The mid-term elections are finally over, and I for one say, not a minute too soon. Now we can finally stop with all of the endless political ads telling us how bad the other guy (or gal) is and get back to advertising from pharmaceutical companies that want us to tell our doctors what meds to give us, and then spend 90% of the commercial times listing all the horrible side effects. And then we can have attorneys wanting us to sue those damn drug companies, doctors, and anybody else within reach of a process server.
We left the RV park at the St. Augustine Elks lodge a little before 10 yesterday morning and expected a quick and easy 90 minute drive south on Interstate 95 to Seasons in the Sun RV Resort near Titusville. As it turned out, it wasn’t so quick or easy.
About 20 miles into the trip we were rolling along in the right hand lane when an eighteen wheeler passing us crowded into our lane to the point where I had to do some hard braking and swerving to keep from being sideswiped. We watched him until he was out of sight and I think he was either texting or yacking on his cell phone because twice more he strayed across the line into the next lane. We hung back to give him plenty of room and before long another big truck went past us and did the same thing! I was beginning to think somebody had painted a target on the side of our Winnebago.
Then, just as we were coming close to the Daytona exits all traffic slowed to a crawl for the next half hour or so as the Highway Patrol led a “rolling roadblock” to give construction workers stringing power lines across the highway room to work. We crept along at about five miles per hour for the next ten miles before we finally got up to speed again.
We arrived at Seasons in the Sun at noon, 30 minutes later than we expected to, and registered for a week. It was a short drive but I was more than ready to be off the highway. As we were checking in, blog reader Bob Howe came into the office to say hello. We have friends everywhere we go!
That was reinforced later on at dinner. Once we were parked and settled in, we drove into town to do some banking and then cruised around for a while to see what had changed in the two years since we were here last. Very little, as it turns out.
After stopping at a couple of places to admire the Indian River Lagoon that separates the mainland from Merritt Island, we went to Dixie Crossroads for dinner. It’s one of our favorite seafood restaurants anywhere. We were chatting with the young waitress, who was fascinated by our mobile lifestyle, when a gentleman came to our table, shook my hand and told the waitress she was waiting on a famous person. It was George Baldwin. He and his wife Linda had attended some of my seminars at Life on Wheels years ago and George is a regular blog reader. I think our waitress was impressed.
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to start a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Big Lake Lynching, Book 2 in my Big Lake mystery series. To enter, all you have to do is click on the Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.
Thought For The Day – One lie can ruin a thousand truths.
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Nick Russell
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Though it must have been irritating to have to drive so slowly, at least it should have been safer from the stinking truck drivers. I ABSOLUTELY HATE TRUCKS after a fully loaded mack semi truck hit me some years ago. They really do need to do something about people driving such a lethal weapon. Not everyone survives what I did. And I did have some damage, but minimal compared to what happens to most. This was about 3 PM too….so not like it was dark or late. Glad you guys were ok and able to drive out of the way!!
Being a fairly new RV driver, I’m not a truck lover either … I try to really keep a close eye on them when they come up behind me. As they pull beside, I move over to the right. I have to say they aren’t quite as bad in California with our 55 mph speed limit … but when they are allowed to go 75 mph … that’s just looking for a wreck!!!
The problem we have with the trucks now days is they drive in the fast lane a lot and you can’t get around them. In the old days they had to stay in the right hand lane unless it was an emergency. We take the number off the truck and call the company and complain. California is 55 MPH for trucks and trailer pulls but they all drive faster than the speed limit. We also have to put up with the Mexican truck drivers that don;t have the same laws on them as our drivers do. Their trucks are not as safe either. They drive them until they get inspected. Then they are pulled off the road, old tires , bad brakes etc. I was talking with a young driver and he was all excited because he just started driving a big rig. He said he went to one of those schools to get his CDL and it took him 4 weeks and he is behind the wheel of a 85,000 lb 60 foot truck driving around this country?????
Trucker’s scar the daylights out of me in the car and especially in the motor home, they tend to think they own the rode. Last summer good friends of ours were stopped at a red light on a US highway, they got slammed in the rear by a trucker going at least 80 when he rear ended them. Thank god they were in the motor home and not the car, the truck hit them so hard the cab of the truck went air born coming down took out the rear of the coach and pancaking their car. Thank God no one was hurt. The truck driver was texting while driving 89 miles an hour. Both car and rig were totaled, thank god the driver was fired on the spot.