Are you sleeping?

There are many things which pass through one's mind while driving to Las Vegas from San Diego. Some of them actually have nothing to do with the idiots driving all around you. I don't recall those thoughts.

Some of the common driving traits of southern Californians seem to revolve around a phenomenon I call clustering. Clustering happens when three or more random cars begin traveling at about the same speed. It seems to happen naturally. One car might be traveling along, minding his own business, at about the speed limit. Another car may approach from behind, or approach from an on-ramp, and sync his speed with the first. Then another, and often, another or several others will join the first two. These cars will comprise a cluster. Occasionally, rogues or loners will approach the cluster, work their way through it and continue forward to the next cluster where they will thread their way through that one or, sometimes, join it.

It bothers me when I find myself the starting vehicle of a cluster. I would prefer to ride the empty space between them. It's an old habit I developed while using a motorcycle as a primary means of transportation. The more space between myself and any other cars on the road, the better.

One side effect of this tendency to cluster is the propensity to slow down while passing on the freeway. That is, a faster car approaches from behind and as they near another car will slow to almost, but not quite, the speed of that car. This is also something I find annoying. I may refrain from moving to the fast lane to pass the car I amraidly approaching because I see another car coming up fast in that lane. But that faster car gradually slows until it is moving only a couple of miles faster than the car we both wish to pass. End result? I must slow and wait until the once-faster car creeps by and I can move in behind him and then slowly pass the target car.

Sometimes, yet another car (or cars) will move up in that lane and I will find I must wait even longer while that line passes me.

All of this falls under the broad category of mindless driving. There is another aspect of this involving cruise control. The offender sets his cruise control at, say, 2 or 3 miles per hour above the posted limit. This is not, by itself, a problem. I sometimes do this myself. The problem manifests when the driver of said car does not, regardless of the cars behind him, speed up to pass a car he has pulled alongside of.

This mindless driving is really only a problem during cross-country journeys. Or any extended driving in the desert.

Which is just what I was doing today for about 4 hours...

And I didn't even mention the Nervous Nellies who slow down below the speed limit because they see a police car pulled over on the side of the road.