Driving

This picture was taken by Michael Flick on November 5, 2006.  Obtained through Flickr. 

One of the adventures we daily encounter is the congested roads of the metropolitan area.  Although I (Julianna) grew up in a large city, fall during the past six years always brought a haven in the form of the Little Apple.  I could easily find my way across town in 15 minutes, and drivers are usually patient and don’t cut you off.  However, Alexandria informs me that my city upbringing comes out upon entering the freeway on-ramp.  The adrenaline rush from merging, anticipating the next person who might cut me off, driving approximately 70 mph with cars flying past in the other 3+ lanes—I do enjoy this in a way.  However, two-lane roads with speed limits exceeding 45 mph terrify me.  What if the other driver barreling towards me should suddenly lose control and run into my lane?  Alexandria, who is an expert on two-lane roads, appears visibly relieved once leaving the busy city freeways and hitting the open road. 

My (Alexandria) driving background is slightly different.  My county doesn’t have any stop lights.  I thought a normal commute was the three minutes it took my dad to get to his office downtown.  There is no need to use turn signals since everyone in town already knows where you are going anyway.  Rush hour consists of three cars on the road at the same time.  I cannot fathom the need for any road to have 6 lanes.  In short, Kansas City driving terrifies me.  I avoid I-35 at all costs if I can.  Even learning the street names have been a challenge. My hometown has numbered streets through 9th St. instead of 190th St. While Julianna seems to be completely at ease on the I-35 as she gracefully merges on, I on the other hand, grip the steering wheel with white knuckles and start to hyperventilate.  The idea of hundreds cars hurtling past me scares me spit-less.  I do much prefer simple two-lane highways where I can easily see the speeding semis coming towards me instead of randomly showing up in my rearview mirror. 

Navigating is usually an adventure for us as well.  Julianna will plug in her GPS and then completely ignore its suggestions or even start mumbling things about it under her breath.  A lot of people complain about backseat drivers, but what is different about a GPS?  It is always some woman telling you to “Keep left” or “Turn right now” or  telling you that you are completely off course and that now she has to go to all the extra work of “recalculating” your route.  However, I don’t believe we have been hopelessly lost together...yet. 

One sign of a true Johnson County driver is a disregard for yellow lights.  While normal people slow down and possibly stop before the light turns red, JoCo drivers blaze on through without a second thought.  Julianna is a JoCo driver.  (Julianna exclaiming:  what?  Well, I am not necessarily a JoCo driver...city driver...metro transportation expert...umm, I guess that doesn’t make it any better does it?  At least I didn’t qualify to be a New York taxicab driver...not that I have applied for that job...yet.)  She also isn’t very patient at stop lights when she does stop.  She sits there tapping on the wheel, inching closer, ready to speed on to the next stop light at the next block and repeat the process again.  (Julianna:  in my defense, I try to avoid the stop lights by taking side streets as much as possible.)  Maybe someday in the very distant future Alex will morph into a city drive as well (probably not).  Too close, here is a you tube video of the Rascal Flatt’s song “Life is a Highway.”