We made it home in good time. We left Arlington at about 9:16 and made a little over 60 miles in the first hour and shortly after that started to see some farm land north of the metro area, though there was still quite a bit of traffic. The last time I went through that particular area was on a business trip in the 90s and most of the route I took seemed to be under construction. There wasn’t much construction and, though heavy much of the time, traffic seemed to move pretty smoothly, with only a few minor slowdowns. I left plenty of space in front of me for aggressive drivers.
There are probably a lot of people who would think my posting about traffic in the Dallas area is just a big deal about nothing – because they deal with this kind of traffic day after day. I agree. It’s not a big deal. It’s just different from what I am used to and I am thankful that I have not had to deal with it in a very long time. I learned to drive in the Houston metro area – I was pretty good at weaving in and out of heavy traffic and can still pretty easily slip in to a small hole in traffic when I want to. The thing is, though, that it really freaks my wife out and driving like that is stress for me that I do not need. Since I backed off from being aggressive in my driving several months ago, I find that I enjoy driving much more, and when we get where we’re going, my neck and shoulder muscles aren’t all tight and sore.
A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011
