Yep – 11th September 2008 was National slow driver day.
Okay….so it wasn’t an official thing – that I know of. If it was, no-one told me, but it was sure evident on the roads today!
It started this morning on my usual school run. I was running late (I slept through my phone alarm and slept in until 8:30…school starts at 9 *blush*). I frantically got everyone ready…except myself, but it’s not totally unusual for me to take Hails to school in my pj’s covered by my long black jacket, lol). We left the house at 8:50am, but didn’t arrive at school until 9:12am! It *should* take 10-15 mins MAX. I was stuck behind slow car after slow car and it was extremely frustrating! Don’t get me wron, I am all for road safety and all that, but driving 15 k’s UNDER the speed limit (which was only 60 in most places anyway) is taking things a little TOO safe – especially when your DD is running late for school, and her teacher has no qualms with documenting the fact that your DD was late for school TWICE in one whole school year :-S!
The afternoon school run was worse. Isabella has never been a big fan of being in the car – and who could blame her?! I couldn’t stand facing the wrong way in a moving vehicle, only being able to see where we’ve been and not where we’re going! Anyway…Isabella decided she’d had enough only 2 minutes into the trip and started screaming. I know her well enough to know that no amount of pulling over and trying to soothe her is going to work, so I had to just grin and bare it until we got home – IF we could EVER get there! One car in front of me thought it might be safer to drive at 40k’s in an 80 zone, and drive on the far right of the road, as if they were about to pull over – but they didn’t.
On the other hand…my other traffic gripe for today was the SPEEDING trucks! Hailey’s school is on a windy bit of country road, full of potholes and worn bits of road, which become extremely slippery in the smallest amount of rain. I know this because I lost control of my own car late last year when I was 11 weeks pregnant, and with my almost 2 year old in the car with me. Anyway, this road is used by many trucks – log trucks, cattle trucks, dairy – you name it. If I had a dollar for every speeding truck I have seen on this road, I would have enough money to buy myself a small island off Hawaii. Seriously. The amount of times I have had to swerve slightly off MY side of the road to avoid being side-swiped by a truck rounding the corner is unbelievable! They drive WAY too fast for this road. I am actually surprised I haven’t yet seen a truck roll on this stretch of road!
