This is another tailgating story.

I was driving on a road in central Oregon which was long and straight but had a 55 mph (about 90 kph) speed limit and no places to pass. There was a long line of us going about 60 mph (about 100 kph). Usually people went faster on this road, but it had snowed and while the road was clear in the tire tracks the rest of the road was a little slick.

In central Oregon the highway service would spread crushed volcanic rock on the roads for traction. In the picture below you can see that it has lots of sharp edges which are apparently good for grip. The rock mixes with the snow, then as vehicles drive over it the snow/rock mixture melts into a slush/rock mixture and gets pushed to the side of the lanes.

So I was the last person in the line when a fairly new luxury car came zooming up behind me. He came so close to me I could not see much of his car in the rear view mirror. There wasn’t anything I could do to help him out. I couldn’t go faster, there were ten other cars ahead of me. I couldn’t pass, it’s a no passing zone. I couldn’t pull off because of the snow on the side of the road. I flashed my brake lights (not a brake check) but got no reaction. I varied my speed up and down for a while, but he stuck to me.

Finally I was getting frustrated (which was his goal) so I let the car slip to the side of the lane. At 60 mph I produced a wonderful “rooster tail” (see the picture below) but made of the slush and volcanic rock mixture. His nice car was covered with the stuff, and it probably caused little scratches all of his paint. After that he made sure to keep a safe distance.