Road hog, beep beep...

700 miles today. Nearly 11 hours. On a day like this things can run together a bit. One thing did stand out, though.

A guy pulling a utility trailer up passed me about lunchtime. He swung back into the right lane about 100 feet ahead of me--and promptly slowed down about 3 mph.

It pretty short order (immediately, in fact) I started getting nervous about the tailgating potential. So I swung into the left lane myself.

He promptly sped up.

In about thirty seconds he was a safe distance ahead of me. And the traffic was building up behind me. So I swung back into the right lane behind him.

He promptly slowed back down.

I gritted my teeth for a minute or two, and then swung out again. And he sped up again.

Three or four cars I swung back in. And he slowed down.

And so on.

I would have been happier if I'd thought he was doing it on purpose. But I suspected he just wasn't watching his speed. When I pulled out to pass he'd suddenly notice he'd slowed down. Then he'd speed up just enough to keep ahead. And as soon as I was behind him again, he'd let his mind wander once more.

Less than fun. And for all I could tell, slowing down would just slow him down too. Sigh.

At length I tried to pass one more time. He pulled away from me again. But this time he kept his speed up. I watched until he was a good six seconds way, and then pulled back in. And this time he stayed a safe distance ahead.

So I pulled back into the right lane. And let the cars pass me in large numbers.

One driver gave me the finger as he went by. Of course. It's always our fault.