Cruise Control

One of the things that really bugs me is when drivers on the interstate for an extended period of time don't use cruise control.

On Thursday I went to Frankfort to visit my parents, and on the way home Thursday evening I was driving north on I-71 heading back home. The speed limit was 70 miles per hour, so of course I was doing 75, which any reasonable person would know is the ACTUAL speed limit when the posted limit is 70.

Anyway, I'm cruising along at 75 MPH and I come upon this old, beat up Corolla that is maybe doing 65. I move over into the left lane to pass it, but when I get up right beside it the driver (who I'm able to see now is an unkempt, overweight woman eating a giant pretzel and talking on a cell phone while simultaneously talking to a woman sitting beside her who could have been her twin) speeds up to about 80 and gets back in front of me. Meanwhile, another driver doing 85 or so is now riding my bumper in the fast lane, so I get back behind the Corolla to let him pass.

About a minute after I get back behind the Corolla, though, she slows down to about 65 again and I'm right up on her bumper. I get in the left lane again and go around her. This time she doesn't speed up when I'm beside her. I get back into the right lane once I've gone around her, and for about three minutes I slowly put distance between the two of us until I'm maybe 100 yards ahead of her. I quit paying attention to her and start looking out of my windshield like a good driver and have actually almost completely forgotten her when she whizzes by me in the fast lane and gets right back in front of me and slows down again.

At that point I had gotten pretty tired of the whole thing, so I took my car off cruise control and slowed WAY down to about 60 and just allowed her to get way ahead of me and finally out of sight.

Her car was old enough that maybe she didn't have cruise control, but I think a likelier story is that she was just too busy with her big soft pretzel and her conversations to pay attention to the road. Oh well. I'm just glad I made it home safely. I hope she did, too.