Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Awkward!

So, I'm rolling through Arkansas between Little Rock and Memphis on I-40 eastbound. The cruise control on the Zed Drei is set at 80, a speed that has me passing probably nine vehicles in ten, leaving that tenth vehicle to get pulled over for driving too fast.

I'm passing a couple clumps of vehicles in the right lane and I see another ahead that's far enough that I could probably duck into the right lane for a little bit, but a check of the rear-view mirror shows nobody closing on me. So I stay in the left lane as I slowly overtake the pair; a little Korean hatchback bobbing in the wake of an eighteen wheeler.

As I slowly close the gap, the hatchback decides he's seen enough of this particular truck's ass, and signals left. I'm far enough back, and my rate of overtaking is low enough, that I just turn off the cruise control and pop the high beams twice, indicating that it's cool for him to cut over in front of me.

Suddenly his turn signal cuts off and he lunges back into the right-hand lane. Had he not seen me initially?

I pop the high beams three or four more times, as if to say "No, seriously, it's cool. Come over..." when I glance across the median and see the reason for his abortive pass: Three Arkansas staties have someone pulled over and a fourth is rolling up on the scene. And here I have been frantically flashing my high beams like a prat for something completely unrelated to the presence of the po-po, who all now no doubt think I'm That Driver.

Not gonna lie, I pulled my wallet out and set it on the console, and I was nearly to the outskirts of West Memphis before I stopped expecting a pissed-off ASP Charger to come barrelling up my tailpipe, lights ablaze.

"You're totally not going to believe this, officer, but..."
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