Fun on the Interstate

I will now recall some of my fond Interstate memories. I am positive Mr. Wilden and Tory look back on them as fondly as I do. My first time ever to drive on interstate was with Mr. Wilden in the front seat and Tory in the back seat. We were working on merging. As fate would have it my first attempt of merging at high speeds would involve a semi. I had seen Tory do the procedure before me but mine didn’t go as smoothly. I pulled up slightly ahead of the semi, turned on my turn signal to merge and of course did my quick over the shoulder check. But my quick over the shoulder check was not as quick as I thought, and in the time it took to look behind me for cars, I had accidently started angling the car into the semi. This would probably still have turned into a successful merge seeing as I was ahead of the semi, but to add to all my problems, at the same time I had been accidently angling towards the semi, I was also accidently slowing down. (You can’t really blame me for this though, it was my first time on interstate and everyone generally agrees you find more safety in lower speeds. This does not seem to be the case on interstate.) By the time I finally got faced forward again I was looking straight at the oncoming side of a semi truck. This is where Mr. Wilden comes in to save the day! I can’t classify what noise he made as I was in a state of shock but it sounded like something garbled, not a scream but a cry of alarm. Mr. Wilden had to grab the wheel from me and yank us in the opposite direction. This threw us slightly into the other lane, but Mr. Wilden who still was in control of the wheel was able to quickly rectify the situation. By switching the direction of the wheel with the correct amount of force to put us back on course. With all the commotion I was almost able to ignore the honking semi next to me. I was then given back the steering wheel and forced to pick another victim to pass and merge into their lane. This time I was successful. When later conversing with Tory I was able to extract her side of the story. I was told of the impending horrors of watching our car come closer and closer to the semi and the driver seemingly unaware of the situation. Mr. Wilden may have made a brief unanimous joke on the matter the next day to the class. The second time on interstate with Mr. Wilden and Tory, I was convinced I was going to keep up with all the other cars so I wouldn’t have a repeat incedent of last time by slowing down. I don’t remember actually speeding up or when I stopped driving alongside the cars and passing them. I didn’t realize anything was wrong until Mr. Wilden casually says, I quote “This will make us a good speeding ticket Ashley” It was then that I checked my speed, which at this time was reading something slightly over eighty. And in case you didn’t know, the speed limit on interstate is seventy. I slowed down to a more acceptable speed, approved by Mr. Wilden. Once we got off the interstate Mr. Wilden said I was the first student he had ever had go over eighty. I’m so proud!