Road Ridonculousness

Getting used to driving in Kansas City is proving to be quite the adventure. Part of it is getting used to driving the two cars that are new to me, I'm sure. But that adjustment is going pretty quickly.

It's not uncommon for me to find myself going five miles below the speed limit because I'm not quite sure what's coming up next. Those are the moments I'm thankful that I'm in Kansas City instead of Chicago where I would probably get a honk and a pass at 70 miles an hour as soon as the opportunity was given. Here, I just get a complacent follower who, yes, might pass me, but it doesn't really matter that much. I would guess that KC driving is closer to Chicago-suburb driving because there's lots of wide-open space. In the way there can be wide open space in a city. There's buildings everywhere, they're just not looming over you wherever you drive. And there aren't people everywhere. There. That's the difference. Although, come to think of it, you do get the occassional guy walking down the side of the road (no sidewalk, therefore, he's basically in the road) who looks like he just ran away from home...except he's 40 years too old to run away from home.

The other difficult part is that there are lots of curves and hills. Coming from Chicago, I'm used to roads curving pretty much only on the highway, where I've learned that they slant the road so that you don't have to slow down to manage the curving. Well here in KC it's just normal roads that suddenly windy-twisty through a woodsy area. And the roads aren't that wide. So, I find myself going kinda slow also on those. I am improving, however, and am sure to have the art down within a few more drives.

One fun part that I discovered today was maintaining my speed as I go down and up hills. So, I'll take my foot off the gas to stay at 35 going down the hill, and then put it back on just as I dip to start going up another hill, so that I stay at the same speed. It's pretty fun.

Before finding that ray of sunshine on the hills, though, the art of incline-driving was a little intense. It feels so weird to be braking while you're going down a hill, trying to keep at the speed limit. Maybe Kansas City hills are just steep or something, but, man do you increase speed quick while on hills. Hmmm... hopefully the art of juggling speed limits and hills will resolve quickly as well.