Your Holiness...

 

Well, to be more accurate: your Ass-holeyness.  OK, for complete accuracy, the guy said, "Don't be an asshole!"  Yeah, to me.

Now, if you ask me, I'll tell you that I'm generally a pretty nice guy.  That may be a biased opinion.

After our usual morning routine, Joan said she wanted to go to a local quilt store.  I have been suggesting it since we got here, but she wasn't ready to do any shopping beyond our weekly grocery runs.  To give her plenty of browsing time without feeling rushed, I told her I'd go for a ride.  Win/win.

She left around noon; I was finishing up some posts about the new music video, so I got out after that.  It was 61º when I pulled the Xmax out (yeah, I rode her scoot today).  I zipped the liner into one of my riding jackets; not taking a camera long, I opted for warmer gloves.  The local weather weasels were calling for 72º as a high today, but that didn't happen.

I took our favorite southern routing to start.  The deer were more "out there" today, including one that just stood in my lane... it didn't move until I came to a complete stop about 10 feet from it.  After coming across a group of 3, a couple, and an individual deer, I started keeping track.  In all today, I saw 17 deer.  Why is that important?  Well, it is a lot more than we usually see... and it kept me riding a bit slower and being even more vigilant.

There was next to no traffic on the first 4 sets of curvy roads.  I didn't take a camera along, so you'll have to trust me on that.  Well, I did toss the drone under the seat, in case I felt like getting off and doing some flying, but never got it out.  When I got to Iron Mountain Road, I turned right and within 30 seconds I was behind a slow moving car.  It happens.  The speed limit on IMR is 25 or 35mph, with lower warnings on many of the curves.  It is a beautifully scenic road - I expect some degree of slow moving traffic.  Most of the time, people pull off where it is safe and let you get around if they are going particularly slow.  This car did just that.  So did the next one.  Really, not that much traffic, and I was enjoying the ride.

Then, I got behind a Chevy pickup with Illinois plates... it was going really slow.  In a stretch were there are some really great curves.  How slow?  Thanks for asking... 22 minutes to go just under 5 miles.  If you aren't into math story problem solving, that works out to an average of 13.64 miles per hour.  It is all solid double yellow line, so there is no place to legally pass.  Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of places I could have safely passed, and the driver of that truck drove by a half dozen pull-outs.  Does that make him an "asshole"?  Well, as I said, most slow drivers pull off enough to let you get around.

Which reminds me of an old George Carlin routine (because there are no new George Carlin routines, because he's still dead)... "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?"  But, I digress.  Again.

This guy seemed to be afraid of curves... if that's the case, Iron Mountain Road isn't a good place for him to be driving.  Yes, even on the splits (where there is no traffic coming at you), he drove painfully slow.  Finally, we came to a tunnel, where he stopped a couple car lengths behind a Jeep that was waiting for 4 people who were standing in the tunnel to take a photograph of the kids.  With that kind of space between the pickup and the Jeep, and no double yellow line since it is down to one lane, I went around the stopped pickup.  When the people cleared the tunnel, the Jeep started slowly moving through (I get that - a lot of people want to take a photo since the tunnel lines up with a view of Mt Rushmore).  Out the other end of the tunnel, the guy in the Jeep pulled to the side and hollered, "Don't be an asshole!" when I went around him.  ???

It didn't hit me until an hour later - really, I wasn't being an asshole.  I mean, I can be, but in this circumstance, I wasn't.  As is our usual technique, I honked as I rode through the tunnel - it lets anyone coming the other direction know that there is traffic in the tunnel, before they can see around the sharp turn into the tunnel.  The guy in the Jeep must have thought I was honking at him.  I wasn't.  But, at least he pulled aside once out of the tunnel to let me around.  Which is more than the asshole in the Chevy pickup ever did.

The rest of my ride was pleasant, cool, and uneventful... other than seeing more deer.  No other slow-moving traffic, but I did take roads where I was pretty sure there wouldn't be.  I got home after 3:00, and Joan was already there.  She had a successful experience at the quilt shop, picked up some groceries, and brought us chow from Olive Garden!  A very nice surprise!

Yes, we do most things together, but we can both enjoy ourselves on our own.  Nice to sit down and eat together with my Honey, though.  And, neither of us were assholes.  That's nice.  ;-)