Mike's Ramblings

Originally I was hoping to leave the house for my Mom's by 10am, but due to the late night before, I didn't even wake up until 10! By the time I got everything packed and I rolled out of the driveway, it was about 1:30pm. I'm not too worried about the delay; my Mom said to come by no earlier than 2pm on Friday. I should be able to make it most of the way today, camp out, and then arrive whenever I want tomorrow.

My aunt took a quick picture just as I was about to roll out the driveway today:

Driving the Autobahn is quite interesting. Many sections are without any speed limits, and there a driver must be extremely aware of what's going on because of the differences in speeds between the slowest and the fastest vehicles. There are roughly 3 different speed groups: The trucks and slow vehicles are doing about 60mph, a “comfortable speed” group of cars are doing about 80mph, and the high speed cars are doing about 110, 120mph or more. When there are 3 lanes in each direction, this works out fairly well. But many of the stretches are 2 lanes in each direction, so the “comfortable speed” vehicles have to be super-aware of what slow vehicles are ahead and what fast vehicles are coming from behind as they work their way through traffic. I feel most comfortable driving the mid-speed, so there is little chance to see the sights along the way since I have to stay focused on driving all the time.

There are surprisingly few motorbikes so far; I was hoping to see a few going my direction so I could see what's acceptable practice for motorcycles. For instance, when traffic gets heavy, I wanted to know if lane-splitting is allowed. Haven't seen any 'bikes the same model as mine yet.

The temperature is very mild; pleasant to ride in, though it is cloudy and humid.