Gone are the days of being a speed demon

Okay, for those of you who know me, you know how much I love driving and how much I love driving FAST! I have been up to speeds of over 100 on interstate, though that was back in my college days. I had all the fancy radar detectors and I knew the rules of when and where you could get away with driving fast. But more than just driving fast, my favorite thing to do was to be at a red light when I knew that the person beside me was going to try to get in front of me and I would hit the gas in my little green BMW and see them in my dust as I zoomed in front of them.

Well, those days are over. About a year ago I traded in my wonderfully fast BMW for a Ford Escape (a more family friendly vehicle). Needless to say, my Escape does not have the same going power as my BMW had, but I must say it does have more acceleration power then you would think. It has still been an adjustment. Not being able to accelerate quickly when getting onto interstate roads or at red lights has made me have to change my driving style. But until recently I was still driving fairly fast.

Then gas prices went through the roof. And I have come to the realization that saving money is more important that getting to where I am going faster. Also, the fact that there are very few places I HAVE to be at, at a certain time helps in not having to hurry. I have actually started driving just the speed limit. Do you have any idea how hard that is for me. I feel like I am going the speed of a snail. I have to set my cruise control or else I will find myself speeding again. But I have definitely noticed a savings in gas. I used to have to fill up the Escape every week and many times I would not even make it a week. Now I can typically make it a week and a half and sometimes I can go almost two weeks without filling up. Also, I used to get about 21 to 22 mpg, but now I am getting around 24 to 24.5 mpg.

The really funny thing though, is I used to be one of those people who would look at the people going the speed limit, thinking they were crazy. I have gone past cops going 8 to 10 over the speed limit and they don't even blink. So I have always thought that it was crazy for people to not at least go a few miles faster than the speed limit. It is not like they are going to get a ticket. But now I am one of the cars that faster cars pass and I am sure that they think I am crazy for going as slow as I am going.

But if going slower means I can go more places, then so be it.