One thing i DO like about Texas

So i was driving from my hometown of San Antonio to Houston to check out a car (which will be revealed in a future thread when transaction is complete) on interstate 10. It's about 3.5hrs at the speed limit.

I hate driving to Houston. I don't like the place, and the trip there and back is boring as hell. For some reason, though, i end up going at least a couple times a year. This will be the 3rd car i've bought out of Houston, for example. Visiting Mazdeuce is another good reason i don't bemoan.

One of the things i DO like about Texas is that in between these major cities where there are hundreds of miles of incredibly boring freeway, people HAUL ASS. When i was going TO Houston, i thought i was doing good when most of the traffic was doing 85mph. I was happy with that. But on the way back, i was even happier when i got to spend about half the trip moving in a group of cars that was doing 95 mph. While doing 95mph i had a JEEP COMPASS pass me doing about 100. They just wanted to go that fast.

Even people with cars with low top speeds were doing their damnedest to hit them. I saw a slightly lifted TJ Wrangler doing a steady 90mph, and a Nissan NV200 van doing a steady 95. I feel those were very close to their absolute top speeds.

There's not a lot of things i like about Texas outside of my hometown, but people who are driving like they are on an actual real life mission to get somewhere, DO make me happy. Where i live, i am closer to 3 of Mexico's states than i am to another US state. If i am trying to take a road trip out west (where i10 does in fact have an 85mph limit to begin with) it takes me the first 9 hours of my road trip just to escape Texas. I know a lot of y'all live in states about as wide as i-10 from SA to H-town, but believe me, when you have such a long way to go across this boring landscape, it's really nice to cut an hour off that and spend it doing almost anything else!

I'm still not ready to give up the reins to autonomous driving, but I did lament that one of the only available options my used Lexus doesn't have is radar cruise. I probably would have liked that!

You wont like Ontario, they confiscate your car and toss you in jail with a 10k fine and suspended license for doing 93 mph. Then you probably end up on the same insurance rates as a DWI.

In reply to NOHOME:

That explains why all the Ontario cars drive the speed limit in the fast lane down here.

You should visit Oregon to live my hell. The Californian communist party comes up here, drives like its the I-405 in LA, and then the local Oregonians drive 45mph in a 55. when they come to a 45 zone, do you think they maintain speed? No. They now slow to 35mph. Why? I honestly think these idiots are AFRAID of driving. Granola munching, pine cone licking, tree humpers. And the commifornians? They try passing these kombucha sippers at the most inconvenient times (because people from large cities are impatient arsepoles). So you get LINES of traffic slowed by some cone licker, and inept Californians that haven't taken there Valium, trying to pass...

I miss the Midwest nearly daily.

Texas is why I knew my Dodge Intrepid was governed at 110 and stopped letting you set cruise at around 85. I spent many an hour driving rapidly between Dallas and Houston, especially that one summer where I made the trip twice weekly.

Nothing is more satisfying than speeding about a mile behind a rabbit car, knowing they're grade A cop bait. Well... except when you pass them pulled over on the side of the road multiple times in the same road trip.

In reply to Trackmouse:

Come licker; I like that. I regularly cuss out all the pot smokers and their quaalude popping cousins.

Trackmouse wrote: You should visit Oregon to live my hell..... 45mph in a 55

I've noticed that every time I've driven through Oregon. It's the weirdest thing.

In reply to dculberson:

I feel like your small typo may have significantly changed your intended meaning.

I noticed that, too, when I was in Texas. Drove from Houston to Ft Worth and back, in a rented Fusion. When in an unfamiliar jurisdiction, I opt to keep within 5-7mph above the posted limit, until I see what traffic trends are. I thought I was standing still, at that. So, I sped up to 85ish. Still got passed by most everything. Damned if I wasn't doing 100, just to keep up with traffic.

Empty toll road this morning. Cruise was set to 120 for at least twenty miles.

(I wasn't driving, I'm too scared of the ticket to go there more than just briefly.)

I do miss the open roads from my time living in Texas. Had a sweet morning run on an empty road running a C63 with my 335I. His lack of traction/driving skills made it a highly entertaining run up to 150 on the empty toll road enroute to the office.

Unfortunately, Austin missed out on that trend in Texas. It's more likely that people are going 5 MPH under the speed limit that 5 MPH over. I'm regularly the faster man on the road just driving a little over the speed limit. The major road here right by my house is 55 MPH and seriously most people are going no faster than 45 MPH.

Robbie wrote: In reply to dculberson: I feel like your small typo may have significantly changed your intended meaning.

Maybe, maybe not.

Sounds fantastic but last time I was passing through Texas on interstate 40 I got pulled over and questioned for a half hour about why I was in Texas for doing 79 in a 75 at 11:30PM.

^Sill upset about that and that was 2.5 years ago.

NOHOME wrote: You wont like Ontario, they confiscate your car and toss you in jail with a 10k fine and suspended license for doing 93 mph. Then you probably end up on the same insurance rates as a DWI.

Not to mention the fact that getting across Ontario will take about 21 hours even at 20k over the limit.

Houston? Did you pick up Aerosmith tickets with your looser friends? Top priority of the summer.

Florida. 20 over or 20 under. There is no in between.

The sun will rise, The sun will set, And I am still not out of Texas yet.

That is my driving motto. I live in Austin and it takes hours to reach just about any destination by car. The roads are mostly empty and there is a certain "its your own damn fault" attitude while driving.

At least this also means the hill country roads are empty. As long as you don't speed through town you can find plenty of curvy emptiness to play on. No worries about other traffic.

Pennsylvania: look like a street racer weaving through traffic trying to get to the speed limit. We just got our first 70 signs on the turnpike, and they're handing out tickets for 75. Meanwhile, on the parkway(55mph) going into PGH, 95 is barely keeping up with traffic, but damn that ticket's expensive.

RevRico wrote: Pennsylvania: look like a street racer weaving through traffic trying to get to the speed limit. We just got our first 70 signs on the turnpike, and they're handing out tickets for 75. Meanwhile, on the parkway(55mph) going into PGH, 95 is barely keeping up with traffic, but damn that ticket's expensive.

I thought all the "55" zones were an implied 70 in PA.

Vigo wrote: Even people with cars with low top speeds were doing their damnedest to hit them. I saw a slightly lifted TJ Wrangler doing a steady 90mph, and a Nissan NV200 van doing a steady 95. I feel those were very close to their absolute top speeds.

I've long had a problem with this. On open roads with good visibility, why should I have the same limit for my autobahn designed cruiser that is capable of a comfortable 150 as farmer Bob out for a cruise in his 1970's clapped out unstable Dodge pickup on bald tires? One car is bored to tears at 70 and the other isn't safe at anything past 55. But we are both covered by a blanket law designed to generate revenue for their municipality.

In reply to Andy Neuman:

Maybe in the eastern half, out here in the west I look like an extra in 2fast2furious just trying to hit 60 most of the time.

I've seen to many roads getting dropped down from 45-50 to 35 because little Johnny junkie thinks he can wear all black and walk down the middle of the lanes at night, but that's a whole other rant.

RevRico wrote: In reply to Andy Neuman: Maybe in the eastern half, out here in the west I look like an extra in 2fast2furious just trying to hit 60 most of the time. I've seen to many roads getting dropped down from 45-50 to 35 because little Johnny junkie thinks he can wear all black and walk down the middle of the lanes at night, but that's a whole other rant.

Out here in South Central Pennsyltucky, you've got Grandma and Grandpa on the back roads who insist on doing 40mph regardless of whether the limit is 35 or 55, and the rolling roadblocks on I-81 where one truck doing 66 is trying to pass another doing 65 for 10+ miles. Interspersed among these groups are everyone else trying to do anywhere from 5-15 over the limit.

The turnpike west of here, past the Blue Mountain exit, is actually one of my favorite highways to drive on (aside from the increasingly ridiculous tolls ). Limited spots for cops to sit makes them relatively easy to spot, there's usually a rabbit doing 90+ to tag along with, and it's actually relatively curvy for a highway. To date the highest speed I've ever achieved on a public road occurred at about 2 am just east of Somerset. Made that trip from Irwin to Carlisle in under two hours I think, doorstep to doorstep with a fuel stop.