Road Trip Day Fourteen: Sinkers and Wobblers

 When I left Augusta, Maine at 630AM it was a 52 degrees with a wet, light fog.  Straight through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York I drove without stopping.  About 200 miles.  With the driver assist (speed, lane and distance from the car ahead) engaged, I listen to podcasts and nurse a large Dunkin coffee.   

Just over the Pennsylvania border with New York I stopped in the Poconos Mountains. Well, if you live in the Western States you know there really not “mountains.”  I had not been paying attention to outside temperature so when I got out of my car I was surprised by the 92 degree humid Pennsylvania weather.  Forty degrees was an unexpected and drastic change. 

I got Fuel, coffee and a sinker.  If you don’t know what a “sinker” is – too bad for you.  Back onto the Pennsylvania Highway and I set the driver assist to 76MPH. The speed limit is 70MPH.  I set the “car ahead” to six car lengths. 

After about an hour, I was travelling the two-lane highway on a steep downgrade.  I was in the number one lane when my car detected I was within six car lengths from the car ahead.  The car began to slow itself. As I felt the slight weight shift forward, I saw a Pennsylvania State Trooper in the median, pointing his radar gun right at me.  I flip off the driver assist and the car began to slow a little more rapidly.  By the time I am 100 yards past him I am going to the speed limit. 

The fastest he pinged me would have been 76, but more likely 75.  I figure that’s not ticket worthy, But I watch the rear view mirror.  Damn, I see him pull into traffic and he is obviously accelerating rapidly.  He is coming on fast, right behind me.  Hoping against hope, I pull into the number two lane to let him go by.  He slows and gets right into my right rear quarter panel.  Okay, I am prey.

Fortunately, I planned for just such a scenario.  I knew I wasn’t going to crazy speed on the trip.  However, I also planned on roughly always 8% over the speed limit.  On a day like today, a nine-hour drive, that 8% is at least 30 minutes.  And, I figure at 8% over the limit I was at best a “Wobbler.”  Its not 90MPH, a clear speeder.  Maybe you cite, maybe you warn, that’s a wobbler. 

The cruise control is my first line of defense.  It is set and compensates for downhill/uphill, etc.  It keeps me in the wobbler zone.  My second line of defense is my license plate frame. 

My license plate frame says “Veteran” “United States Coast Guard.”  That’s true, I am a veteran of the USCG.  I was hoping that the license plate frame would be my thumb on the scales of justice.  Flipping the wobbler my way; no cite.

After 30 seconds in my rear quarter panel he zooms off.  I don’t know if it worked or not.  I think so.

Tomorrow is a little longer drive to Terre Haute, Indiana.