Thursday, August 09, 2007
Parking Lot Mayhem
Have you ever noticed how drivers and pedestrians act in parking lots? Almost as if this giant sheet of pavement isn't a road way at all. Today I entered a parking lot and a woman walked in front of me, gazing vaguely off in the distance. Not once did she turn to see me. Not once did she seem to be paying attention to the fact that a car was on her tail. Drivers in parking lots are even worse. They go the wrong way down the lanes, don't signal, cut other drivers off. It's mayhem out there in the asphalt jungle. Be careful!
Labels: driving, gazing vaguely off in the distance, parking lots, pedestrians
Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Middle Lane Is Key
I did something to day that I was terrified to do. I live in rural Minnesota and while I've driven around St. Cloud and Duluth with very little trouble, I have never driven in the Twin Cities - period (as in not even with another person navigating to tell me where to go). I had a meeting in St. Paul today and had no one available to drive. Hubby, who normally does the driving, was in school, so I was on my own. I wanted to lick this little oversight (and big terror), so I was determined to figure out a route I'd remember. I checked out MapQuest and Google Maps. (A little hint: MapQuest gives more complete directions.) I looked at a road map and I went to MNDOT's website that shows road construction and traffic conditions in Minnesota. It's a cool site, showing up-to-the-minute webcam shots of traffic. I went over the maps and instructions a gazillion times and kept picturing myself doing this successfully. I also pictured myself crashing, being run off the road, and getting lost, but tried to shove these thoughts out of my mind. I did have a brief meltdown/panic attack in anticipation of my upcoming task. I got over it.
When I entered the Twin Cities, I was able to follow my route all the way to my destination with no problems whatsoever. The middle lane was the key. When the highway split into two routes, the middle lane is the one that goes either way, so there's no last minute swerve over lanes to get to the proper exit. It also allowed me to stay out of the way of people merging onto the highway. The other thing I found helpful was to let the traffic swarm. If a big mass of vehicles was coming up behind me, I held my speed steady and let them move right around me. Keeping a proper following distance between me and the vehicle ahead also allowed the swarm to go where it wanted, even if that meant people cutting in quickly. All in all, I got through the experience with only one minor wrong turn, which I quickly recovered from. I am so pleased. And now I'm safely back home. No more terror. Whew!
When I entered the Twin Cities, I was able to follow my route all the way to my destination with no problems whatsoever. The middle lane was the key. When the highway split into two routes, the middle lane is the one that goes either way, so there's no last minute swerve over lanes to get to the proper exit. It also allowed me to stay out of the way of people merging onto the highway. The other thing I found helpful was to let the traffic swarm. If a big mass of vehicles was coming up behind me, I held my speed steady and let them move right around me. Keeping a proper following distance between me and the vehicle ahead also allowed the swarm to go where it wanted, even if that meant people cutting in quickly. All in all, I got through the experience with only one minor wrong turn, which I quickly recovered from. I am so pleased. And now I'm safely back home. No more terror. Whew!
Labels: driving, fear, minnesota, mndot, swarm, traffic, twin cities
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Freak Storm, Freaked Robins
We got a freak Minnesota snowstorm today. Well, it isn't actually that freaky for Minnesota, but once it's reached April and we've lost our snow and had sixty degree days, it throws a loop in the schedule. I had to clean off the car twice this morning it was accumulating so quickly. The consistency is slop with a veneer of white. The robins have returned from wherever it is they go in the winter and the poor things were trying to figure out how to deal with the sudden snow. As I was driving, I'd come along groups of them huddled in tire gulleys in the road. I had to get really close to them before they were willing to move. I bet they're thinking they should've waited a couple more weeks before coming back from vacation.
Labels: driving, minnesota, robins, snow, winter
