When in Rome...

[ginger]

Good morning.  I just woke up and I'm on my first cup of coffee. Mind if I vent since I really don't have any other recourse? Sometimes I wish I was snappy comeback girl but alas and alak. 

Twenty four hours ago I was in Rome NY pulled over by one of their finest for...get this...my license plate bulb wasn't lit. He put me through the motions...scanned and ran my plates, drivers license whatever else they do to take up time....questioned me.  Oh I thought about playing lawyer and trying to be just a little argumentative with the kid..I know I know I've seen the video a bunch of times here on BCV...never talk to the police! :)lol... but after working 3 back to back double shifts I just wanted to get home safely. I saw some really crazy driving yesterday, all weekend actually. I can't tell you how many times I pulled over on route 12 to let vehicles pass because they were tailgating and blinding me with their brights in my face. Even worse on the highway with the tractor trailers...sorry, but that's what the passing lane is for, get your damn LED brights out of my face. I wish they would ban the LEDS, they aren't necessary,  they're unsafe because they kill my eyes/pupils with severe dilation and constriction.

Thanks for letting me vent...have a good week everybody.

 

[ginger]

In other travelling news...How many motorists does it take to remove a turtle from the middle of the road?  Six of us stopped to ooh and ahh over a 2 foot diameter turtle and save it and perhaps a tire from being flattened. One guy found a stick and tried to coax it back into the brush but this turtle was intent on crossing. The turtle hissed at us so picking it up was not an option. Another couple pulled out a plastic tarp. The plan was to carry it to a truck and drive it up the road to a lake. We were afraid it would slide off or somehow bite us so I volunteered a tote I had in the trunk. In retrospect, I read we should have coaxed the turtle in the direction it was headed because it was likely they had babies or a nest there. Speaking of...watch out for the baby turtles! I've see them all up and down the shoulders on 81 from here to Syracuse.

AND THEN...last week I was somewhere...north...I'm not trying to be furtive I just can't tell you exactly where I was...farm country... north of the thruway. Last week at 4:30 am my navigation system sent me on an unplanned scenic route. Nevermind the road was narrow, had no lights and the fog was pretty dense. On one side of the road is a barn, a farmhouse, various farming equipment. On the other side is a row of trees and brush. I have the fog lights on which diffuses the light laterally and I'm driving maybe 20 mph. I pass a lot of tiny deer..babies not even 3 feet tall. AND THEN something big pokes its head out out of the trees. Is that a moose? Nah...must be a horse, no rack. The next thing I know I hear snorting through the sunroof and see motion in my sideview..the thing is running like a quarter horse racing my car. It's big. It runs a half length back for a little over a minute but gee, what a long minute that was then veers off to the right and gallops off into a field. I thought it had to be some kind of large horse like a clydesdale in which case I was thinking...who lets an expensive horse out to run at 4 in the morning?! After doing a few google searches this am I see it was a  female moose. MOOSE ON THE LOOSE IN UPSTATE NY ...WHO KNEW WE HAD A MOOSE POPULATION!   

 

[DanCooper]

I’m presently stuck / parked  in the I81N closure. 

[ginger]

That is a lousy place to be stuck in traffic. They've been doing work on that bridge on and off for a while. I'm always surprised at how many semis wreck because the driver fell asleep. In fact when BCV was down I had an incident at 2 am going downstate on 17...good thing I don't speed...a tractor trailer was sprawled across the road, debris everywhere, the lift gate was off. One of the scariest minutes of my life..."I'm the only one here, the driver must be dead." Fuel spilled can't light flares because it's so black out I can't see where he hit the cement barrier and at any second, some other vehicle may come barreling around the bend and kill us both. I managed to pull my car ahead of the accident and call 911. Happily the driver was alive and not injured but he couldn't get out and I had no way to help, I would have needed a ladder...he was on the phone with them as we spoke. I was still worried about the potential for another disaster but a few minutes later another semi stopped and blocked the rest of the traffic until law enforcement arrived. Hours later on my way home they were still trying to clean the wreck up, they had just been able to get the cab uprighted and loaded to tow. What a job!

 

[PeteMoss]

Hey Ginger: Don't light flares when there is spilled fuel.

[ginger]

I'm sorry..perhaps I did not convey that I could not light flares to prevent further accidents because I couldn't see where the accident started and there was no way I was going to back myself up far enough away to light flares. After that incident though I did go out and purchase the reflective triangle kit..it gives you instructions on where to place them..ie if you're on a curve/straight away etc. It was cheap and if I break down or have an accident a lot safer than flares...who knows what other vehicles may be leaking.

Other driving observations...for some reason..white cars and pick up trucks are speed demons. The second most unsafe drivers have navy blue cars. People who drive red cars actually appear to be the most safe and courteous...you would think they'd be the risk takers. I always wonder if the police notice this too.

Edited July 8, 2019 by ginger
further comment

[DanCooper]

5 hours ago, DanCooper said:

I’m presently stuck / parked  in the I81N closure. 

Both sides closed because some guy in his car was found passed out at 330 AM, in the center medium by LaFayette. Cleanup crew was called in because a chemical smell was found.

[ginger]

You aren't still there, are you? 5 hrs later they won't  let traffic move?

[ginger]

On 7/8/2019 at 12:28 PM, DanCooper said:

Both sides closed because some guy in his car was found passed out at 330 AM, in the center medium by LaFayette. Cleanup crew was called in because a chemical smell was found.

Did you hear the news about that incident? He was mixing chemicals to commit suicide but they didn't know what the chemicals were. In Syracuse they also found a mother  and her 3 children dead in a car from burning charcoal.

 

 

[ginger]

It's always the white cars! I'm coming home from Syracuse and the right lane is closed. Everyone moves to the left lane except 2 white cars that have to pass everybody and stop traffic so they can squeeze themselves in. So discourteous.

[PeteMoss]

15 hours ago, ginger said:

It's always the white cars! I'm coming home from Syracuse and the right lane is closed. Everyone moves to the left lane except 2 white cars that have to pass everybody and stop traffic so they can squeeze themselves in. So discourteous.

In situations like this I love it when tractor trailer drivers block the lane to force everyone to get into 1 lane and allow the traffic to flow.

Those guys are great. 

[DanCooper]

21 hours ago, ginger said:

Did you hear the news about that incident? He was mixing chemicals to commit suicide but they didn't know what the chemicals were. In Syracuse they also found a mother  and her 3 children dead in a car from burning charcoal.

 

 

Fair to say he overthought the process. I was an hour and half late!

[ginger]

6 hours ago, PeteMoss said:

In situations like this I love it when tractor trailer drivers block the lane to force everyone to get into 1 lane and allow the traffic to flow.

Those guys are great. 

 OHHHHH!Thanks!  I saw that a few times...lol  I recall wondering why the trucks stopped and I tried to let them in but they wouldn't go! My favorite is when someone speeds by me..I'm not talking even 75-80mph, they are really zooming, pushing 90-100 and several miles later I'm moving over because a trooper has them pulled over. After I see who they have I always want to pull over and say "I'll be your witness, they were going at least 90! " I also hate it when the flow of traffic is moving along, everybody has "their spot". We're all driving the same speed and some dope can't make up their minds where they want to be and disrupts the spacing.  IT'S ALWAYS A LITTLE BLACK CAR! After a while either everyone speeds up to get away from the trouble maker or everyone slows down. For me, if I'm going somewhere I speed up but if I'm coming home I'll slow down. BUT..if If I speed up and start to pass, all of a sudden everyone decides to follow me into the passing lane then I feel obligated to driver even faster...I hate that!

I don't like speeding even for a minute which bring me to another total and complete discourtesy...don't they teach this anymore...if someone is passing you are supposed to take your foot off the gas so they don't speed? I always do but you would be surprised how many dopey people speed up. They'll speed up when a tractor trailer is passing! Apparently they don't know the driver can't see them. I also think I'm the only person who flashes a semi when it's safe to move back over. 

But Governor Cuomo wants to put a million inexperienced illegal aliens on the road. 

[ginger]

59 minutes ago, DanCooper said:

Fair to say he overthought the process. I was an hour and half late!

I thought I heard he was still alive when they happened upon him.

[ginger]

And ouch...$183.00 just for the part to replace those license plate LEDS. I wonder how hard it would be to rewire those with regular bulbs...too late now, my inspection is due in Sept and I have other maintenance issues to catch up on. I think I'm doing good though...In a little over a year I drove 160,000 + miles no accidents and zero vehicle issues except for headlights and now the stupid plate lights, I can't say enough about this Jeep.  

[M_Sable]

On 7/10/2019 at 6:06 PM, ginger said:

It's always the white cars! I'm coming home from Syracuse and the right lane is closed. Everyone moves to the left lane except 2 white cars that have to pass everybody and stop traffic so they can squeeze themselves in. So discourteous.

I drive in Germany a lot. They are very strict about "zippering". If 2 lanes merge into 1, it's take turns one car merging and 1 continuing. Keep moving. It's nice.

[ginger]

Good morning.  I think I posted that "Under Construction" video from the movie Falling Down on the wrong thread. I don't know what they think their doing on 81 blocking off the flow of traffic for miles and miles. THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT ROAD! 

I wonder if they have driven I 88 from Cooperstown to past Worchester...I'm going to have a serious neck and or back issue if they don't fix that soon. kathunk kathunk kathunk...I bet Senator Akshar knows what I mean.

Also, is there a logical reason why they have to block traffic for the equivalent of three exits when they are only working on maybe a mile section of the road? If they reduced traffic from one exit to the next I could see the logic but three?!!! They did that on 88 last year, had traffic reduced to one lane for 3 exits...