Minor driving rant...

[theholycow]

Today I had to drive through Worcester, MA to get to Route 146. I expected it to suck. Often, it does. Today it did not suck.

I got on 146 and that's when stuff began to suck. Traffic wasn't heavy but every one of the few drivers was driving like a jerk. Not severely so.

The limited access freeway portion of 146 has had its surface ground in preparation for new pavement. It is by far the smoothest grinding job on which I've ever driven. It's better than most RI roads are when they haven't been ground up.

I'm doing approximately speed limit +3mph. A Prius passes and continues zooming along. I'm getting 44mpg, which is the best I ever get, and I rarely get it if I do any highway driving.

I pass a rest area. The Prius comes accelerating out of the rest area just in time to cut me off and go speed limit -15mph. I DFCO, not tailgating but not leaving my usual huge following distance, while I wait for two cars in the left lane to clear so I can pass. The Prius driver immediately sprays his washer fluid, obviously for my benefit.

The left lane traffic clears and I pass. My wife in the passenger seat reports that the Prius driver is laughing at me. I'm wondering if he has managed at least my 44mpg. I get in front and give him a rearward squirt from my modified rear window washer.

I've forgotten the rest of the string of mild annoyances until after I stopped at a pizza joint to pick up some late supper. Once again I'm on ground pavement, only this is RI-style - very rough, with tire-busting manhole covers sticking up four inches. No tires will be busted today, though...I'm in 1st gear behind a line of traffic following a construction crew rolling along picking up orange cones.

Freed from that annoyance, I'm driving along and behind me comes a late model full size pickup with what appear to be the brightest non-HID OEM low beams I've ever seen. Eventually another lane opened up; when the truck passed I saw that it was a Toyota Tundra.