The Burlingames

Once again, I must say thank you to Elko Speedway for bringing us one of the greatest events imaginable: the Eve of Destruction. Many races were run, from cars to motorcycles. Monster trucks smashed old cars, school buses raced, dirt bike riders did trick jumps, but the highlight of the evening was the spectator race.

The two fastest cars were a 90′s Camaro and a 90′s Corvette. The Camaro won the first matchup. Later the same group of cars came out for a second chance. This time, the Corvette forced the Camaro up the track by taking the turn very wide. Instead of braking and saving his car, the Camaro tried to push on and ended up putting it into the wall, causing some serious damage. He did not look happy after stopping. The crowd, however, loved it.

While waiting at a light in Fridley tonight, I was amazed to see another incidence of gas station stupidity. Tonight’s genius was exiting the gas station. I’ll set the stage.

I was stopped at the light on 73rd at Hwy 65. 73rd has three lanes as you approach the intersection: left turn, straight and right turn. The light was red and there were about five cars or so in front of me in the straight lane. The left lane was empty and the right lane had maybe one or two cars waiting. On my left, a couple car-lengths ahead, was a truck waiting to leave a gas station and turn left onto 73rd, which would send him the same direction I was pointed.

He pulled out of the station into the left turn lane, cutting off a car that was headed for the light. The other car laid on the horn and locked up the brakes. Then, rather than hurrying up to the light, the truck just sat there a few car lengths away from the light, blocking the vehicle behind who wanted to turn left. He continued to sit there even after the green arrow disappeared and the straight green came on. A few cars went straight, giving the truck’s driver his chance. He cut in front of the third or fourth car in the straight lane and proceeded to wait for the cars in the right turn lane to go. He finally turned right onto Hwy 65 and sped away.

The dumbest thing about this is the lack of thought on the truck driver’s part. The gas station had another exit further back on 73rd, which would have allowed the truck to get behind all the stopped cars and into the right turn lane with ease. That’s one of those spots where the city needs to do the thinking for the drivers by putting a median between the lanes, thereby blocking that exit from turning left onto 73rd. The day after they did that I’d probably see some rube drive over the median to turn left.

I narrowly escaped yet another accident in Fridley this week. I was driving my work truck on a city street, passing a gas station on my right. A woman coming from the opposite direction signalled a left turn, wanting to turn into the gas station I was approaching. She appeared to be slowing down like she was going to wait to turn until I had gone by. As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, she did not wait; she turned in front of me very late. I layed on the horn and slammed on the brakes, skidding on the pavement. She then realized her error and hit the gas harder to get out of my way. She just made it; I couldn’t have missed her by more than a foot or two.

However, the story doesn’t end there. In her haste to get out of my way, she ran straight into the front of a car coming out of the gas station because she was too busy looking at me and not where she was going. Oops.