Y’all don’t have traveling buddies sometimes?
Everytim
Every Tim.
Tim.
is that you, Tim Apple?
No, it’s Tim Travelingbuddy
Can I join yourr Team?
I once drove for 400km behind a blue Subaru who had impeccable speed- keeping and use of high-beams at night. It was a lonely Thursday evening, very dark, moonless drive through remote forest and farmland with only the warm red glow of Blue Subaru’s tal lights to keep me company. When we got to the next city he turned left just before we got into the city centre. I felt such grief. Sometimes I see other blue Subarus and I wonder if it’s my Albany friend. I’ll miss you Blue Subie, you live forever in my heart. Love, silver Mitsubishi.
About 20 years ago we went to Wales for a holiday. And when going on trips we always would leave about 3 or 4am to miss most of the traffic.
So it’s about 5am and along the way I catch up with another car, an older Porsche, and I overtake them move back over…and he starts to keep up with me.
About 5 or so minutes later he overtakes but stays next to me and gives me a thumbs up, then pulls in front.
Ok, weird.
I follow behind for 10 minutes until I see him gesturing to overtake, so I do. He gives me the thumbs up and a wave and a cheesy grin, then sits behind me for about 5 or so minutes (probably with the big cheesy grin on his face) then overtakes etc etc. We then ‘escalated’ it to a little bit of acceleration on the overtaking manoeuvres for a giggle. (Though there was no speeding or danger.)Bearing in mind I was driving a POS ford fiesta filled with suitcases, roof rack with bikes, a wife, and 2 kids, and he had a Porsche.
We carry on doing this for about 90 minutes, keeping each other awake and alert but also entertained.
Then when I thought he was going to overtake he slowed down as he got to my side and made gestures that he was going to pulling off the motorway. Thumbs up. Waved. Cheesy grinned at me. Then roared off.I remember him whenever I see posts like this. And I wonder if he remembers me.
When we got to Wales and I woke the family up I tell them about 'The Mysterious Porsche Driver™ ', who kept me alert and entertained on the lonely deserted motorway of doom but the wife thinks I’m making it all up.
Then it became a ‘joke’ that there wasn’t ever another driver but a guardian angel. An old Porsche driving guardian angel 😀. Which I may have believed if I was ever religious.We’ve been on many holidays and trips since and it’s never happened again.
If you tell me they stayed right except to pass on 87/287, I’ll cry.
I definitely do this, I’ll even change my speed to stay with my buddies
It’s a thing on longer road trips especially. You’ll pass someone going a little slower and a few miles later they will pass you. You’ll do that back and forth for a while and yes, it is sad when they have to stop playing and go home.
Really? Those people who cant figure out how to engage their cruise control are the bane of my road tripping existence.
Especially when they pass you oh-so-slowly forcing you you to slow down to get in the passing lane behind them when you encounter the next few cars, then they slow down while passing, only to speed up again 2 miles later after you overtake them…
Its about the mildest possible of infuriating, but its like water torture.
Totally this. People who can‘t maintain speed drive me nuts. They‘re often the same ones that speed up when you pass them. Them, and for some reason the assholes going randomly 5-10 under the speed limit but suddenly find the gas pedal on the highway merge and make it difficult to get around them.
Not sure what cruise control has to do with this. Different cars have different acceleration speeds and there are conditions that rebalance traffic based on acceleration like traffic light or a slow moving obstacle. Also if you live in high speed highways there’s always more space for variability as not everyone is always comfortable pushing the limit.
there are people who can’t keep a constant speed on a flat road. it’s annoying to have them pass you only to have to pass them again thirty seconds later. repeat a few times for annoyance.
Gotta have a speeding buddy. Speed alone? Get pulled over. Speeding with a buddy? Just going with the flow of traffic
When someone goes flying by me I follow along about a half mile behind and let them probe for cops.
Hog bait
Had a friend in school once tell a story about speeding with another driver ahead of him and all of a sudden there’s a cop on his ass, lights on. Buddy pulls over to the next lane and the cop points at him and continues to go after the other guy.
When he told the tale, he said he got lucky and the cop pointed at him to warn him before going after the other guy.
I later realized that he probably got lucky that he failed to understand the cop was trying to pull them both over, but nothing came of it (that I heard of anyways).
It is called a fuzz sweeper, follow a raging asshole that is speeding.
Ok, I can certainly relate to this. I feel the same way.
Last time this happened it was me and a Supra coming east from Ohio. He took the exit for Pittsburgh and I never saw him again.
Best friend I ever had.
Edit: AaaaaAAAAAAAaaaAAAAAaaaAAA 🎶 #Family
We’d been together since Dayton. Through the construction in Columbus, the rolling hills of Zanesville, and the high mountain passes of Wheeling.
I left him at the Cumberland Gap and my life just ain’t been the same
Now I am sad 😭
Why? It was just a movie?
Paul Walker (guy in the white car) died before the movie was finished (in a car crash, of all things). The last few scenes are actually his brother and a ton of CGI. This scene in particular is a tribute to Paul’s life and legacy. His “last ride” into the great beyond, if you will (in the words of Wiz Khalifa).
“Good riding with ya, Blue Nissan!”
I do this on long road trips and notice being with the same car for a long while.
I also designate some cars as my nemesis
all truckers get this designation
Caravan towers and motorhomes 😡
I had an absolute blast following a mad trucker through mountain roads a few months back. Couldn’t overtake him, but he was driving so freaking fast I was barely keeping up with him anyway. I had so. Much. Fun ! After an hour or so we reached the plain and a motorway and as I finally overtook him, I flashed my warnings as thanks and he flashed back.
Genuinely brings a smile to my face even though.
When you and the dude in front of you going the same speed pass those other cars together before responsible pulling back into the non-passing lane…
Exactly.
Just for clarification, he’s not talking about actually having any sort of interaction with the drivers or even seeing their face, he’s talking about the car itself being his buddy, right? Like “that red toyota is my friend”, right?
It’s those single serving kind of friends, ala the plane scene in fight club.
Temporary human mutual benefit alliances. You ride along, notice a fellow driver is placing safety over convenience. So, when car homie needs a slot to change lanes, you adjust your speed to hook them up. Next time, maybe they give you a headlight flick when they notice something coming from behind that is placing convenience over safety.
It’s just humans being decent to each other on the road, but it fulfills a pretty deep human need for connection in one the worst settings for human connection.
Then, when they or you take an exit finally, you wave, give a honk, and move on.
But I’m telling you, and you find someone that you can drive like that with, it’s awesome. On a really long drive, you can sync up and make better time with less stress. If you get a small group going? Awwwww yiiiiissssss.
I’ve had the good fortune of hooking up in a group a handful of times over the years. One time, going up to Ohio, a group formed and when one guy signaled and went into a rest stop, we all followed him in and just made small talk until he was done. Went like that all through until right over the Ohio border, where we had to split off for our individual destinations. We’d switch off positions, give hand signals back down the line when something was wonky ahead.
Never exchanged names, never talked about anything serious. But those were some great road friends
No, but you do start to consciously personify the drivers – contrasting the extreme depersonifying that driving encourages (see: “carbrain”). It’s all wild, baseless speculation, and you know that, but it’s fun to construct a fake traveling buddy in your head based on tidbits and wonder if maybe they’re doing the same to you.
(Edit: I will note that I see this as kind of an “orphan-crushing machine” type of wholesome, showing how insanely isolating car travel is through how the human mind will cling onto the tiniest scraps of closeness with another person.)
For sure. Surely women do this too, right?
It’s a driver thing, right?Yes we do!
That’s reassuring to read :)
This exactly it. Same approach to driving, speed, passing, being in the correct lane, lots of miles to cover.
Maybe it really was the friends we made along the way.
My cast system:
- normal driver friends (bonus for EVs, but never teslas)
- speeding friends (fun on the autobahn)
- delivery royalty (second to ambulances only, dhl and amazon are fucking them hard enough, let them through first)
I judge:
- truck passing another truck (overrules delivery royalty rule)
- loud cars (fuck you)
- teslas (mix of judgement and feeling sorry for them, hard to tell when it was bought)
