Speed

  I used to have a lead foot.  What that meant was that I liked to drive fast.  It was a lot easier on highways that city streets, but I did my best to drive over the posted speed limit when I could.  If I was driving through a small town, I would slow down below their speed limit, since many of those towns depended on drivers going fast for their economy.  

 Twice, I drove to or from Charlotte, NC in an hour and fifteen minutes.  Normally, it would take at least about fifteen minutes longer than my time.  Both times, I was either in the Belk company car or van.  The first time, I was driving from Charlotte to Columbia with my store manager in the car.  He went to sleep.  When we reached our exit, I put on the brakes for him to wake up.  He looked at this watch and asked me how fast I was going.  I told him that I was going fast enough.  He told me never to do that again.  Ironically, one day he told me to drive up to Charlotte to get our store's payroll to the Belk corporate headquarters.  I had to be there by noon, and I left the store at 10:30.  I got there with 20 minutes to spare.  I even passed a state trooper on the highway doing a traffic stop on another driver.

 One route I wanted to take to see how fast I could go from one place to another was from Batesburg, SC to Columbia Mall which was 41 miles.  I was driving at night in our store's company car.  I drove the backroads, because I thought most officers would be at home having dinner.  I was right.  I drove that route in 35 minutes, despite having to slow down for traffic the closer I got to Columbia.  That may be a record.  It was just fun.

 I was driving back from Laurens, SC one day, and I wanted to do an experiment.  I got on the interstate and drove the speed limit just to see how many cars would pass me.  I lost count after 80 cars and honking drivers.  They were like me on a normal day.