Life Unmastered
Road Rage
Ever found yourself in a roundabout, questioning the sanity of city planners and sighing at the blatant disregard for traffic rules? Welcome to the club. This side-splitting episode takes you through the chaos of driving and the bizarre habits (of our own and others) that we've had to contend with.
We are shifting gears in this episode as we rant and rage about bad drivers, bad weather, and discuss a few of our nerve-wracking experiences with car accidents. And you'll definitely want to stick around to hear how our daughter never lets Mike forget that he totaled the car. Buckle up and enjoy this jovial and relatable chat about the trials and tribulations of driving.
Thanks for joining us for your weekly dose of confidently unqualified advice!
Let's keep the conversation going! Connect with us below!
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lifeunmasteredpodcast
Email: lifeunmasteredpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.lifeunmasteredpodcast.com
Ever found yourself in a roundabout, questioning the sanity of city planners and sighing at the blatant disregard for traffic rules? Welcome to the club. This side-splitting episode takes you through the chaos of driving and the bizarre habits (of our own and others) that we've had to contend with.
We are shifting gears in this episode as we rant and rage about bad drivers, bad weather, and discuss a few of our nerve-wracking experiences with car accidents. And you'll definitely want to stick around to hear how our daughter never lets Mike forget that he totaled the car. Buckle up and enjoy this jovial and relatable chat about the trials and tribulations of driving.
Thanks for joining us for your weekly dose of confidently unqualified advice!
Let's keep the conversation going! Connect with us below!
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lifeunmasteredpodcast
Email: lifeunmasteredpodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.lifeunmasteredpodcast.com
Do you know what I find the most interesting about moving states?
Speaker 2:What's that?
Speaker 1:That we move like two states over and we might as well be in a different planet.
Speaker 2:Really how so.
Speaker 1:Well, the number one thing here for me is like the driving. Like not only do the roads in Colorado make absolutely zero sense, but the drivers are just terrible.
Speaker 2:I know exactly what you mean. Hello everybody, welcome back to Life Unmastered. So today's episode is basically just going to be a giant long rant about how much we hate the roads, slash driving.
Speaker 1:That's fair.
Speaker 2:And driving habits in Colorado.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's definitely the people and the roads, and nobody knows what they're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's just going to be a giant ball of complaints.
Speaker 1:We move to Colorado to basically complain about Colorado.
Speaker 2:I don't think I mean do we complain about? I mean we have the weather, yeah, but other than that and the driving, do we complain about Colorado?
Speaker 1:Well, I guess it just seems that way because it's such the opposite of like the Colorado pride, I guess.
Speaker 2:But I feel like people who have that Colorado pride are like the natives.
Speaker 1:No, yes, you're right, it is. But it's also the people who wish they were natives who kind of make up stories about how they might as well be.
Speaker 2:I know one of those.
Speaker 1:I know lots of those.
Speaker 2:But I think that we've had just so many instances, especially in the last few weeks, that were like okay, I am like so over this, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's weird is we have, but also we're not even in winter yet, so like, what's the excuse?
Speaker 2:Just bad driving. So let's start with all of the things that we dislike about like road, just simply road hazards, or like the bad road designs.
Speaker 1:Not even tackling the people yet we're just going to talk about, like the layout in whoever designed these cities.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to go ahead and start this with the dang roundabouts. Okay, why are there so many?
Speaker 1:There are.
Speaker 2:They're everywhere.
Speaker 1:And they're like back to back for no reason. Like I've never seen a place where it's like dumbbells, like you get out of a roundabout, go straight for a little bit and another roundabout.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like they're in there for funsies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they don't even make sense.
Speaker 2:No rhyme or reason as to why they put one in. And not only that, but these aren't even traditional roundabouts Like what's that movie? The vacation one where he just goes around?
Speaker 1:and around when he can't get out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're not even like that where you can just like pull off when you want to. These are like you go in, there's two lanes and if you're in the right hand lane you can only exit out of the roundabout. So you go in just to go right out, and if you're in the inside one then you go round and round and you almost have to fight those outside right lanes to exit when you're ready to exit.
Speaker 1:Actually, the more you're describing it, the more it sounds exactly like that vacation movie, but that was in England, so no wonder it was wrong.
Speaker 2:Random hate.
Speaker 1:I think we just explained why the roads here are so terrible. They're in the wrong country. There we go.
Speaker 2:But it's just like. What is that thing that you always say about the roundabouts?
Speaker 1:no-transcript. Oh yeah, that I just don't trust anybody here in them. Like I look both ways in roundabouts because I'm convinced that I'm going to look to the right and there's going to be a car coming towards me. Like I don't trust anyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're just. They don't make any sense and I feel like half the time you're fighting people and nobody follows the rules of them, because everybody agrees that they're ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so everyone just does their own thing.
Speaker 2:And so they become even more crazy and hazardous, and I just nothing upsets me more than when I see them closing down a road to add in another dang roundabout.
Speaker 1:For me it's the four-way intersections, because surprise only, or like, four-way stops, like when you're entering a like shopping complex or something.
Speaker 2:Like with stop signs.
Speaker 1:Yeah and, like surprise, sometimes three have stop signs and you get to go straight. Sometimes only two do, Sometimes one does, but you have to watch out for the other one in front of you because they can turn left willy-nilly. There's no rhyme or reason. It's not consistent.
Speaker 2:We have that four-way. Well, it's not really a four-way stop. It should be a four-way stop, but it's going into target and usually it's very common that you would have three stops right and the people going into the shopping center don't have the stop sign because they don't want to block up traffic coming in right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This one makes no sense and the people coming out of the shopping center don't have the stop sign.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So the traffic backs up out into the street.
Speaker 1:Because they can't turn left.
Speaker 2:No, and nobody expects there to not be a stop sign for the people coming out and there's like there's issues all the time. I'm just like what what bozo was like? This is a good idea.
Speaker 1:Well, I've been thinking about this. So, as you know, I'm very much into the game Cities Skylines, which, for those of you who don't know, it's basically a glorified traffic simulator like, built around the idea of pretending you're actually building a city.
Speaker 2:Isn't there something similar-ish like Sims?
Speaker 1:It's very similar to Sim City, but it's more focused on managing the traffic of a city, basically. But in order to do that and I watch all these videos and there's all these crazy things you can do with the roads making it ridiculous like figure eights for no reason, connecting freeways, making on ramps for no reason, making bridges. Well, anyways, it's. I really think whoever is designing this city just spent their entire, like four years of administrative school or wherever they go, playing this game and they were like here you go, like just go, go, get wild with it. And let's apply all of this right away on every major street in the city.
Speaker 2:I would have to agree with you 100%, especially when you can take into consideration all the new construction that's around here and all of a sudden you're driving on the opposite side of the road for no reason, so in like, not even like, oh, a little bit like you had to like.
Speaker 1:They design major streets to crisscross with each other, so it's, it's where in England. Yep, they want us driving on the other side it makes no sense and you're.
Speaker 2:you're literally having to cross over where you would normally just make a left hand turn to get to the other side of the street, just so that you can zigzag back to the right side. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's like for no reason, I'm sure. Like you know, from a helicopter it looks real neat, but on the road unless someone's in front of you who's been through that intersection before nine times out of 10, I'm convinced I'm going to end up on the wrong side of the road.
Speaker 2:And you can tell that even people who drive it regularly are going so slow, because it's every time that you get to that intersection it's like am I doing this right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're just hoping that you get to the stop sign and you're behind somebody, so you can just follow them.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:And hope that they know what they're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause if they don't, you're both getting in an accident.
Speaker 2:Exactly, which is also a common thing I would love to see. I'm sure you can find accident reports for certain intersections right.
Speaker 1:Oh, and see like the stats on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I would.
Speaker 1:I guarantee there's accidents there all the time there has to be, and it's not on accidents, not like one street, it's every new piece of construction and we only have like two major roads in this town, like every intersection or like off-ramp. Basically, I'll call it that. They're doing you have to get ready to like where am I crisscrossing now?
Speaker 2:Right, right, and every time I get to it it never stops being annoying.
Speaker 1:And then they throw like random boulders for decoration in the middle of the road, Like they use that as like a marker like hey, if you don't know where you're going, good luck figuring out if you're to the right or to the left of this giant rock that looks like we just left it off a truck.
Speaker 2:I know which rock are you talking about and every time you pass that you notice all of the marks on it from everybody who's hit the rock. Yeah, yeah, it makes no sense.
Speaker 1:It looks like it literally fell off the back of a truck in the middle of the intersection and they're like nailed it Decoration.
Speaker 2:The more we keep talking about this, the more I'm like. This is just like some, like video game that some 18 year old was like. This'll look cool.
Speaker 1:This'll look cool. Yeah, Like oh gosh.
Speaker 2:Like he presented it in some board meeting and everyone's like, yeah, that's a great idea. Let's see how much we can confuse the population.
Speaker 1:Well, the other thing and I get this, this is, I feel like, will be solved as like time goes on because, like Colorado Springs is a very like booming city where it's like the population is increasing now but they still have all these old roads that essentially were like just one way roads that go forever in each direction with a median in between. But, there's not enough like places on those roads to turn around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything takes you 20 times as long as it should to get to it, because you have to completely pass it, go 10 minutes out of the way, make a U turn and then come the other way because you can't make a left hand turn.
Speaker 1:Do you know how many times we have not gone to a restaurant because, like we will like be like, oh, that looks not and it's gone, and I'm not turning around.
Speaker 2:No, because you can't turn around. Yeah there's, you can't do a U turn anywhere here.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 2:And they have these long like cement medians that you can't cross over, and there's some places here that are pretty busy areas and you're like there's, there is no fixing this.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like you'd have to do major, serious construction to fix this and you know they're not going to because it's just like it's such a very busy, like busy area.
Speaker 1:At this point it's done. Yeah, it's like. It's almost like they laid it out with a bunch of space in between and now they filled that space with like oh, here's like one block. We could probably fit a hobby lobby in here underneath this bridge. Let's do that, or it just doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people are going to be very confused by all the things that we're talking about, but just know it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, it's not us.
Speaker 2:And apparently we just, we just really needed to vent about this and hopefully somebody hears this who's high up in Colorado Springs City scapes.
Speaker 1:I guarantee it, they're taking notes right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are.
Speaker 1:They're like oh no, we're not doing a good job.
Speaker 2:Like, hey, we heard Mike and Shonda put out a podcast about how terrible roads are. Let's all listen.
Speaker 1:We got to fix it.
Speaker 2:Um, and then you know, honorable mention is the weather.
Speaker 1:as far as hazards, yeah, you don't know, like I've been in some rainstorms I worked as a rougher for a very short year and so I was literally that was my job was driving out in the rain in California. Well, the rain in California is significantly different than the rain in Colorado, especially when you consider the fact that randomly in Colorado rain it's pale.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You just have rainstorm and then, all of a sudden, your car is like exploding, with hail hitting it.
Speaker 2:But also, too, I mean the amount of rain that you get in California versus here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 2:I mean you, just it's. It's wild here. I remember we had to pick up King from the groomer. So we left the house, we see a storm coming in and we just got pelted. I mean it was. You could barely see it in front of you and it's terrifying, and you have, I would say, the majority of the people in a situation like that are being cautious, but then you have some people that are just like, oh well, who cares?
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, for me, what's funny about it is Like the lack of visibility, but it is, for us, an area, a state that's so used to getting weather. You're right, like the, the roads are built to handle the weather as much as they can, like the rain, with like drains and stuff to clear it off, but it's instant flooding and it literally. You literally feel like you're if somebody goes by you at a high speed through a puddle. You feel like you're like on a boat that's going over because, like you're, you cannot see up the windshield. There's a huge wave that hits you.
Speaker 2:Do you remember that one time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we almost died, we did yeah like it.
Speaker 2:It was terrifying. We're driving happy as can be. I mean, it was raining but it wasn't like catastrophic. I didn't think so until this car zooms past us right and just showered us, yeah, with a wave, and we had no idea what we were.
Speaker 1:I couldn't see out any mirror like rear view side mirrors or the front window. Like it was, you couldn't see anything. It looked like we were underwater.
Speaker 2:It did, and it took a while to settle down that we were just like, I think you, kind of I basically almost stopped.
Speaker 1:But we were at it literally drove by us right as I started to cross into an intersection. So I couldn't like just stop in the middle of the intersection, because if we can't see, other people probably can't see. So it was like, well, just go forward slowly.
Speaker 2:I remember that now, every time I see a big like pool of water, I go as slow as possible because I'm just like, oh, I hate it, I hate it. Yeah, this is why I mean we know that Colorado is not gonna be our forever state, because there's just there's too much, because we don't like the roads. That with the weather that's a big thing, especially when you factor in the snow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, once you add the weather. But there there are some. There are some things that make sense to me and in they do a decent job on major streets of giving you like extra long turn lanes.
Speaker 2:Which.
Speaker 1:I forget about in the summer. I'm like, why is this left turn lane like half a mile and then it'll snow and I'm going to that same lane and I'm like, oh, look at all this room. I have to stop so I don't slam into the guy in front of me. So at least there's some yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, and then finally, let's talk about how many times are we driving down Anywhere and there is an abandoned car on the side of the road, not even on?
Speaker 1:the side.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, that's true. Yeah, like in the road, yeah and it's.
Speaker 1:it's literally like oh, my car broke down in the center lane, I'm not waiting for a tow truck, I'm not doing anything. They get out of their car, they lock it, I assume, and then it's there for days, days like it on major streets. Yeah, it's like nobody's coming to get that car.
Speaker 2:And also to the other day I was driving taking the kids to school and there's a Mercedes it broken down in the middle of a right-hand turn lane, the dead center middle. Yeah, it stayed there for three days.
Speaker 1:But that's my thing. I understand like cars break down and like obviously the weather takes a toll on vehicles here and everything else, but like it's you're not coming back for your car.
Speaker 2:I just couldn't imagine not needing my car enough, or not like caring about my car enough, to just like be willing To leave it in the middle of road and be like, hopefully it's okay.
Speaker 1:We had somebody in our neighborhood who, like, hopped a curb and slammed into a fire hydrant or a tree or a electrical box.
Speaker 2:No, it was. It was a really nice Audi. Uh-huh and it was snowing and he was driving too fast, any like I don't know he, but he crashed into another parked car on this on.
Speaker 1:That's what it was, but it was there.
Speaker 2:Sticking out in the middle of the road for like a week, but they were that. We talked to those neighbors because it was right in front of somebody's house. It was halfway on the sidewalk, halfway sticking out on the road. You had to literally drive around it and they're like they're just waiting for the tow truck to come. So and we had experience- Something similar. Yeah, where it's. Just it's really hard, for whatever reason, to get a tow truck to come out and get your car here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like they just They'll say they're on their way, but they are not on their way.
Speaker 2:They are not on their way, but that was the most frustrating to that point.
Speaker 1:We have some Weather. We got some weather rolling in right now. Speak of the devil.
Speaker 2:I don't know if anyone can hear.
Speaker 1:There's some big thunder happening right now but so not only are the drivers Inconsider it, because their car breaks down and they leave it there and like Crimea River. I know it's there, but I've never seen that happen in California, where it's there for weeks. No but also, let's be honest, the drivers. They just aren't good.
Speaker 2:Like they aren't good.
Speaker 1:Like I don't know if everybody's so distracted by what's going on. I mean, we have seen some stuff.
Speaker 2:We have.
Speaker 1:I mean, do you remember going up Academy and watching them Passing a blunt from car to car, as they were both driving all the way up Academy?
Speaker 2:Welcome to Colorado.
Speaker 1:It's like a whole new level of stupid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I feel like you probably have just idiots driving anywhere who would do something like that, but I think partly I mean you, you, because that's legal here and maybe it's happening.
Speaker 1:It's not legal to do it in the car. That's true. It is definitely not legal to hang out the car and pass it to another car.
Speaker 2:That's true. His body was literally at the waist. Uh-huh, yeah, people are. People are wild. But also, too, there's something that that bothers you all the time about people and making left-hand turns in an intersection.
Speaker 1:I have a theory and I haven't backed it up with science, but I'm pretty sure it's true. Basically, like I haven't done any like Interviews to back it up with data, but I believe it's true.
Speaker 2:I mean according to today's standards, that that that fits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's all it takes now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you believe it, it's true, baby.
Speaker 1:So in California and I don't know that's the only place I drove before I drove here regularly, but it's common to. If you're waiting at a green left arrow, or you're not a green left arrow but like a flashing left arrow and you have to yield to the oncoming traffic, you will pull out into the middle of the intersection. So when it is, you are able to turn or it's clear, you can get through that intersection quick and that also opens up a spot for the person behind you to have a chance to make it Through the light.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm the majority of drivers don't do that here. They wait behind the line at the yellow arrow and wait for it to look clear and then they'll start to creep out. But Some drivers do creep out and I believe that every driver that creeps out into the intersection to turn left is from California. Because we do that because we do that all the time as you were telling that.
Speaker 2:I just remembered that here, almost all of the turns that we, where you can make a left at the light, are blinking yellows.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they aren't like green arrows. The majority of not green arrows.
Speaker 2:in California they're like the solid circle. Oh, yeah, yeah and you can pull out.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I see what you're saying turn on green, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:But here they're all blinking yellows for the most part. Yeah so that's just a little observation I had just now. But yeah, I always pull out because, one, I can see better and two, it's like okay If I'm in the middle of the intersection when this light turns red then you get to go.
Speaker 1:You get to go. Yeah, I don't know if nobody's in a hurry, but what's weird, cuz like you're in a hurry in every other situation, except when it comes to making a right turn, even on a green, because then you have to stop completely or make sure you see me in the middle of the intersection. I can't make my left now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't. I don't understand it, but talking about not being in a hurry pedestrians when they're crossing the street.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:First of all, nobody looks at all, at all.
Speaker 1:I don't understand. Like I Could not, am I to this day? Still I will be walking King in our neighborhood when the speed limit is like 20 and like I'm coming around the corner and I'm looking both ways like four times to make sure we're not gonna get hit by a car. And here people will just like walk and they're looking at their phones or they know they're in the wrong like because they're stepping out into like open traffic and they don't even look over to you to say sorry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they do that a lot like, and it's not even just like in a neighborhood or anything, it's in parking lots or you know, it's everywhere. I'm constantly shocked how many people will walk directly out of a store into the street and it's just like ah.
Speaker 1:Not looking up from what they're doing. It's my turn. I'm just gonna go. I don't know if that's a Colorado thing or if that's just like.
Speaker 2:A today thing, a today Like a 2023. Thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like the sense of entitlement, of like I'm here, I do what I want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like watch out for me and.
Speaker 1:But I noticed it once we got to Colorado. So I'm pretty sure it's these Coloradans.
Speaker 2:I could see this happening in California, though.
Speaker 1:But that's my thing is. I would fully like there, I would understand it, that's true.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I that that nothing drives me. I almost like ugh. I'd have never wanted to run over somebody more. Yeah, like they deserve it.
Speaker 1:Come on, just let me just bump them, you know, especially the ones with the carts, not not like a, not like a rascal cart, I mean like they're pushing their grocery cart. I just want to like bump it a little bit so their eggs fall over.
Speaker 2:You should try that next time. Yeah, that goes over.
Speaker 1:We'll see if someone let me borrow their car.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think that that that is probably something that bothers me the most. But now that we've gotten our ranting out and all of our complaining and people in Colorado suck we should take a step back a little bit and admit that we are not perfect either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am definitely not a perfect driver and I'm open to talking about my inability behind the wheel.
Speaker 2:I mean I would say that you're not a bad driver.
Speaker 1:I am a great driver when it comes to like distance driving and like safety when we're going like I don't get distracted very easily and I don't have to worry about, like falling asleep behind the wheel or anything like that.
Speaker 2:I worry about that for you.
Speaker 1:I know which is weird, because it's never happened.
Speaker 2:I feel like that's a wife thing.
Speaker 1:You've got to be worried about something.
Speaker 2:I just feel like you know, or maybe lack of control.
Speaker 1:Probably that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but what I am not good at?
Speaker 2:Oh, I know you don't have to tell me, but go ahead, tell the people.
Speaker 1:The parking.
Speaker 2:You are terrible.
Speaker 1:I am absolutely horrible at parking and I don't mean like, oh, I can't parallel park, For one I can tell you if I've ever tried. So I definitely can't. You cannot Like, I do not know how I guarantee that.
Speaker 2:I mean even if you pull up to the curb in front of our house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's weird. I know all our neighbors will laugh at me because from time to time I'll back the car out of the driveway so I can get, like, the lawnmower out with ease and everything else, and I'm literally like halfway down the street to like come back or like I'll like see him doing it.
Speaker 2:I'm like where are you going?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's. It is so bad, I need so much space.
Speaker 2:Just to have you pull up and still be so far from the curb. And so then, like you'll pull forward and pull back, I'm like please just stop, just stop.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I failed my first driving test because I hit the curb. Did you really? Yeah, and I was speeding through the neighborhood but in my defense it was in Corona and like everything looked like a neighborhood there because there was like just basically houses on top of like cows, so like I was going way fast. But I did I hit a curb and I was like oops, like it looked like that scene from Clueless. I was just like sorry, but anyways, enough about my lack of parallel parking. I'm not an, I'm not an Ambi Parker. I cannot park both directions.
Speaker 2:I don't know if Ambi Parker is an official turn in, like the public but, it's something that we talk about all the time.
Speaker 1:I don't think people believe me when I tell them this.
Speaker 2:They're like oh, you're just being funny but you truly will only park to the left.
Speaker 1:I will. I cannot park a car to the right. Now I can do, I can. It takes me two times Sometimes. If it's diagonal, I have a chance that way, but if it's just a spot on the right, I don't even look Like we're driving past that spot.
Speaker 2:I remember the other day there was like four spots open right next to each other on the right.
Speaker 1:Didn't even see him.
Speaker 2:Cause you didn't even look.
Speaker 1:Nope, it's not on the left.
Speaker 2:And then I showed you and you're like, oh, we missed it.
Speaker 1:We missed it oh.
Speaker 2:And then and then, if we're driving through a parking lot, like going to the grocery store, costco or whatever, and there's a great parking spot on the left, okay, that you could pull into. If you think it might be just slightly too tight, you'll go right past it anyway and park all the way at the end of the parking lot.
Speaker 1:Very end.
Speaker 2:In the snow, in the rain, it doesn't matter. And his always like, oh, it doesn't matter, we walk around the store anyway. I'm like, yeah, but now, once we get out of the store, it's negative two degrees and we have to walk to the back of the parking lot because Mike couldn't park to the right.
Speaker 1:I like to make sure my door can swing open and I can get out of the car comfortably and I don't have a chance to embarrass myself by parking right next to somebody else. Okay, so you knew this when we got married and, yes, it's a thing.
Speaker 2:And I do put up with it, because I'd rather deal with your parking antics than have to drive. So, however, I do not have any problems parking.
Speaker 1:You were a freaking nature when it comes to parking.
Speaker 2:So I also. I mean, I would say I'm a pretty good driver. Yeah, I don't really have any issues, not until I got to Colorado and that's like I said, I can play around the road.
Speaker 1:That's the reason for this episode is the roads and the people here.
Speaker 2:Exactly, but I feel like I'm always aware of my surroundings and I don't get distracted easily.
Speaker 1:I would agree with that.
Speaker 2:And I'm proud of this because I don't know why, for whatever reason, growing up, my family just decided I was gonna be a bad driver Before I even got behind the wheel. They're like Sean is gonna be a bad driver.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And it's completely unfair and still bothers me to today.
Speaker 1:I know it does, because this is like the 90th time I've heard this story.
Speaker 2:I am a great driver.
Speaker 1:What's funny, though, is obviously you had like two sets to your family right in your stepdad was like teaching you how to drive at a very young age.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say it like 11 years old. He was letting me like, drive the truck around the neighborhood and back it. He was teaching me how to parallel park and pack it into the driveway and I I attribute that to my parking skills.
Speaker 1:No, it's definite. What's so funny about that is my dad, when it was time for me to learn how to drive when I was 15, or have my permit whenever you do that he put me behind the wheel in that same situation, assuming I was just taking the car and doing that stuff on my own, because I was a young adolescent Troublemaker and I almost hit like six trash cans.
Speaker 2:You know it's so funny too, is that when I Just the way that my parents personalities are, you know my mom is a lot like me. You know we're just a little bit more high strung and Controlling and whatever my dad's, you know, very laid-back, but when it came to learning how to drive, oh my goodness I so I thought I was gonna be better with my dad. I hated, Hated yeah.
Speaker 2:Being behind the wheel with my dad. He was just like he was always so nervous and like tense and like I could see him next to me like freaking out, Mm-hmm. And my mom was just like you know, she wasn't worried at all, it was just.
Speaker 1:It was such a mind like Game she's like you're not gonna do worse than me, I Know, but it's like that like too much knowledge is a bad thing, like Tony being an insurance agent, like he has seen it also, he's like aware of like how bad it can be, whereas your mom, like he said, is not a bad driver, so she hasn't been in those situations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean I had my license already and was driving Before I ever went on to the freeway for the first time, because the freeway just made me nervous, I mean that's common and that's really common. My mom was like just get on the freeway, and she was just like, so like Mellow about it. I was like you've got this, it's fine, and and, and maybe it's because of like dawn he was just like he was wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah driver.
Speaker 2:Like I remember when we when they were dating we were on the 91 freeway in California. He's in the truck by himself, driving in the passenger seat. Yeah, so he could wave at my mom like he was just wild and I just I thought that was the greatest thing because I was a kid, but yeah, so anyway we got distracted. But he would teach me how to drive and I would be really nervous going down the street Passing cars and trash cans and stuff, thinking I was getting too close, and he'd always be like you can get closer, you can get closer. And so I think that doing that at such a young age gave me, you know, the confidence to drive in park. So if we're ever going anywhere where Mike thinks we're gonna have to parallel park.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:He thinks that the parking might be a little tight. Some spots are really tight or you're unsure of what the parking situation is gonna be. Yeah, if it's a 50-50 situation, you're driving or if we're going somebody somewhere for the first time. Mm-hmm, he's like I don't know what this is gonna look like. Why don't you drive? Yeah Well, I got tired of.
Speaker 1:Skidding out of the car in front of everyone and like having my wife come park our car On multiple occasions like so embarrassing. I'd just be like I would try once, twice in a bit. Maybe can you park the car.
Speaker 2:And I still, to this day, I have to like really bite my tongue because I love you so much. To just like you will park terribly and I'll have to just like bite my tongue and be like, okay, no one's gonna hit our car, it's not the best parking spot.
Speaker 1:You can park terribly when you're all the way back on a snowy day at Costco, that's true. Oh, it's so embarrassing. Now the whole world knows. But yeah, I just suck it up and do it because I can't park.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not an ambi parker. So, I would love to know if there's anybody else honestly before you. I did not know that was a thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I Honestly I think I was watching Zoolander one day and I saw him making the jokes about how he's not an ambi turner. He couldn't go right or left and I've it like it clicked for me. I was like that's my problem.
Speaker 2:Okay, so Before moving to Colorado, had you ever been in an accident? Yes, how many? A Couple were they your fault? Yes, oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. Well, I, before moving to Colorado, had been in one accident total the car. You remember that?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that was scary but it wasn't my fault. Yeah, that lady pulled out right in front of you and traffic basically.
Speaker 2:I ended up t-boning her, so like if you pulled up to if you drove by. The accident looked like it was my fault but really she pulled in front of you hit her real good, but she literally pulled in front of me going 30 miles an hour. So, um, that was on my fault. And then, when we got to Colorado, my very first time driving- in Colorado.
Speaker 1:It was a while in to like we'd been not like months, but it was like a week or two.
Speaker 2:It was. It was a good few weeks. I mean we had the whole house unpacked and everything by then Okay yeah. One.
Speaker 1:I just was nervous in the area that we're in well, and you were driving my truck, which was a big truck which I hated driving your truck.
Speaker 2:But I had to leave the house, for whatever reason. I had both the kids with me and we pulled up to one of those stupid intersections where every sign. Situation did not make sense, nope everybody had a stop sign, except for the cars to the left, for whatever reason, and so I Pulled out and the guy didn't stop, understandably kind of like the reverse of your accident.
Speaker 2:That wasn't your fault exactly, Yep and he hit us pretty hard and thank goodness we were in your truck because his car was In trouble it got hit real good. It got hit real good and ours had this like a little debt.
Speaker 1:I almost remember like making a joke like don't crash, as you drove away and then like you called me like crying like Baby I got in an accident.
Speaker 2:What do I do? I wasn't even so nervous about the accident itself. It was more so like I had both the kids in me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the car was right at Jace's door, on the back seat, so and Carter was a baby. But Jace thought it was great neither it didn't phase either, kid.
Speaker 2:Yeah didn't even cry nothing. It was just like so fortunately everybody was okay. That lady was like she was not happy, obviously, but Her husband was great. But so yeah, that was my first accident, that was my fault and it was my very first time driving in Colorado, which sucked.
Speaker 1:Yep, you're batting a thousand. Well, as we mentioned, the weather can change things up it can and what gets me is how many conversations We've had about Colorado weather, where you can be like, say, I'm at our house and the weather will be one way Ten minutes north of us. It's completely different right like it could be sunshine here, and it'll be hail storm ten minutes north.
Speaker 1:Yeah so in the winter you have to be extra careful because, yeah, the temperatures are low, but nothing is like wet or Slick by our house. And that happened where we were going to a dinner party about ten, twenty minutes north when all of a sudden the ice came on like that, like it was icy in, it was dry when we left the house.
Speaker 2:Yep and then as we got there, but and even it was very deceiving because one I didn't think it was that cold. Mm-hmm and to it looked like it was like sleep right, Like it's it's snowing, but it looked like it was just hitting. It was turning into rain or water by the time I got to the ground.
Speaker 1:Well, the learn by doing situation here would be you. We are going on an off ramp which is automatically elevated, so it's getting like the cold air above it and below it, so the ice forms quicker. I watched a bunch of videos after this accident so I didn't know that and hit the off ramp going about the speed. I was going on the main highway and we went flying.
Speaker 2:I remember. So Michael hates when I try and drive from the passenger seat but I'm always like, especially if there's any weather at all, I get extra crazy. I'm like you're going too fast Break start, like I'm always telling you to break early but it makes him so upset that remember I didn't say anything.
Speaker 1:See this, I feel like this is like a woman thing, like this is like you who complained that you never want to try anything new at a restaurant because you never like what you try. And then you order an omelet, knowing you hate eggs, like it's like see, I tried, now I don't. I can always say what I want to say.
Speaker 2:No, I'm just saying like I was trying to like, let you drive.
Speaker 1:Well, now you have an excuse to tell me how to drive the entire time, cause the one time you didn't, we got an accident.
Speaker 2:And I I use that all the time.
Speaker 1:You're like this is it? This is my get out of jail free card.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think. I think I'm forever traumatized and I would not drive in the snow at all If I didn't have to take the kids to school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which but anyway. I help out with that now. Yeah, you do. But.
Speaker 2:I we had hit this. I mean, it came out of nowhere. Our entire night changed so fast. And it was. It was terrifying, but mostly because it could have been so much worse than it was. And God, you was so involved in that because, first of all, we had a red light, so we flew into oncoming traffic.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And we went. We hit the median. It's like one of those triangular medians. So you're going on the off ramp and you there's like a triangular piece of cement in the middle, cause you can either go left or right, and we fly over it and we're stopped going.
Speaker 1:Well, how traffic? No, no, no. Yeah, we stopped going with traffic cause we got hit in the back.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, I thought we got hit in the quarter, so anyway, we stopped. And then she hits us and we like spin. Then we spun and so she didn't have time to stop, and when she did slam on her brakes, she hit ice yeah. And so, anyways, it's just big thing and Jace thought it was great he thought we were on a ride.
Speaker 1:He did.
Speaker 2:And he wanted to do it again.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And both the kids were. I mean, they were totally okay. The biggest thing was that we had to stand out on the side of the road in the snow.
Speaker 1:Waiting for a tow truck that never came For hours. So, anyway, the weather plays such a role into the roads in addition to, just like wild roads, you just got to learn by doing, and now I know to be extra careful and slow in ice, snow and weather, and yeah, do you remember the kids?
Speaker 1:It's terrible. I felt so stupid cause, like, looking back on it, I obviously, like you, pick up on signs of like, oh, that's where the ice started. I should have slowed down. Why wasn't I paying attention? And I was just grateful that everybody made it out, including the person that ended up hitting us cause of me, like they were completely fine and healthy and nobody had any injuries. So, like, praise God for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I felt terrible about it. But the kids thought it was an adventure and I remember waking up the next morning to two little rug rats right in front of me staring at me going. Daddy broke the car. Daddy broke the car.
Speaker 2:You remember that very different. I don't think that they were so cruel about it.
Speaker 1:Yes, they were.
Speaker 2:I mean, I remember them like they were like little kids. They were just like daddy broke the car, like they were. It was like it's an exciting thing, not necessarily like a teasing thing but I could see how it was in your mind. That's how that would come across, but they're my kids it was a teasing thing.
Speaker 2:But I will say that Carter I swear now she does it cause she knows it bothers you We'll be randomly driving, sunshine, no weather at all, and she'll just randomly be like hey, remember that time that daddy crashed the car.
Speaker 1:Or my favorite is like daddy, make sure you pay attention so you don't crash this car.
Speaker 2:Yes, She'll be like I like this car. I don't want you to crash this car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, I told you she's my kid. It's definitely teasing.
Speaker 2:She is. But they were like they thought for sure once we crashed it that they got to pick out the car. And so Jason was convinced we were going to get a Lightning McQueen car and Carter was convinced we were going to get a pink Minnie Mouse car. So that's how young they were. But anyways, I feel like the moral of this story is Colorado and driving. They don't mix very well.
Speaker 1:Well, I would agree with that. But I think for me the moral of the story is just, you have to adapt and like we both live like 30 years in California or whatever it was, but driving there is like one way. And then, like I've heard my dad say the same thing about like driving on the streets in Vegas, like be careful. Like the strip doesn't make sense, like it's completely different and foreign to you, like you get used to what you're used to and even though we're all in one country, you just assume like everybody drives the same, but they don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I feel like it's just you're having to be extra aware, right? Because now that we know that things are so wonky, we are always paying attention until we've, you know, mastered the area.
Speaker 1:And you have to check weather reports, which is something I don't think I've ever done in California.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I went to go run an errand the other day and I was like, hey, I'm gonna, I've got an hour before the storm comes in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like it's an actual thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So yeah, I just I do. I do miss not having to worry about the weather or what the roads are going to be like.
Speaker 1:I can't listen to people talk about whether it's going to be 85 or 83 again.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying there's not a whole lot I miss about California, but I do miss the weather, that's fair.
Speaker 1:I'll give you that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right guys. Well, I hope that you made it through our ranting and complaining and our venting, because this was what's the word. I'm looking for Cathartic.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and we needed it because it's been.
Speaker 1:It's been building up. It's been building up Yep.
Speaker 2:So if you guys have had any crazy accidents or if you have any weird driving habits or if you can't go left if you can't go left. If you're an Ambi Parker, we want to hear about it. You guys can reach out to us via email at life unmasteredpodcastcom or you can send us a DM on Instagram at life unmasteredpodcast. But until next week, we hope you guys drive safe and we'll talk to you then.
Speaker 1:Bye.