Picture taken while parked in a parking lot.My radar detector that I paid a couple bucks for got road tested recently. We went down I-20 to Vicksburg then down and across Louisiana to Tejas. After spending several days in Tejas, we headed for home by way of Mobile, AL. Then finally from Mobile to Hot-Lanta. The unit seemed to work, got alerts on all the bands, it helped us to see the cops sooner than we would have without it. We don't usually drive that fast that the detector would be necessary, but it still helps.
It worked fine out on the highway, in town it gave a number of false alarms because of automatic door openers even when set on 'City'. All in all I'm pleased with it and considering what I paid for it, I'm real happy.
Never owned one, never felt the need for one even though when young I would speed a lot. Was lucky though, only got about three speeding tickets through the years.
ReplyDeleteOut ran one cop with my Chrysler 300 but in my defense I didn't know he was back there until they told me at the toll bridge.
Anyway, now I drive the speed limits just to piss others off, and save on gas.
Back in my truckin days when detectors were new and pretty crude, I dropped signifigant cash on one. Figured it might stem the almost monthly fast driving award I received.......They were useless.
ReplyDeleteNow I drive slow. Not because of the fear of tickets, but because when I drive slow, I relax and let speeding whackos I used to chase get to where they are going a few minutes sooner. They may beat me to the destination, but when I get there I feel refreshed and not drained.
BTW - your "give a damn" gizmo always makes me chuckle.
I drive a little over the speed limit but not enough to get stopped for speeding. Sometimes the speed will creep up if I'm not carefull. I usually use the cruise control out on the highway, but there are times when the herds won't let you use cruise. I noticed several decades ago that most people travel in packs because of the herd instinct. All you have to do is drive at a steady speed and either you get passed by herds of cars or you pass slower herds.
ReplyDeleteBack in my first trucking stint the national speed limit was 55 MPH, and I mostly drove at that speed. In part because I could pick up a little bonus for saving fuel
ReplyDeleteIn my second trucking stint all but one of the trucks I drove were new and computerized and set to a top speed of 65 MPH. Pretty hard to get in trouble with them, on the interstates anyway.
I probably should get one the way I drive..sigh*
ReplyDeleteyour radar detector line about automatic doors reminded me of a gadget a friend built just to mess with folks who had radar detectors in their cars.
ReplyDeleteHe had bought a motion sensor light at a big-box store, probably Home Depot, for a little over twenty bucks. Immediately upon getting it home he gutted it and took out the motion sensor device, rigged it to a nine volt battery via a normally open relay and a push button he picked up at Radio Shack. The whole rig probably cost him about thirty bucks, battery included.
Once he had it together we took a ride down I-24 toward Nashville looking for radar detectors in other peoples' cars. Since it was dark, you could see the little red lights on the dashboard or visor. All we had to do was touch the button on that little gadget and immediately brake lights would come on and they'd change into the right hand lane.
I bought the same 'ingredients' and made my own, only with a much stronger sensor from a more expensive light. This thing had a range of about a quarter of a mile, and at night you could touch the button and see taillights come on for as far as you could see...
This was a lot of fun until the day I started messing with a beautiful woman in a BMW who had blown past me on my way to a Vol game in Knoxville. I hit the button and sure enough, she tapped on the brakes and slowed down, then signalled to me that there was a cop up ahead. I mouthed a big "Thank You!" and fell in behind her sports car. After a mile or so she drove off and left me, and being a lonely guy at that time in my life, I reeled her back in again.
This went on for about thirty minutes... finally, thinking it would strike her as funny to see that it had been me causing her radar detector to go off, I held it up, made an elaborate show of pressing the button, then watched as she looked at the flashing lights on her dashboard. Once they had calmed down, I repeated the procedure. She now understood it had been me, and not a police radar that had been setting off her detector.
Instead of laughing or (as I had hoped, being an idiot) asking me to pull over to discuss my ingenious device, she flipped me off and drove away like an Indy racer leaving the pace car at the start of a race.
I have that effect on some women...