In My Rearview

I was driving into work one morning last week when this incident took place. It was pretty entertaining to me, and put me in a good mood.

I'll preface this tale a little by saying that I've been trying to keep my speed at 65 or less for the last couple of weeks. It's not always easy to do, but I stay to the right so as not to obstruct traffic. I'm endeavoring to bump up my mileage by doing this, coefficient of drag increasing inversely with increased speeds and all that. Of course, with the warmer weather these days, I've been driving with the sunroof and/or the windows open, likely giving Baby the aerodynamics of a whiffle ball.

This particular morning, I was coming up to the interchange to the last freeway I take. I usually keep a good eye on traffic around me, and am usually aware of who is where, and often know what other drivers are going to do before they do it. I had been driving along with no one behind me for quite a distance, but the next time I looked up, probably around 1/8 mile before the ramp, there's what is billed as a German luxury performance car right on my rear bumper!!! Literally, mere feet from me, a distance better situated to parallel parking than cruising at 65. I maintain my speed, up until the long road of the transition leading to the curve. This section curves ever so slightly to the right, then leads into a 270 degree right turning clover leaf ramp. I let her coast down to around just under 50 coming into that stretch coming into the corner, and my shadow sticks right on my tail.

This has gotten on my nerves a bit, so as I'm starting into the clover leaf, I say, "Follow this, killer", and ever so gently start easing on the throttle. A German luxury performance car should be able to do some cornering, right??? I keep easing on the juice all the way through the corner, never coming close to the limits of adhesion, or even eliciting a squeal from the tires. I come out onto the freeway already exceeding my self imposed limit by ten MPH, and my new found friend is nowhere to be seen!!! I lay off and get the speed back down, and it must have been a quarter mile later before I saw him coming out of the curve!!! Ha!!!

That alone would have been good enough for me, but in the remaining quarter mile before my exit, he gets right back on my ass!!! Dude, I'd be embarrassed. He exits behind me. The street I exit onto has three lanes each way, and I end up taking a left, so if it's clear, I will move over to the left lane. It was, so I did, after checking my area and signaling. This guy does the same, except he never signals. Guys like him almost never do. Half a block later, he cuts back into the middle lane. Come on, you sit higher up than I do, and I can see from down here you ain't getting anywhere any quicker over there!!! Sure enough, a block later he gets back behind me!!! After that, he gets in a left turn lane. It has a signal for the turn, and he starts laying on his horn the second the light changes. Whenever someone around me starts honking, I almost always do so myself. I did. I think he should have left fifteen minutes earlier!!!

By the way, the picture on this post is a modification from a much earlier post, "Headlights in the Mirror", in case you thought it looked familiar!!!