Don't forget to pack your brain when on vacation.

The BBQ Pit
1

It’s pretty amazing how close some of us come to death, and don’t even know it.

I live in a (near a) small mountain tourist town. Lots of activity. And the tourists are back for the summer.

Yesterday, coming home from work, I nearly killed two people. Or they nearly killed themselves. Though I don’t think that they know that.

There are four stop lights in town. And at least 6 additional crosswalks to handle foot traffic.

The stop light in question is at a Y intersection. I was approaching the Y on a green to turn right. A bus was stopped in front of me on my left in the left turn lane.

It was a green light for the bus to turn left, and me to turn right. But the bus was not moving…… That seemed odd so I slowed down from 15-20mph to about nothing.

Sure enough, two people with big OPPS we fucked up and went against traffic smiles on their faces jogged out from in front of the bus and right across my lane. They never saw me. Or even looked.

If I had not slowed to nearly a stop, (intuition told me something was off) and just followed the speed limit and my right of way through the light, they would be dead.

They nearly died yesterday. All in good fun, and hah, hah, we don’t live here, we are just going to wander around in the streets.

This >.< close. If I hadn’t noticed and been suspicious of why the bus was not moving, they would likely be dead or severely injured.

Please people, I know you are on vacation. I know you are in an unfamiliar town and environment, but a little bit of diligence is required on your part. Tourists are fine, it supports our economy, but please, when you pack your bag, don’t forget your brain.

That goes for all of us. Have a safe summer. Or winter depending on your hemisphere :wink:

2

If it is tourist season why can’t we shoot them?

3

On the subject of tourists… I know you’re on holiday and not in a rush, I know you’re not familiar with this roads, but they’re not exactly country lanes. You can go more than 20mph. Some of us live here and need to actually get where we’re going.

You’re just lucky the local economy needs you or I’d ram you off the road.

4

Yeah, that was me. I’m sorry, but my brain packs and leaves on it’s own holidays without me. We’re not seeing each other much anymore. Thanks for stopping!

5

I saw this in another thread - “No point in it, their hide is worthless and they taste bad”.

:smiley:

Ehhh. I don’t get as upset as some do about our ‘tourons’ and ‘gapers’ (LOOK a MOUNTAIN!!!). They are after all the reason I get to live here full time.

On my way to work in the morning when the light is just right I often wish I had my camera (I HAVE to start taking pictures) cause it’s just, sometimes, just well breathtaking. But I don’t stop in the middle of the road to look at it because there are cars and stuff.

I just don’t want to accidentally kill any visitors because they have left their brain at home.

It’s pretty much the same for any tourist destination I suppose. The tourists seem to forget that there are people that actually live here every day. Good jobs, regular jobs and shitty jobs. Family and friends. We live here. Every day.

And this probably should not have been in the Pit. But I would like to remind everyone to not forget their brain when they pack for vacation.

I nearly ran over two people yesterday because they where not paying attention. They where on ‘Holiday’. Lucky for them, I was. I swear, if I had taken a second to check my mirrors or was distracted in any other way, they would be in the hospital or worse.

6

I’d be willing to bet that they are stupid when they are in their home town too.

7

The TSA won’t let me take my brain on board anymore – it’s more than 3 fluid ounces.

8

A co-worker’s friend lost her boyfriend like this. He forgot that when you’re in the U.S. you need to look to the left to see the oncoming truck… :frowning:

9

Check with your local game warden. It might be bowhunting only for a month or so.

10

They’re a nuisance animal, obviously. We should poison them by clogging their arterie with high-calorie diets.

11

Plenty more tourists where those came from. Plenty more.

12

Every summer they reduce the speed limit along the beach from 35 mph to 20 mph here. That’s barely enough to maintain steerage on the R1, and it gets pretty warm sitting on top of a 1000cc engine.

What gets me is that even before the speed limit goes down a lot of people drive 20 mph anyway. Tourists and oldsters. A few weeks ago I was driving the MG and the guy in front of me was doing 10-15 mph. It’s illegal to pass, as there are double yellow lines the whole way. He appeared to be looking for an address or something – for a mile. I figured that he’d speed up after we passed the houses and approached the State Park. But no. 20 mph. People up here generally tend to drive 5 mph under the speed limit. It doesn’t matter what the speed limit is; they drive 5 mph under it. I’m in constant fear of driving into a 5 mph zone…

Fortunately there are two ways to get to my house, one of which is not along the beach.

13

Too much paperwork.

14

Before I read the rest of this thread, I just want to applaud enipla’s driving skills, situational awareness, and prudence. Could we have more drivers like that, please?

15

What are big OPPs, and how did WE fuck them up?

This sentence leaves me baffled, can anyone explain?

16

elbows,

I think it’s intended to be “OOPS” rather than OPPS, and I might have punctuated the sentence differently.

Sure enough, two people with big “OOPS, we fucked up and went against traffic” smiles on their faces jogged out from in front of the bus and right across my lane. They never saw me. Or even looked.

The We is the two people in the street, and they fucked up by not looking to see where enipla’s car was coming from.

17

Ahh, it’s all clear now.

I was thinking ‘special opps’ that we fucked up, and, as a result, was mightily confused.

Sure it seems so obvious now.

Punctuation is your friend people!

18

They won’t let me take mine, either – it’s too sharp.

19

:stuck_out_tongue:

20

It’s not totally by chance that everyone who is standing still does so on the same side of the Metro escalator. It should be taken as an indication that you, if you do not wish to walk, should stand on that side too. However, I will forgive this mistake, but what does rile me is when asked politely to move to the correct side for standing so I can pass, you complain about my asking.

And there is no excuse whatsoever for taking photographs of the Metro escalators while on them. They aren’t fundamentally different to escalators in your home town.