Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Driving in Highland Park -- Almost Dying... SERIOUSLY

Not too long ago, muh wife and I were on our way to the dog park in Highland Park. I have written about it in the past and it is a great place for dogs... especially Tucker.

Tucker was with us and he was standing guard in between us with his front paws on the center console and his back paws on the back seat. His position resembled Leonardo DiCarpio's on the Titanic during his famous announcement of being "King of the World."

Driving the speed limit entering Highland Park is an absolute necessity as the cops maintain a proper speed zone in town. I was in the passing lane of a four lane road that was going to merge into two lanes in about a 1/10 of a mile.

I was cruising along nicely and was about to pass a car travelling in the right hand lane. The was about 3-4 car lengths in front of me when it turned on its left hand turn signal. I was travelling too fast to let them pull in .. in front of me (still going the speed limit) so I didn't alter my speed.

This was when something happened that I have never seen happen before. Apparently, the left hand turn signal was not a signal that the driver wanted to merge into the lane that I was currently travelling in. It meant something completely different.

SHE WAS MAKING A LEFT HAND TURN FROM THE FURTHERMOST RIGHT LANE. HOLY F-ING CRAP.

I was able to swerve the car into the oncoming traffic lanes and barely made it around the car in time. Seriously... barely... It scared the crap out of me and even when the car that was behind me caught up with me... we shared a look of commiseration.

I can safely say that I think that our car and us would have been seriously hurt if we had been going slightly slower or had not swerved at the last possible moment.

Thankfully... the park was two minutes away...

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