Have you ever been driving down the freeway when it’s not too crowded and traffic is just rushing on by when suddenly you find yourself alone? There’s a cluster of lights up ahead maybe a mile or so and another behind you about the same distance away. I love it when I get in a situation like that – I’m away from the crowds and it’s just me and the road (until either I catch up to the cluster in front or get bombarded by the cluster behind).

It’s times like that that I want to weave back and forth like those highway patrol vehicles that do so to slow down traffic. I was actually caught behind one of those for a few miles recently and we even ended up at a dead stop for awhile (see videos below). Maybe there was debris on the road that needed to be cleared? I couldn’t tell because I was about 5 cars behind and there were too many red lights in my way to see. Luckily, it wasn’t like that one time I got stuck for two hours on the 405. This barely lasted three minutes and we were on our way again, rushing off into empty expanse ahead.

I wonder if you’re ever allowed to ride along when the highway patrol is doing that, because I’ve always wanted to. I mean, when else do you get to weave back and forth on the freeway without getting in trouble? And it’s gotta be fun to see all traffic yielding to you, crawling along as they wait to see if you’re bringing them to a stop or just slowing down the speed of traffic. Then when you’re done with your task, you turn off your flashing lights and race off to the next thing as the cars behind finally get to continue on their way.