Moving into the fast lane!

Close to 3 weeks ago, my husband and I, along with Huck and Finn (our 14 month old Shih tzus), after receiving official military orders on Friday loaded our moving truck on Saturday and hit the road on Sunday (September 8, 2013) for Joint Base Lewis-McChord.  We "took" six days to move across country seeing this sight or that amid all of the natural beauty that only God could have crafted. I, over the 58 years of my life, have been in awe and curious of the differences between people of certain regions of the USA as well as various parts of the world.  For instance, when one drives alone (I had to drive our private vehicle while my husband drove the rental truck which also towed my car), you notice things like signs.  I found myself living for the sign that proclaimed the arrival of a new state, being perturbed by signs that appeared over and over advertising the location of the same sight for a hundred miles before the arrival of the said location, and curious about the difference in work zone signs regarding the injury of workers.   I read recently that there are 3 fatalities and 160 injuries per day in work zones nationwide. It is my belief that almost if not all states double the fines for speeding within work zones, but states differ as to whether the workers have to be present at the time of the infraction or not.  Here is what I learned about this in my monotonous moments of driving:  in Illinois, if you hit a construction worker  than you will be fined $10,000 and serve up to 14 years in jail.  Who came up with that amount and is there a difference if the worker is injured vs. killed?  Yeah, I had a long time to mull this over. At the same time, if you hit a construction worker in one of the other states on our route, the fine is $11,000, and still yet the sign in the state of South Dakota, as is true for numerous other states, simply asks motorists to give road workers a "brake."  I'm very certain that this would not be humorous at all if your family member were the construction worker, but I find the differences from state to state would certainly make me very picky about which state I chose to be engaged in the career of the construction worker! Evidently, some states value their workers more than others!  Another difference concerning driving is the attitude of drivers of a given state as a group.  Obviously, everyone does not fit the "mold," but I first noticed this diverse approach when Rachel, my daughter, and I flew to Denver, Colorado this past summer.  There, the drivers are so laid back, and they move not exactly slowly but as if they are never in too much of a hurry to allow a fellow driver to have the right of way or to navigate into the lane in front of them!  In the south-- Nashville, TN being a case in point--everyone is fighting or jockeying for position!  If you are not already moving as fast as the flow of the lane of traffic into which you want to merge and/or with your jaw set and determined, you will sit at a stop until Jesus comes back, and no one, or at the very least rarely will anyone invite you to advance in front of him.  The Northwest driver is different.  First of all, the speed limit for the interstate is 60 mph unlike the 70 mph of the southern states and 75 mph of Montana, was it?  Drivers in Washington allow you to get in front of them and would not maliciously deny you entrance. I realized a few days ago, after having been in Washington for a little over two weeks, that I don't remember hearing but one car horn blow during that entire time period since our arrival.  I noticed that the license plate of that horn blasting car sported

a Kentucky license plate, and I sleep each night with the man driving it!