken glass

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Driving down the highway, perhaps over the posted limit, but minding my own business and staying my own lane when out of the blue there is a huge THWACK!! on the windshield.

You guessed it, a flying object made of stone but probably only the size of a peanut.

No damage this time, but is certainly gets your attention and most definitely riles you up. Rocks on the windshield, or anywhere on the car for that matter, are most irritating.

I commute millions of miles, it seems, and I hate it when that tiny little rock causes a chip in the window. Time and cold weather mean at some point the window is getting replaced. Who has time for that? Who can afford that? I suppose that is why you see cracked windshields everywhere…

Damn little rock.

O Canada…

Posted on by backuphill

canada flag with mountain range view

Photo by Daniel Joseph Petty on Pexels.com

Our neighbors from the northern land!

Improve your driving we shall command.

Your lack of skill comes as no surprise,

Violate the laws and you won’t be free!

From the border you come,

O Canada, you speed on the freeway.

God you’re rude and pushy too!

O Canada, we won’t stand to let you speed.

O Canada, we won’t let you speed for free.

A little ode for our Canadian neighbors, sung to the tune of their national anthem. If you live in the upper left corner of the United States, you can totally relate to this little ditty. Shoot, if you live anywhere within reach of the Canadian border, you can probably relate. Am I wrong?

Total generalization here, but the general consensus (or commonly held stereotype) is that Canadians are generally a docile and friendly people. If you are actually IN Canada, I have found this to be true for the most part. They are nice people. However, in my experience, the are not great drivers.

Once they cross that border in the US, that stereotype goes away and another becomes the reality. They apparently forget all rules of the road and all manners while shopping. If you live within 200 miles of the border in Washington, this is a well known fact.

Reality is that Canadians are rude and self-absorbed. Two areas this is blatantly obvious: driving and shopping. This is displayed in driving because they speed, weave in and out of traffic, cut people off, tailgate, and otherwise display poor behavior with abandon because there is apparently no consequence for it, even when they get pulled over. The other area is shopping. The clog up our stores (especially close to the border) and purchase weird amounts of milk and gas (can we thank socialism and price controls for that?). They are pushy. They are usually very loud. They sometimes appear to not even understand the purchasing process…I mean, really?

So, how about we try this? Shop online and we’ll ship it too you. We want your money, but we can do without the bad driving and invasion of our stores every time you have a holiday in the land of maple syrup and Mounties.

 

Left in the dark

Posted on by backuphill

yellow tent under starry night

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

About that trip where I slept on the ground, in a tent, in a sleeping bag…

I also had to set up the tent in the dark, alone.

OK, so growing up, we were always setting up camping for family camping trips in the dark. It became a joke later as us kids got older, but all of us hated it growing up. And, it was always dad’s fault because he was always late getting home, which meant late leaving, which meant late arriving, which meant setting up in the dark.

So, as an adult out on my own, I always made it a point to leave early enough so as to not have to set up camp in the dark. I was pretty successful at getting it done! So much for being like my dad, right?

Well, I now know why dad was always late. His job – or in our case, our existence. He was a business owner and did everything. As the business grew, so did the work and the employees and everything else he was responsible for. So, of course he was always late.

Dad, I now understand.

But, I still hate setting up camp in the dark. Period.

I’m too old for this

Posted on by backuphill

relaxation forest break camping

Photo by Raj Tatavarthy on Pexels.com

I recently attended a mini family reunion on the other side of the state. It was a quick one, just over a weekend so two nights was all I was staying. I was also going alone, kids were busy and wife had to work, so I didn’t need to take the usual stuff. I wanted to travel light and quickly.

So, I threw a few camping type supplies into the car and some clothes, and off I went. Tent, sleeping bag, clothes, food.

Well, I regretted “go light” as soon as I climbed into the tent to sleep. I didn’t include the usual stuff like a sleeping pad or an air mattress, like I would have if someone else was along with me. What was I thinking?

My body doesn’t handle the same things it could when I was younger. Apparently my brain thinks I am still young enough to do this crap, my body obviously let me know that wasn’t the case. Comfort? Yeah, not so much. Sleeping on the ground and having an old body (or at least feeling old) just doesn’t add up to much sleep.

Lesson learned? Take the comfortable stuff. It isn’t over-rated.

Don’t mind me, trying to get anywhere…

Posted on by backuphill

closed construction road road sign

Photo by David Whittaker on Pexels.com

Passable roads are nice. Summer is nice. So do we have to ruin one to make the other possible?

Summer is apparently the only time road construction can get done. Added to that, it also can only be done during the day and not at night, which is weird considering we have this cool technology called “lights”. So, with technology available to do construction at night while traffic volumes are reduced significantly, why are we still doing it during the day while traffic volume is at it’s highest?

I suppose someone (or maybe just LIFE in general) is out there conspiring against me and all the other people that have to get somewhere…

 

I wonder if it really makes a difference

Posted on by backuphill

smartphone car technology phone

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

On any given work day, I have nearly two hours of commute (round trip) time. Yeah, I can feel your groans. I do it too. To be honest, the commute is the worst part of my job and if I could not do it and make the same income I would change in a heartbeat. But, it is what it is.

So, I have been using the Waze app to see if it can help alleviate the commute time a little. Supposedly it is “real time” traffic routing based on user reports. It is owned by Google, so all it does it take the traffic reports and move it to a different app instead of the regular Google Maps app. Anyway, I am not sure it is helping.

Why is it not helping? Or at least, why do I not think it is helping? Well, it takes me just as long to get home when I use it and when I don’t use it. By time it routes be down some obscure neighborhood road, or through every traffic light in town, it has taken me roughly the same amount of time to get to the exact same choke point at just going the most direct route, via the highway where all the other cars are sitting in traffic. Maybe it is just the nature of the necessary route to get home (there are literally only two ways to get home via two choke points). But, one would think that you could at least get to the choke point a little faster using the app. Not so.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

#trafficiskillingme #smh

Do you know why I pulled you over?

Posted on by backuphill

*Disclaimer #1, no, I haven’t been pulled over for this yet.

There are some really dumb traffic laws out there, and this happens to be one of the dumbest. The sheer nature of the law assumes that someone will be speeding and someone else will be impeding their progress.

Bahn Storming

wesleychapelcommunity.com

So, let’s talk about this for a second. Let’s assume you are trying to follow the posted speed limit and are not exceeding it. Slower vehicles are supposed to stay to the right (it’s the law, right?). If, by the nature of traveling the speed limit, you are able to pass people while traveling in the left lane then you are not causing anyone grief because you are in fact going the speed limit.

Let’s just say an emergency vehicle comes up from behind you with their lights on. What do you do? You move to the right, like the law says to do. If you don’t move right, you can and should be ticketed for not following the law. So, is this an issue with traveling in the left lane?

If you are going slower than the speed limit, well, then you could be pulled over because you are actually being a hazard to other drivers and should be pulled over for being a danger to yourself and others.

Finally, that leaves anyone who is going over the speed limit, which I do regularly. *Disclaimer #2 – I do not condone speeding, I am just merely using myself as an example. First, if you are speeding you can be pulled over for that because you are violating a law already on the books. However, since you are speeding you are likely passing slower people who are staying on the right. Thus, no need for the law. If you are one of those jackwagons (is that gender specific or is it all-inclusive?) who decides that you are going to speed at an unreasonable rate and unsafely, well then there is already a law on the books for that. It is called reckless driving.

So that leaves a scenario where I am traveling over the speed limit and passing people on the left when a jackwagon speeds up from behind me and tailgates me as I don’t move immediately out-of-the-way. Who is in the wrong here? As we are both exceeding the speed limit, both of us are passing people on the left. We are both speeding, only one of us is doing it in an unsafe manner. I am not really impeding anyone in traffic, except the jackwagon behind me who feels the need to run everyone off the road to get to where they are going. Get my drift here?

The “keep right” law is dumb.