The Driving Thread

A lot to unpack with this one making the internet rounds, from the pedestrian having the luckiest day of his life to the curious case of what happened to the red Mazda, and then the grand finale. And, apparently, no one was harmed in the making of this dashcam video.

 

Wow chicken fried steak and eggs right? That’s a heart attack bomb for 2031!!

 

Last year I had a guy at a red light literally BACK UP into my front grille, what the hell?

 

I hadn’t been to West Virginia in over 30 years until I wound up there by myself for Christmas last year (long story). The drive up I-77 from Wytheville through the tunnels and into West By God was stunning. A day or two later I did US 460 from Princeton back down to Blacksburg, Va., with the roads cleared but snow still covering everything else and it was even prettier. There’s a river that runs beside the road after crossing back into Virginia, and the whole thing is just hopelessly scenic.

 

After 300 miles on I-81, I always enjoyed turning off onto Virginia 7 to cut over toward Baltimore. It takes you to Harper's Ferry, you cross over between Virginia and West Virginia a couple of times, and finish with a stretch along the Potomac that includes some rapids and pretty scenery.

 

I miss the old days when a dog-eared Rand McNally Road Atlas was a faithful and required piece of kit for those of us venturing into new territory. I also had the Motel 6 book with detailed info on all of it’s offerings.

 

The late 1990s Rand McNally atlas was a faithful travel companion on many a road trip. Those first few years when I had my own car and afternoons to kill, it was like having a book of magic spells -- how far could I go, what interesting towns were within a couple of hours, what worlds could I discover if I just got in the car and drove? There were times when I got bored and just drove a couple of hours to the next state over, turned around and came back, with maybe a little side trip mixed in, just to see what was there.

The hotel guides and state travel guides were also invaluable. The Texas state travel guide (available at state welcome centers or by ordering it) was particularly awesome. If there was a town in Texas that had anything of interest, it was in there. It was how I found Stonehenge II, Pecos Pete, and a couple of other neat side trips while driving across Texas for spring break.
The "Off the Beaten Path" series of books is also pretty good for that stuff.

 

I cannot read a Rand McNally atlas any longer without an electron microscope. My eyes aren't particularly bad (yet), but goddamn, they print tinier and tinier with each map.

 

Retiring my 14 yr old sedan and saw the “new” slightly used one I’m getting from a dealer today; I know car is just utilitarian but excited for new wheels. Rarely get that feeling.

 

Yesterday, 2:30'ish, 405 north. It was a speedway.

 

Fifteen or 20 years ago I had a pair of GM cars (a 2003 Saturn Ion and a 1998 Chevy Malibu) that had some sort of ignition switch issue bad enough to spawn a class action lawsuit. Earlier this year I got a letter in the mail inviting me to join the suit, so I sent in the paperwork for the sheer hell of it.
Today I got two checks totaling $220.
Driving around in a death trap pays off sometimes!