Postby WildcatOne » Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:44 pm
Once I get my act together I'll make it over to the Post Office and send it...I have 2 from the box ready to get packaged. Be on the lookout.
I don't know how it is in other cities, but we have at least a couple of people a night get killed on the freeways here. Mostly they're high-speed chases or illegal street racing. Houston's laid out like a giant pizza, with inner, outer and far-reaching loops encircling the city. It's the LA of the South; it goes on for close to a hundred miles in all direcitons with no stops. The freeways here are a street racer's dream. It's flat, mostly concrete, and there are infinite variables involved that provide exits and outlets to the suburbs. Only problem is traffic; in other words, law-abiding drivers that get in the way. The street racers weave through everybody else and they race 24-7 in cars and on motorcycles. Most of 'em have guns, stolen goods and drugs inside their cars and they are set up to go 3 times faster than everybody else. In the last 2 days, I was having to drive from one end of this city to the other, and I saw two incidents that could have easily resulted in multiple fatalities, caused by street racers. At 2:15 am Saturday, I was making my way up I-45, heading to the Beltway that takes me West towards Stafford, where I live, from NASA Rd 1. I wasn't wearing a space diaper (<g>), but I was focused and intent on driving a textbook course. The nightclubs had just emptied out and between 2 and 4 am, you never know what to expect on the freeway. About 1000 feet in front of me was a pickup going the same speed I was going, and we both took the Beltway exit. Once your'e 75 feet up in the air on the elevated exit, you have a choice of either going West (left) or East (right) and it comes up to a Y with one of those medians protected by the yellow-and black striped contraptions with tires inside held together by cables so it'll give in on impact. A guy came flying past me in a Camaro going well over a hundred mph on the right as soon as I took the exit. He was there before I even saw him. Whoosh. Then he floorboarded it and caught the pickup on the right just before he got to the Y. He jerked the wheel to the left and the pickup slammed on his brakes when the Camaro swerved across him from the right and narrowly slid into the Westbound lane right at the median, with tire smoke trailing his tailwind. He went up on 2 wheels, slid across the one-lane feeder, slapped the left retaing wall in a shower of sparks, landed sideways, spun around facing the right way, slammed his foot back down and raced away towards the Beltway. He had just risked all of our lives...me and the pickup had slowed down to almost zero by this time, but if you're going too slow, it's more dangerous out there than if you're going too fast. We both got back up to 65, putting us in the middle of the flow (traffic runs heavy here 24-7) and I drove on back home in the slow lane. Yesterday I got off work at 4:30 pm and I was taking a right off of Loop 610, the secondary inner loop that circles the downtown section of Houston. It's an extremely dangerous interchange, where hundreds of deaths have occurred ever since it was built back in the early 70s. You have multiple choices and the higher percentage of drivers are in the wrong lane to make the choices they make...plus, they're going faster than they should be in order to adjust to that choice in time. It's a thrill show at US59 and Loop 610...so I take my exit and I'm heading into the Southbound flow, "moderate to heavy" traffic all around me. There is limited visibility at the first couple of overpasses because the road curves and it's flat, so you can't see what's going on 300 feet in front of you while you're keeping pace with everybody else at 60mph...here comes a red Firebird, through the cluster of speed-limit-obeying cars. He is going twice as fast as everybody else. He zooms past me going between 90 and 100 mph and he hits a water puddle right at the top of the overpass and goes into a spin. He stays in the center lane and does a complete 360 in the middle of a dozen other cars, everybody gasps in horror and hits their brakes...he stops facing oncoming traffic. Slams into reverse, smokes his tires, crosses into the fast lane, causing approaching cars to hit their brakes and pull over onto the shoulder...jerks back into drive, waves howdy to everybody, and smokes his tires back towards the South, swerves back into the second fast lane and flies away into the sun...in broad daylight on a heavily occupied major freeway. I watch this stuff like it's in slow-motion on a TV set or something, but it's real and it all happened in less than 8 seconds, right in front of me. I almost hit the guy in front of me, who slammed on his brakes. I had to react instantly by jerking into the next lane to my left, which thank God had nobody in it at that moment...it's an adventure out there...but I made it home safe and sound. If anybody comes to Houston, remember what I'm telling you now. Don't just be careful. Be cautious and keep in mind that at any given moment, you could find yourself in the middle of a life-and-death struggle while driving. Stop signs, red lights and multiple lane traffic jams are just an inconvenience and a challenge to these guys. They'd like nothing better than to hang it out there over the edge and die and take a few innocent bystanders with them if they are destined to meet their blaze of glory as a result of the stunts they're pulling on us. Cheers, WC1
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wow 36 hours over a single weekend ! I've been known to sleep that long 
Sounds like Four Lifetimes is buzzing with activity 
jeeez WC1 I was just getting ready to head down to QT for supplies now i'm spooked... maybe after NASCAR switches over to the new cars we all should buy leftover racecars and covert them for street use !! just for the safety factor while batteling it out with the idiots out there
( wish i had them years ago )... and with brother renting from me whick covers most of the bases here... once again great reading this morning !!
