Today we learned a new travel game. (Sorry, no pictures to illustrate it!) The game is called "Construction Zone Chicken." It's really not much fun to play but it is exciting. And we WON the first time we played!
The game, we discovered, goes like this. I (MarySue) was driving north on the Natchez Trace Parkway (as we have been for several days). The parkway is narrower than an Interstate so I was carefully spacing my wide truck and house close to the outside edge of the lane so as not to crowd traffic traveling in the opposite direction. As luck would have it, we came to a Construction Zone where the southbound lane was being resurfaced. The orange safety cones blocking off the work area narrowed our lane even more. Several times the drivers' side outside mirror gently bumped the top of one of those cones as I tried to squeeze my wide load into a narrowing space.
We were obediently following the posted speed limits and moving very slowly. We approached the traffic control worker with the two sided sign: red on one side reading "Stop" and orange on the other side reading "Slow." The "Slow" side was facing us so I slowed a bit more but didn't stop.
Creeping thru the one-lane area, I suddenly realized that a white car was coming toward me in the one lane that was open. He had apparently driven past the "Stop" sign facing his direction and was now challenging me for the right of way! He slowed, but kept coming. I slowed, but kept creeping ahead until our front bumpers were just a few feet apart. There we sat, staring at each other.
I couldn't move out of his way because there was a line of traffic behind me and construction workers close on my left side. Our stares became glares as we sat wondering who would move out of the way first. I was twice his size and weight and, besides, I had obeyed the traffic warning signs and he had not! So I wasn't budging.
Finally, after what seemed like a long time (probably about 2 or 3 minutes!) I propped my elbow on the window frame on the driver's side and leaned my head on it as if to take a nap while I waited. He slowly backed up and let me through! I couldn't see the look on his face as I drove past but I felt mighty proud at winning my first ever game of "Construction Zone Chicken"!
