Once Upon A Time

My Visited States and Countries Maps

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As you may be able to discern, I drove through Arkansas and Tennessee while coming back with all my possessions from Texas. I could add a few more states if I included those I landed in while on stopovers. LOL.

Road Trip

Posting may be sporadic to non-existent until after the first of the year. Happy Holidays! Be safe. :)

Right of Way

Dealing with the parking lot at the supermarket can be a stressful experience. You have to keep your eyes peeled for young children, pedestrians not looking, and cars speeding through the parking lot. Then there are a couple stop signs in front of the store, meant for cars to stop/slow down by the store entrances so that pedestrians can cross the road.

Tonight, when I turned left out of my aisle, there was a stop sign that I guess I didn't stop for. If I'm in the midst of a turn, am I obligated to stop? Apparently the guy in the next lane thought so. He made the left turn and cut me off. I raised my hand in frustration, and muttered 'oh thanks'. In the end, I wasn't that worried about it--I've encountered worse assholes.

But the guy in front of me starts and stops, motions back behind me, then turns onto the sidestreet, stops, and rolls down his window. Oh great. Only thing I do see is the stop sign, and I figure correctly that what's he's bitchin' and moanin' about. Next I probably should have just sped past him. But I humor him, stop beside him, and my brother rolls down his window.

"You were supposed to stop at the stop sign" the guy says rather agitated shaking his hand in the air. I calmly but firmly state back to him. "Well, you shouldn't have assumed I was going to stop."

I don't think he liked my answer, but people had started honking, so the asshole sped off, and I continued on my way.

And I stand by my answer. I don't ever assume someone is going to stop even if they are supposed to...especially in a parking lot. And this particular one has one sign (that was on my left) and no street markings. I still say since I turned from the previous lane, the stop sign didn't apply to me. And honestly, I didn't see it, since it was to my left as I was making my turn.

When my brother Joe had his car accident, years ago, he had been making a left turn when a light was turning yellow to red. While the woman who hit him was mostly at fault since witnesses noted she had been running the light and she should have stopped, my brother was still considered 30% at fault because he was the one making the left turn and he should not have assumed that she was not going to run the light. Honestly! That was by New Jersey law. Granted I'm in Maryland now, but I don't think the laws are different in that regard.

Highway monitor

I made it back from Western NY last night. The trip back was far better than the trip up. No muss, no fuss.

What made the trip up crappy was that I got stuck in a traffic jam, where I went less than 5 miles in 45 minutes. All because there was a merge into one lane in a construction zone and a trucker decided he was gonna block up the right lane 4 miles back. This guy creeped along keeping himself even with a truck on the left lane. There were several instances where I literally put the car in park for a few minutes at a time.

At one point I realized there was *no one* in front of the truck. And then I saw the sign that said "Both lanes open until merge. Use both lanes to merge." Apparently the two cars in front of me saw the same thing and also said "Fuck this!" and went around the truck using the shoulder. I followed along with them.

Now normally I would not condone this behavior. But the signage clearly stated both lanes were to be used. And the trucker was being an asshole. If we were using both lanes all along, there wouldn't have been a 4-5 mile backup. *sigh*