{"id":4779,"date":"2013-06-19T05:27:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T13:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/?p=4779"},"modified":"2013-06-19T05:28:32","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T13:28:32","slug":"stiles-summer-driving-rules-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/19\/stiles-summer-driving-rules-2\/","title":{"rendered":"STILES’ SUMMER DRIVING RULES #2"},"content":{"rendered":"

(FROM THE 2006 ZEPHYR ARCHIVES)
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

With the summer tourist season upon us, I feel the need\u00a0 to abuse my editorial right once again and make a personal plea to drivers everywhere to get the hell out of my way. Last year, about this time, I was driving my truck to Tooele to get the Zephyr printed and made the mistake of going to Salt Lake the “usual way,” via US 6 & 50 over Soldier Summit to Spanish Fork. It\u2019s a nightmare highway, always congested, and I should have known better.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d just left Price and was behind a car who was dawdling along at about 35 MPH. I patiently endured him, knowing that in just a half mile or so, I\u2019d have a passing lane and the opportunity to go around. But as soon as the passing lane appeared, he sped up. I tried to get around him, but it was uphill, my old truck doesn\u2019t have the oomph it used to (neither do I for that matter) and this \u2018dawdler\u2019 was now going 70MPH. I gave up, but as soon as the road started to narrow again, he started slowing down again…right back down to 35.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was already in a bad mood and I said to myself, “Screw this.” Even though I had a double-yellow line, I could see clearly ahead for half a mile and knew I could easily pass him, especially at the speed he was moving. So I did it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there was a Utah Highway Patrol trooper directly behind me who, in my zeal to pass the Dawdler, I had failed to notice. He pulled me over, gave me a lecture, and wanted to know if I thought I was “special” in some way that gave me the right to break the law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Normally, I grovel at the threat of a ticket. But this time I was unrepentant. “I broke the law but I\u2019d do it again,” I growled. “It\u2019s drivers like that guy who should be pulled over. He\u2019s the menace, not me. He was rude, not me. But to hell with it…Do your duty.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The trooper had initially accused me of reckless driving, speeding and illegal lane change. When he handed me the citation, he said, “I\u2019m only writing you for the lane change. You shouldn\u2019t have done that, but I understand your frustration.”<\/span><\/p>\n

An empathetic cop. I was almost grateful.<\/span><\/p>\n

So…to all you dawdling drivers, listen up. If you want to dawdle, that\u2019s fine. As long as you don\u2019t impede the normal flow of traffic, as long as you are courteous enough to pull over and let faster traffic pass, I salute you. But if you don\u2019t pull over and plan to lumber along while traffic backs up behind you, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, at least when you get to a passing lane, DON\u2019T SPEED UP. Let us go around.\u00a0 I IMPLORE YOU. That\u2019s all we ask. Is that so much? I know you can see us, all stacked up and seething in your rear view mirror. You can\u2019t be driving with your head up your ass\u2013otherwise how could you dawdle along staring at the scenery? So acknowledge us, move over, and let the rest of the world go by you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I stay off the Soldier Summit road these days. It takes me an extra hour to make Tooele, but I have the road to myself. And does anything feel better than an open road?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(FROM THE 2006 ZEPHYR ARCHIVES) With the summer tourist season upon us, I feel the need\u00a0 to abuse my editorial right once again and make a personal plea to drivers everywhere to get the hell out of my way. Last year, about this time, I was driving my truck to Tooele to get the Zephyr […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4779"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9210,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions\/9210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}