There was a lot of rain on the drive home from St Louis! Those 18-wheelers throw a lot of water when you try to pass, so it takes concentration to get past the wall of water with the car intact. In fact, the whole drive took a lot of concentration so I listened to the various stations on Sirius and relied on Nellie to navigate me through the freeways. It worked quite well.
Another activity to help keep me alert, was looking for Random Acts of Kindness (RAOK) as I traveled. You know, those little things that are not required, or expected, and that often go unappreciated because they are not really overt enough to notice unless one is making an effort. Here are a few I recall:
- An 18-wheeler that made a turn on a changing light causing us to wait even longer for our turn. As he turned, he slowed more than necessary and I found myself getting irritated. Then I noticed a bicyclist turning with him, hidden by the end of the rig. The driver obviously saw the danger of leaving the cyclist exposed to aggravated drivers waiting anxiously to gun the motors of their cars, and slowed to prevent a horrible accident. I have a great deal of respect for professional "big-rig" drivers, but very little for drivers of gravel and dump trucks.
- The drivers of cars in Missouri begin to carefully merge when they see the see a sign noting one lane merging into another. Therefore, there is an orchestrated flow of traffic feeding into the merger. Even had I not seen the sign, I could tell I was in Texas when the cars began speeding up to get to the front of a merging line and force their way in. Traffic tends to come to a standstill as all the cars jam the merging lanes.
- A driver stopped to help another driver who was stopped by the side of the road...in the pouring rain...with his hood up. You just don't see that anymore.
- A man actually held the door open for me and acknowledged my "Thank you".
- A clerk spoke to me with kindness and smiled. That is getting to be more and more unusual.
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