Maniacs!

My husband's Top 10 for this week discusses bad drivers and how to know if you are a bad driver. He now has a new one to add to his list - you're a freaking MANIAC and try to run people off the road.

True story from last night.

We live in a rural area where there is not much shopping, so we decided to drive to the next town over (30 minutes away) and look at their furniture store for a new bed. On the way home, we stopped for dinner. After dinner we discovered Camden had another of his famous poop blowouts, so we headed home. Now you have to know something about Mark. He's a really safe driver. He refuses to speed or do anything else that would break a law. (I used to be a speed demon before I met him. He would sit and quote the 12th Article of Faith to me over and over again where it says, "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.")

So we're driving home on the highway (yeah, no freeway out here) and just having some good conversation. On the last stretch of highway heading into our town, there are a lot of twists and turns as you head uphill. It's often hard to pass because of all the oil field trash, I mean trucks, that are on the highway. We're heading up this last stretch when a truck speeds around us. There was a car in the other lane and we're getting into one of the twists, so we had to slam on our brakes to let this truck in front of us. No big deal, we just kept driving. After this truck gets in front of us, it starts to slow down and be erratic with its speeds. We see there are three young adults in the truck and we figure they are just having fun being irresponsible drivers. Mark decides to pass them so we can get home and get Cam bathed and into bed.

As soon as we try to pass, this truck swerves over into the other lane to keep us from passing. We thought it was a fluke, so we tried to pass again. Once again, this truck swerves into the other lane, trying to keep us from passing and almost pushing us off the road. My husband honks at the truck (the only semi provoking thing he does all night) and the driver of the truck starts flipping us off, slowing down, slamming on his brakes, etc. We stayed far back and just tried to ignore him. For the next five minutes, this continues.

Finally, we come to the last hill entering into our town. There is a passing lane on that stretch, so we figure we will pass them to be rid of them there. Once we reach the passing lane, the truck straddles the middle and either way we try to pass, they swerve and try to run us off the road. My husband tells me at this point he was in the flee or fight mode, so he wanted to just get past this truck once and for all. He finally passes, being driven by this truck clear into the shoulder of the road on the other lane, and they start tailgating us and brightens us the rest of the way. We started to head for our home, but noticed they are trying to follow us, so we go a different way.

During this all, we got the plate number and called it in as soon as we get home. The officer tells us all he can really do is run the plate and go talk to the person and warn him, which is good enough for us. We just want this person to know they can't get away with it.

I have NEVER seen such crazy driving and rudeness in all my years on the road? Why would a person do that when we're just minding our own business? It was obvious we were just a simple family. We did nothing to provoke them. What would possess a person to try to run another vehicle off the road, simply for passing? The mother bear came out in me and I wanted to rip them apart for endangering my child.

That's my crazy story for the weekend. Tell me the craziest driving you have ever seen or experienced.