|
|
| # 11 Driving Miss America |
|
Driving across America in a 1979 Chevy Cheyenne Step Side Ute, big petrol V8 and where a tank full of gas costs sixteen dollars, sounds like every red-blooded Kiwi boys dream come true.
Back in ’98, I drove the Bozeman Trail, the original route from Chicago to Seattle in a deep blue version of the above General Motors beast. The other day I popped my CD of Red Nex in the stereo and the memories of that trip, the people I met and the impressions I made came flooding back. We flew into Chicago to be met by our local friends who had already purchased the above vehicle on our behalf and spent the next couple of days getting her ready to go. Down to Wal-Mart to buy some supplies, Two seat covers, 1 five gallon petrol tank (no way was I running out) 1 gallon of anti freeze, 1 gallon of windscreen washer liquid, 1 Maglite torch, and batteries all for US$21.
When oh when, is Wal-Mart coming to New Zealand! ……..Paradise for men.
“Six Thirty” said my lovely wife, not one for getting up early, as we set the alarm.
“Were leaving early next morning, to beat the rush hour” grumbled I
Wrong
Have you ever tried to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road in full Chicago rush hour traffic?
Rush twenty three hours more like it and the rest is just busy.
And there might be six lanes going in both directions, but boy are they tight.
I only saw one speeder in the whole month (he was stopped within ten miles), and the vast majority were extremely courteous, safe drivers.
While wandering the streets of Deadwood in the Black Hills of South Dakota, scene of the assassination of “Wild Bill” Hickok by Jack "Broken Nose" McCall, I stepped onto the road with one size 12, in my typical Canterbury country boy, jaywalking style and all eight vehicles in the vicinity stopped and waited for me to regain my sanity.
Now there are a number of very possible reasons for this united, quality observation and defensive driving display.
They may have damaged their vehicle, by hitting my sizable frame.
They would have had to live with the job, of cleaning up the mess.
They may not have wanted to wipe out a naive tourist, before they had wiped out his wallet.
They may have been terrified by the wild look in my lovely wife’s eyes that said “If you touch him, I’ll sue you into the ground, Mothaa” as she reached for her mans arm to guide him to safety.
They may just have been very competent drivers completely capable of protecting innocent tourists by the quality of their driving skills.
Whatever the reason, what I didn’t see was the driver who quickly sits up and aims his car at you, just for a laugh.
Or the driver who accelerates to make sure you pass behind them and become someone else’s problem.
Or the driver who completely freezes when faced with a situation that is not the norm.
Or even the driver who is so obsessed with staring in their own autobiography that they didn’t even realise that you were there.
Based on my observations of the “Average Kiwi motorists” over the last forty plus years, these attitude groups should have made up seven out of those eight drivers.
I was dumbfounded, why do we all think we are really good drivers, when it’s obvious by observation that most are not.
Could it be that our ACC laws allow us the luxury of not taking responsibility for our own actions?
Could it be that we don’t have twelve lane motorways that require our complete attention to survive?
Could it be that we don’t have crashes with one hundred vehicles involved, which teach us courtesy, attention to detail and plain old common sense?
Could it be that we are just arrogant by nature and are not very good drivers, no matter what we think?
Whatever the reason, if you’re a tourist in this country and are stunned into stupidity by the beauty and history of the environment your in, don’t rely on the quality of the average driver in New Zealand to save your sorry soul, we have the ACC laws to protect us from being responsible “don’t ya know”.
But then that’s “just an old trucker’s point of view”
|
|
|
|
|
