The Driving Thread

Well when I got a rear view camera I quit backing into s***. So there's that.

 

I had a '71 Charger that had a postage stamp back window, and I could parallel park that fucker with little more than space for a car. It might take me 10 minutes and a 20-point turn, but I could do it. Our '13 Subaru Forester has the backup camera, but I'm always afraid some kid with be in a blind spot, so I take a good look around before backing up.

 

I get that, if I had a camera a few years ago on a rental, I wouldn't have backed into some idiot's bike rack sticking out 2 feet from their SUV!!

 

Oh, I definitely do both ... look all around and then focus in on the rearview once I know it's clear. Just helps a ton in parallel parking, especially on the left side of a one-way, since I'm still inexplicably horrible at those parallel jobs.

 

Any empty desert highway when a full moon has risen on a clear night.

West coast driving > East coast driving.

IIRC, Highway 40 from Flagstaff to New Mexico was really nice.

 

It's great. You go past the Painted Desert and just drive through some really pretty country. Got a ticket on the way back to Flag from ABQ once ... ugh.

I will say, though, from recent experience, once you get past the mess that is NYC that New England driving is very pretty. West Virginia also has some great drives.

 

Agreed.

Unless...

A few years ago we were heading up the hill to Flagstaff in a spitting snow that wasn't sticking...traffic was roaring on our three-lanes headed east. We came around a bend and bam! right into a wall of fog as thick as I've ever seen. It was as sudden and unyielding as anything I'd ever experienced, so I immediately dove from the center lane, across the slow lane, and into the emergency shoulder as I heard crashes occurring all around us. Sure enough, within an instant we see the blur of a vehicle and hear the crack of glass as our CRV gets rocked by a passing car? Truck? Couldn't tell.

Fortunately, the damage to our car was minimal (cracked rear view mirror) but the fellow who hit us somehow incurred a lot of breakage along the side of his Subaru Forrester. We exchanged info and he drove off towards his home in Iowa.

As we ventured on, we soon discovered the cause of the "fog" -- a semi had blown an engine, releasing a locomotive's worth of steam onto the highway. That night unfortunately I learned that another car wasn't as lucky as us and slammed into the back of a big-rig at full speed, killing the two occupants.

I think about that incident often, as it really showed me how fragile life can truly be.

 

I've had to drive my wife's car (a 2012 Altima) for a couple of extended periods this year since my cars seem to have homing devices in them that make people want to run into them*. My cars have been newer and have the backup cameras, lane assist, blind spot alerts, etc. Hers must have been the last model year before that stuff was standard and has none of it. Not even a touch screen. Every time I switch over to her car, it hits me how quickly I've come to rely on the new technology and hate how it's making me a worse driver. I just get lazy and don't even think to check things sometimes, or drive with the camera instead of my eyes when I'm backing up.


*I've had two cars get crushed this year because of other people smashing into the back of them. One was a couple of years old and was totaled when the damage estimate hit about $11,000. It was parked on the street outside the office and some drowsy, uninsured asshole hit it. At least he smashed up his POS Camry and went to jail for it, for having no insurance and no license.
Went about six weeks driving the wife's car before I got the new one, a 2021 model. Five months later I'm creeping through a turning lane, check up because it looks like a car is coming, and a guy slams into the back of me. The entire rear end needs to be replaced and they just got the parts last week. So it'll be about six weeks from the wreck until I get my car back.
All I want for Christmas is for assholes to stop hitting my car.

 

I drove hard and fast during the climb from Albuquerque to Flagstaff.

Loved the drive but it killed my transmission ...

... which cost $2,500 to replace in Long Beach.

Loved the vibe of Downtown Flagstaff.

 

3 shots that kind of highlighted my few hours downtown. I was really raw by the time I got to Flagstaff.

I really shouldn't have eaten all that food, the Lumberjack at the diner. Go, NAU Lumberjacks!