the passionate ailurophile

…by what was probably a drunk driver.

We had gone up to Manchester, NH yesterday, to go to this Old-Timers charity baseball game.  They had some former Red Sox guys there, as well as some from other teams.  The procceds went to benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of New Hampshire.  Anything that gives kids stuff to do and keeps them off the streets, vandalizing things and all, is worthwhile to me!

Anyway, before the game, we hung out at the Wild Rover Pub for a few hours, had lunch and a few beers, and watched the Red Sox lose.  Not too many beers for Mike because he had to drive to the ballpark afterwards.  And at the game, he switched to water so he’d have his wits about him on the drive home.

I was nodding off in the car on the way home, since I didn’t have to drive, I got to have more beers than Mike did.  So we were on I-93 south, almost to our exit, when I was suddenly jarred awake by the tires going on the rumble strip on the shoulder, and Mike flooring the gas.

I didn’t see all of what happened.  Mike told me.  We were in the furthest lane to the right, as we were getting off soon. He was doing the speed limit, 65 MPH, and some other car was riding up our tail pipe, because they thought that 65 was too slow.

Then this car started drifting over from one of the left lanes, no turn signal, swerving around a bit, and doing about 30.  The jerk then moved to our lane, cutting us off.  There was no safe way to pass on the left, so Mike had no choice but to pass on the shoulder, flooring it just to get past the asshole, and then getting back into the lane.  The reason he went so fast was because he was afraid the jerk might drift onto the shoulder and hit us.  Otherwise, he would have had to slam on the brakes, and then we’d have gotten rear-ended by the assshole who was following way too close.

I wish I had been awake to see the license plate of that car.  I would have taken a picture of it with my phone, and called the cops.  The way Mike said the guy was driving is NOT a normal way to drive on a highway.  No doubt he was seriously intoxicated.  I just hope a cop saw this person and pulled him over before he got someone killed.

This is exactly why Mike stopped drinking beers long before beer sales closed in the 7th inning.  This is also why they close beer in the 7th inning, to give people some time to sober up before driving home.  And this is also why we spend the money to stay at a hotel when we go up to the Maine Brewers Festival in November.   The hotel where we stay is a quick and easy walk from the event.  Theorectically, since Portland is only two hours away, this could be a day trip.  But then we both would not be able to enjoy the festival, what’s the point of going if you can’t drink much of anything?  The beers are just small 4 ounce tasting samples, not full pints.  But they give you enough tasting tickets where you get a good buzz on by the time the taps close.  There are so many different beers to sample.  No one who uses up all of their beer tickets at this thing has any business driving anywhere right afterward.  Not even me, and I can hold it pretty well.

The hotel costs something like $80/night, but it is SO worth it.  What’s $80, compared to what could happen if we drove after the fest?  The least that could happen is that we’d get a DUI, the worst that could happen is we kill ourselves or someone else.  When you think of it that way, $80 is not really a lot of money, is it?  If we could not afford the hotel, we’d not go to the fest, simple as that!

We NEVER want to be that asshole that almost got us killed last night!