Winding Road

So there I was cruising along some back roads of Pennsylvania going to one of my favorite amusement parks right around midnight. When I saw them. Blue and red flashing lights right behind me. We all know that feeling, he can’t be after me, what did I do wrong? I wasn’t speeding etc. etc.
Well in this case he was after me. So I find a nice place to pull over turn my interior light on and get all of my credentials ready, all the while thinking what did I do. Well it didn’t take long before he walked up and told me why he pulled me over. Apparently I had crossed the ‘white’ line 3 times. White line?? you mean the one on the left side of the road? I never thought twice about crossing that line, what did it matter? I usually only pay attention to the yellow line in the middle of the road. It didn’t occur to me right away but after he asked if I was OK several time I realized that he was checking to see if I was drunk. I guess that’s a good thing, inconvenient for me, but a good thing none the less. As for the white line, I still don’t pay much attention to it.

Back on February 19th 2011, my car hit a milestone. It 4 years and 8 months old it hit 111,111 miles. That is 1984.125 miles per month, or 23,812.9 miles per year. A lifetime miles per gallon of 33.28. That’s 3,392.54 gallons of gas with  a total of $8,779.93 averaging $2.58 per gallon.

Yes I am that crazy.

Have a great day!

This is another rant about re-testing for a drivers license. Here in NJ as long as you send in your $$$ every time your license is up for renewal, you get a new license. You could be in a comatose state never to recover, but as long as NJ gets your cash they don’t care. I bring this up again because of an event that happened the other day. I was at my now favorite food market (I wont shop at A+P ever again). And walking in the parking lot back to my car. I was off to the side of the isle and I heard a car uncomfortably close behind me. I looked back and slowly following me by about 3 feet is a lady that could barely see over the steering wheel (don’t mean to be stereotyping here but it was true) and looked to be well into her eighty’s. I stopped and turned around to look at her to say what are you doing and she just ignored me and waited for me to start moving again. She wasn’t even looking for my parking spot because she passed several. I finally got to my car and she pulled into a spot not far away.

What sane person would follow a pedestrian so closely?
New Jersey please wake up and start re-testing! Yes it will cost some money, but the life you save may be mine!!

Now this isn’t just me ranting about problems I have personally had, but according to an article in USA Today
“Fatality rates for drivers begin to climb after age 65, according to a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, based on data from 1999-2004. From ages 75 to 84, the rate of about three deaths per 100 million miles driven is equal to the death rate of teenage drivers. For drivers 85 and older, the fatality rate skyrockets to nearly four times higher than that for teens.” See the full article here
This is a national problem and a few states have addresses it with at a minimum having those 69 and older taking a vision test up to re-taking the road test. But there are more states that have no restrictions.

Happy New year everybody!

Stay safe and drive within your limits.

As reported at RACER and Autosports.com. Michael Schumacher will return to Formula 1 in 2010, with Mercedes GP. Along with Nico Rosberg making this an all German team.

It will be interesting to see if he still has what it takes to compete at the top level of motorsports.

Every once in a while during the early morning commute, you get to see some truly incredible sights.

This day was one of them.


I was really glad to be awake for this one. The pictures hardly show how magnificent this sun rise was.

And look almost no traffic.

A 75 year old women drive wrong way over Tappan zee Bridge. This is two weeks after the horrific crash that took the lives of eight people, including four children. The latest indecent brings up (again) the question od how old is too old to drive?

This is a serious question, and one that is in no way clear cut. While it is true that our reflexes, sight and overall thought processes do slow down as we age, we all do not suffer this fate at the same rate. So is there a specific age that drivers should surrender their license? After all, driving is a privilege and not a right. Or should there be mandatory testing after reaching a certain age? If so what age? 65? 70? And how often should older drivers be retested? Annually? Bi-annually? How much should it cost?

All valid questions, and I’m sure they all require all sorts of studies with some ridiculous amount of money to come up with some sort of answer. But until the time comes keep a special eye out and some extra patience for our elderly drivers.

I have been driving past this bumper cover for about a month and a half now.  It was left behind during a feirce thunderstorm.  The driver had lost control and nosed into the barrier.  When I passed by they were out of the car surveying the damage.  I’m guessing that they simply got back in the car and left,  leaving the bumper cover behind.

Seeing this, along with a miriad of other bits and pieces of various cars and trucks,  has got me wondering.  Who is responsible for picking this stuff up?

My first thought would be, in this case, the person that lost it. But what about bigger accedents?  I have seen lots of large bits and pieces left behind.   I looked on the NJ Department of  Transportation.  They have a place to report pot holes, sign problems, or deer carcasses.  No place to report road debris.  More then likely it is not the responsibility of the tow truck driver, or the NJ  State Police. Unless it is in a dangerous spot in the roadway, then I have seen the police moving it off to the shoulder, but not removing it.

I have also seen the signs along the high way stating this mile maintained by so and so, but that is a once or twice a year thing and how dangerous is that?

So I ask again. Who is responsible for all the junk along the high ways?

According to Racer magazine Michael will be coming out of retirement starting at the European Grand Prix at Valencia, Spain.
get the full story here at Racer

According to Racer Magazine
Great news for Felipe and his family.