Update Update

[MaryAnn]

Update: Wednesday I leave on my month-long travel trailer-hauling attempted cross country trip and back (AZ to VA, VA to NY, NY to AZ.)
I did a shakedown cruise to NM. The trailer hauls fine, I do not have any stamina to speak of, and the most "fun" is when you are doing 55 and the semis go flying by you at 85. First there is the push forward from behind as the bow wave hits the trailer, and then there is the suction after the bow wave, which pulls the trailer in towards the huge wheels of the semi. I was probably passed by a total of nearly 100 semis on the trip to and from, and it was very tiring. It doesn't help that many of them in this part of the country are going WAY over the speed limit. It's bad enough when they are doing 75, but when they go by at astronomical speeds it gets much more difficult.
Now if I can just manage to not be traveling in sync with a tornado-producing weather front all the way from west to east, it will be somewhat easier. That must happen to cross country travelers on a frequent basis.

[roweenie]

Remember to vote bloke for president.

no free ponies, but low-priced bloke-becue for those who denounce the Democrat and Republican Parties.

Looks like good eatin', and the price of admission is more than reasonable, considering the circumstances.....

[roweenie]

It doesn't help that many of them in this part of the country are going WAY over the speed limit. It's bad enough when they are doing 75, but when they go by at astronomical speeds it gets much more difficult.

That's interesting, because I find the exact opposite occurs up here in the Northeast. It's not uncommon to see two tractor trailers driving the speed limit (or under!) side by side, with a trail of 20 or more cars behind them, itching to pass....

[Dan Schultz]

It's National Donut Day!

[bort]

It doesn't help that many of them in this part of the country are going WAY over the speed limit. It's bad enough when they are doing 75, but when they go by at astronomical speeds it gets much more difficult.

That's interesting, because I find the exact opposite occurs up here in the Northeast. It's not uncommon to see two tractor trailers driving the speed limit (or under!) side by side, with a trail of 20 or more cars behind them, itching to pass....

I lived out east for all my life until last year, and never really saw that. What I actually saw is that as you go farther north on the east coast, the driving gets worse and worse. DC and Baltimore are bad enough, but Philly was worse, Jersey Turnpike is dangerous (ask Tracy Morgan!), NYC drivers are terrible, southern CT is nuts, and forget about Boston. Even New Hampshire and Maine are pretty bad. Driving in Minnesota is SO much easier than driving out east, I can hardly describe it.

The only good thing about driving out east is that the traffic is usually so horrible, during rush hour no one can even drive fast enough to make it dangerous. You just have to sit and wait it out.

[MaryAnn]

What I have seen back East is one semi is doing .5 mph more than the semi it wants to pass going up an incline, but rather than give up that .5 mph and fall in behind the "slower" one, that driver will choose to inch by at .5 mph faster and to hell with the lineup of cars who also want to pass at reasonable speeds. Out West, I have not seen that. Now in Amarillo taking a rest day on my longer trip to Virginia, I did have one instance of a semi wanting to pass another semi and neither of them able to hold the speed limit.

[Donn]

I venture out on long distance drives rather rarely, and the last time I was trapped by trailers it was travel trailers. On a 2 lane highway, so of course they weren't side by side, just end to end ... they might have started out that way, leaving a site together, or just ended up bunched up behind the slowest one, but there I was on winding river canyon road through the forest in the middle of the night at 50mph, behind some trailer rig who would brake for every curve etc., and 5 campers and trailers beyond to make it nearly impossible to pass. Nearly impossible. My passenger withheld comment.

[arpthark]

only 3 hours of elephant-room-ism left.

Someone should write a tuba-euphonium ensemble composition entitled, "Conference".

Every famous orchestral excerpt playing at once in various tempi with conspicuous tuning/timing/articulation issues?

[roweenie]

Bort, I drive around 20K a year; you don't see it so much in New England, but the worst places where this happens is on the Quickway in upstate New York, and the interstate highways in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the mid-Atlantic states. I've also seen it on the N.J. Turnpike, down south where it reduces to a four-lane highway.

In fact, whenever there is a four-lane highway, the potential is there....

[MaryAnn]

Update: In a KOA east of Indy. Staying over for a rest day like I did in Amarillo. I don't think I know of any tuber honkers here.

[roweenie]

MA, if you're anywhere near Richmond In., you should check out the Model T Ford museum (if you're into that sort of thing.....)

[bort]

Bort, I drive around 20K a year; you don't see it so much in New England, but the worst places where this happens is on the Quickway in upstate New York, and the interstate highways in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the mid-Atlantic states. I've also seen it on the N.J. Turnpike, down south where it reduces to a four-lane highway.

In fact, whenever there is a four-lane highway, the potential is there....

Well, then I suppose I'm just lucky it didn't happen to me!

The only place I remember running into this issue was driving through Costa Rica... Two lane highways with extremely slow farm or cargo trucks, and a huge line of cars who want to pass.

The worst is when you are stuck behind a truck, and the person behind you leapfrogs both you and the slow truck. As with most things, driving in Costa Rica was really pretty simple and a lot like home. I can imagine that most of central America is FAR worse.

[opus37]

I go to head election judge training this morning so I can be ready for the November election. I expect chaos and angry people this year. I sometime wonder why I do this.

[windshieldbug]

I go to head election judge training this morning so I can be ready for the November election. I expect chaos and angry people this year. I sometime wonder why I do this.

For the glory and the money. Same reason you play.

[bort]

Bort fun fact... Al Franken lives around the corner from me (no joke).

[bort]

Today is my son's first birthday!!

[bisontuba]

Congratulations!

[alfredr]

Congratulations on having a good time and spreading it around. Hope you do get to do it again and often.

I wish a quick and full recovery for the trombone player's wife, also.

[boobentuben]

-- .- -.-- / .. - / -... .-. .. -. --. / ..- / -- ..- -.-. .... / .... .- .--. .--. -.--

[opus37]

Starting our season with the Two Harbors City Band tonight. I've played with some of these folks for 50 years. We are a good but not great city band. It is fun to make music with old friends.