Driving

For my first story time Tuesday i have decided to focus my stories to my times behind the wheel or rather anytime i have been in a car. As a preface i would like to say that i still love driving it is the same feeling now when i get behind the wheel of the car then it was when i first got in and drove. People say that after awhile you get sick of driving and you don't like at all well to those people i say "BOOOOO!" The only thing that stops me from getting in the good old "Exploder" and cruising around is the ridiculous gas prices and the fact that I don't have a job to pay for the gas. So anyway some of the greatest things have happened in a car either due to others stupidity or my own so here it goes.

The first time i drove a car was when i was about 12, i was out helping my cousin deliver papers in the morning and as i put the last paper on the porch of the house i turned around to see my cousin getting in the passenger side of the car, so being the innocent child that i was i walked around and tried to get in the passenger side, thinking that he was just looking for something, but he said "what are you doing, your driving." So i got behind the wheel of his like 1980 P.O.S. and drove it, lets just say that i wasn't a natural but i did okay. After that i didn't really drive till i was a sophomore in high school taking drivers ed. This also was an experience because in the "Range" the speed limit was 10 MPH well that is lame my car idols at 10 MPH so i decided much like a young Ricky Bobby that "I wanna go fast!" So i did, i maxed out at 25 MPH in The driving range at good old Murray High School. Well it may not seem fast but have you ever tried to take a turn going 25 MPH with 7 other cars around you in an enclosed space, well don't cause it is hard but i did it. That was about the time that my range instructor Mr. Nakagama screamed through the radio, "Rogers, if you ever want to get your license you better slow down!" With that i decided it was best to drive the speed limit now and try and go faster later. Well enough of my early experiences lets go on to my first time driving in the snow. It was a late Saturday night and i was coming home from someones house and it had started to snow well this was great i had never driven in the snow and had never been taught how to so i just tried to do it like i would in any other weather, well lets just say that that didn't really work out, i think that i pretty much fishtailed every time i moved the steering wheel which at the time was not exciting but i made it home and the Exploder still runs today. Next was the time that i had kinda got used to driving in the snow and i really liked to do donuts and to fishtail whenever i could so on my way home from school it had snowed maybe a good 6 inches and i was driving down one of the back streets to my house, those of you that know there are many, and the road was empty and the snow had melted in the middle of the road but that's no fun so i decided to go to the sides of the road and try and spin out. I did and all was well until i came to the corner where i needed to turn and made the great choice to stay to the side of the street where it was icy and i could slide, as i made the turn the Exploder had other ideas she decided to go right into the curb which allowed my front passenger side tire to pop right off the rim well that was exciting here i was about a block from my house sitting in a car that is tilting me towards the front passenger side, well i decided i would nurse it home and then call my dad and see what i should do. I know what your saying "Brilliant really a smart idea" well i never said i was the brightest kid. When i got home i assessed the damage and i subsequently learned how to change a tire in 6 inches of snow that was a blast and it turned out i had to get 4 new tires luckily they were in desperate need to be changed otherwise my parents would have made me fork out the cash for the tires, another crisis averted. And that about sums up winter driving i do have a few more but those will have to be told another day, because i would like move past my stupidity and go on to others in which i revel.
A lot of my driving experiences include my good man Josh because we spend a lot of time together and we worked together at the Lion House for a few years. When we would drive you knew someone was being stupid when we would look at each other and exclaim "What is this Bum doing!" or something to that extent well one time coming home from a meeting we are driving and in front of us was another one of our coworkers, interesting note i later dated this girl, she was driving in front of us and as we pull up to a light which had been yellow for a long time and was honestly turning red right at the moment and she cruised through. Well josh didn't know it was this girl and he looks at me and says "did you see that this bum just ran a red light" and we laugh and give this girl a call and held that experience over her head probably till today cause it is so fun to do. Well after this minor infraction we will hit one last story which is a lot worse than running a red light downtown. This experience happened just a few weeks ago while i was down for the weekend. Josh and I and Aimee Johnson were going downtown to go to the Olive Garden for the never ending pasta bowl so we jump on the freeway and go right into the carpool lane, the carpool lane has got to be one of my favorite lanes and i don't get to drive in it that often now so it was rather exciting, as were going along we look over and there is this car, josh could tell you the make and model i was too worried about this guy cutting me off to care, this guy is cruising over and cuts me off in the carpool lane. I hate this for a few reasons, does anyone really like to be cut off and the exploder doesn't really have the greatest acceleration so once i am up at a good speed and in cruise control i hate to exit that state. Well this guy comes right over past those stupid double white lines, that no one cares about anyway but still it is the principle of the thing, and is right in front of me but then he keeps going into the shoulder, I'm thinking maybe he was having a problem and needed to stop, but no he keeps going and rams into the wall at 70 MPH. Josh, Aimee, and I are flippin out and the guy kinda starts to veer into my lane so without even looking i book it out of the carpool lane hopefully to safety. Luckily no one was in the lane next to me cause my only thought was get the heck out of the way of this other car. So that was that i witnessed some moron fall asleep at the wheel or something like that and slam right into the wall it was really something but that so far has to be the dumbest thing i have seen in my years behind the wheel. That's all for today i do have plenty more driving stories but you'll just have to ask me and of those of you who read this probably already know but hope you enjoyed the first installment of Story Time Tuesday i think I'm gonna set up a poll for what my stories should be on next week so let me know what you want to hear.