How do you react to unexpected problems when you’re out on the road?
Floyd is a classic text-book example of ‘Smalltown, USA’. That’s why I use the name for my site. When you live in a rural/agricultural county, you can expect to encounter tractors on the roads pulling hay rakes or bailers. You can also expect to see heavy equipment on flatbed trucks struggling to get up grades in these mountains.
I left the house yesterday to go in town on some errands. As I approached a curve in the road, I saw a full size pick-up truck coming with a banner on the front that read “WIDE LOAD’. I immediately backed off the throttle in anticipation of what would be next. Sure enough, a few seconds later, a road tractor pulling a flatbed came around the curve.
On the flatbed was a Caterpillar D-8 bulldozer. The truck was decked out with warning banners and orange safety flags. The driver had changed to a lower gear to get up the grade and black smoke was blowing from the stacks, an indication that he had the throttle down trying to keep the truck and heavy load moving.
Another problem the driver was dealing with was this was a back country road that was barely wide enough to meet state requirements for width. In order to keep from clipping mail boxes with the blade of the dozer, he had to drive with a portion of the truck across the center line. A narrow road with tight curves and grades is not exactly user-friendly conditions for a man trying to drive a 25,000 pound truck carrying a 75,000 pound bulldozer.
I applied my brakes and began to pull over to give the driver all the room he needed to get past me. As I did this, I instinctively looked in my rear view mirror. There was a white minivan behind me. Rather than do the same, the driver of the minivan decided to hold her position in the lane. This created yet another problem for the truck driver.
Now, with the minivan driver taking up all of the lane I had been in, the truck driver had to back off his throttle, gear down yet again and creep by the minivan to avoid hitting the vehicle. I had pulled about half way off the road onto the shoulder and stopped.
At this point, to my utter amazement, the driver of the minivan blew her horn at me! I looked in my outside rear view mirror just in time to see her give the truck driver the finger!
I seriously doubt that minivan driver knows about me and/or my blog. I hope she does. Ma’am, you have the manners and people skills of a feral dog.
I commute to Roanoke and see such dangerous and outright obnoxious behavior on a regular basis. Had a big old SUV pass me on a double yellow line in a curve last week – had someone been coming the other way, we all would have “cashed in” early. It would seem that no one likes to look out for the other guy any more. Common courtesy appears to be a thing of the past as is remembering that the speed “limit” is just that – it is NOT just a recommendation!!!!!