I hate driving. And I love driving.
Yes, I am a paradox. Almost everything I do is a paradox. But in particular, driving is the one that gets me.
I’ve been driving since I was fifteen (which was… let’s see…twenty-four years ago?) and I’ve always been enamored with cars, especially fast cars. Which of course means I like driving, and also racing. And driving fast. But here, out in the third-world country known as Louisiana, there are more idiots on the roads than anything else. It’s quite evident if you spend more than a day driving anywhere south of I-10 that people not only have no freaking clue what good driving is, they also don’t care.
Louisiana tops the nation as having the worst drivers of all fifty states. This comes as a surprise to nobody. I hate driving here, and what’s even worse, I hate riding my bike in traffic here. The roads are poorly maintained, horribly planned, and just plain dangerous. Add horrible drivers to that, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
I recently took a road trip to Houston, TX. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it was long. Why? Smooth, well-marked roads. Mostly courteous drivers. It was a pleasure to drive the Texas interstate system. Nobody was swerving while driving, nobody texting and drinking and driving and talking on the phone, and who knows what else. They were just, you know, driving. Imagine that. In a car, and just driving! Crazy, right?
So basically, I love driving, but I hate drivers.
I think I need to go ride my bike.