R.U.D.E.

I have to preface this email with a little confession – I love Fort Worth and tend to feel more at home there than I do in Abilene. Not because I don't love Abilene too, I just have a lot of family and friends and memories in Fort Worth.

That being said...

Meanest. Drivers. Ever.

I was there last Monday and found myself on the west edge of downtown, picking up my brother at his job at Radio Shack headquarters for a lunch date. I've driven in Fort Worth a bunch of times, but not on those particular streets any more than once or twice.



On our way to the restaurant, I braked and started to turn from Montgomery on to Lancaster, as my brother warned me that I actually needed to take the next turn on to Camp Bowie. I can't imagine my slight mistake made any real difference to the car behind me, but that did not stop him or her from laying on the horn. I'm talking a solid 15 seconds of blasting me for no valid reason! I may or may not have honked back in a very ugly way... for which I am sorry. But still, geez!



After dropping my brother back at work, I failed at trying to navigate a fork in the road. The traffic was really heavy in this area, and I ended up having to sit in the little median wedge for a sec before zipping into the correct lane. Yes, I was cutting it close, but the car that was actually affected didn't seem to care. The MASSIVE pickup truck behind that, however, was peeeeeeved. Commence another ridiculously long horn honk! But this one actually lasted a good 30 seconds, and the driver followed me around, keeping up the honking! I waved, nodded, waved, shrugged, waved...

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK.

Seriously? Your life is that stressful that you need to blow a horn for that long?

Instantly, I was grateful for the polite, laid-back attitude of Abilene drivers and the lack of traffic. Now I know that Abilene had a deadly road rage incident recently, but I'm not taking that into consideration right now. I just want to commend the 99.9% of drivers here who wave to let others through, wait their turns, and forgive honest mistakes like mine.