DeeDoo’s Digital Scrapbooking Blog

Driving home on the turnpike Sunday evening, I had a bit of an unsettling experience. I thought I was being ‘shadowed’ by another car.

I always use cruise control, primarily so I won’t speed, as I have a very heavy foot! One drawback to using cruise control comes from the fact that anyone else on the road not using cruise control has a tendency to randomly vary their speed, either gradually increasing or decreasing it. When they become aware of the fact that they are either speeding or traveling slower than intended, they will adjust accordingly.

Understanding this, I don’t get alarmed when I gain on a vehicle, pass it, only to find them quickly changing lanes and accelerating to pass me back. Once. But when they do it repeatedly, plus drive in the lane next to me, neck in neck, as it were, for a mile or more, I begin to get concerned. Especially when I am traveling alone and it is very very dark outside.

So, when this very scenario unfolded Sunday evening, I began to think I might have a situation on my hands. All the recent news headlines involving rapes, killings, disappearances, abandoned cars and missing people, didn’t help my jitters one bit!

So I did the only thing I could think of at the moment–flipped open my cell phone, hoping the offending driver might see its light and realize that I was probably calling 911. I actually called my husband and gave him the car’s license plate number in case I turned up missing. At least he’d know where to start looking (although the car was probably stolen!). When I did the cell phone trick, believe it or not the other car immediately changed lanes behind me and slowed w-a-y, w-a-y down. That told me they were doing it on purpose and they didn’t want to get caught. I thought that was the end of it.

But no, after a couple of miles they had gained speed and were tailgating me, very close. So this time I waited until another car drew up in the passing lane. Once he passed me (and he was speeding faster than the limit and faster than I really wanted to travel), anyway, I began following him as close as I could. That finally did the trick and the car dropped further and further into the distance, finally disappearing and not returning. What a relief!

Now, the car I was following probably thought I was a stalker, too! At least at first, but hopefully they realized that I was no threat when I got back into the regular lane and increased the distance between us once the ‘scary car’ was safely outdistanced. At least I hope so! I didn’t want someone else to feel the same fear that I had been going through!