Rusty Pistons Rants

We left the scenic roads this morning and hung a right onto Interstate 84 South.  It is quite different to be travelling in heavy traffic for the first time in almost a month.  We crossed into Idaho and found the speed limit on I-84 is 70 for trucks and 80 for cars!  The rig will do 70 OK, and one time on a really smooth secondary highway it crept up to 80 without my noticing!  But such speeds are not really a good idea for RV’s, or for me.  The rig and I are really comfortable right around 65 to 68 mph.  At that speed the tachometer is showing 2500 rpm and the engine feels really happy.  As we use to say in the olden days, the engine is “up on the cam.”

So we stay in the right lane and let the big rigs and speed demons pass us by.  At least on the interstates there are two or three lanes available for passing.  Unfortunately that’s not always the case on the scenic highways.  And that’s what will kick off my rant.

When I am on a scenic I try very hard to not hold back the traffic.  If you’ve ever been blocked behind one of these “BUFF’s” I know you know how frustrating it can be, especially if you are on a nice sporty motorcycle or in your brand new $250,000 sports car.  I especially really try to not hold back the big rig truckers as those guys are working for a living and they don’t need me impeding their bottom line.  

A lot of states have “Delay of traffic laws” and even have signs saying so, and I sincerely support those laws!  But I’d sure like to have a half-hour, wall to wall, counseling session with the law makers who made those laws!  It’s just not fair to have laws that are difficult if not impossible to obey safely.

Consider this situation:  I’m driving at a, safe for me, 45 mph in a 55 mph zone and have 5 or 6 (or more) cars and trucks behind me.  I’m desperately trying to find a pull-out that I can fit into and don’t want to slow them down even more while I’m looking.  I need a pullout that is at least 150 feet long, reasonably flat, preferably hard surfaced, and I need at least 1000 feet advance notice that it’s coming up.  Remember, I’m driving a 12 foot tall, 40’ long, 26,000 pound, RV with a 15’ Toad.  That’s 55’ of top heavy BUFF.

Without that advance notice all I can do when I finally see a pullout that might fit me is to slam on my brakes, hope the fool tail gaiting me is awake, do an abrupt pull over and then find that the pullout is too short and on top of that there’s a twelve foot drop-off at the end.  BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!  As we used to say, again in the olden days, that’s a pucker factor of about 8 on a 10-scale.

I wish there was a way to get the word to the heads of State Highway Divisions, or the Governors, or even our Federal lawmakers that we need better pull-out signage on scenic highways.

Here’s a format suggestion:

Slow Vehicle Turn Out
        1000 feet.
       Length: 75’
     Surface:  Hard

Seriously, how hard would that be? 

And how expensive? 

Heck, I‘d pay for a few myself. 

End of rant. 

(BTW: BUFF = Big Ugly Fat F***er)

A couple photos follow.