A Ride to Aiken

Last weekend I went to Aiken for a wedding.

By the way, Aiken is a very nice town.

I also had a very nice drive. I like to drive. I like driving long distances. These gas prices, however, make long drives for pleasure rather expensive.

Getting back to my Aiken trip, once I hit Florence and got on I-95, I set my cruise at just a tad over 70. Since it was the middle of the night, I pretty much kept on cruise the whole way, even through Columbia.

So, again, I'm traveling 71 or 72. My GPS had my max speed at 71.6. The speed limit is 70 the whole through except, I believe, in a short stretch near Columbia. Technically, then, I was speeding. Guess how many cars I passed?

Zero.

Guess how many passed me?

At least 50.

I did the same thing coming home. Since it was a Sunday morning, traffic was heavier. I set the cruise a bit lower and also had to back off the "green button" around Columbia because of merging traffic and the shear volume. However, I-20 is rather open between Florence and Camden... and also between Lexington and Aiken. Once I hit the I-95 entrance ramp, the cruise came off. I didn't want to die.

But, again, the cruise on I-20 was set at just below 70 (Maximum GPS speed: 69.1), so I'm about as close to speeding as possible. That means anyone passing me is likely breaking the law.

This time I actually passed two vehicles. One was a big RV. I think a couple hundred cars passed me... unnecessarily drinking gallons and gallons of expensive fuel.

Actually, I shouldn't be too harsh. I'm sure these people had good reasons to drive like that.

They probably needed to get home a few minutes sooner so they sit around and complain about Big Oil and how the government won't do anything about these blasted gas prices.

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