While driving on our recent RV trip, I was struck by the fact that most American drivers drive at or slightly below the posted speed limit on the Interstate highways. This is not true where I live in Canada. People routinely drive 10 to 20 km over the 100 km limit on Hwy 417 (Interstate equivalent). If you drive the posted speed limit here, most vehicles will pass around you - quickly In the U.S I found most drivers would stay behind and drive at or slightly below the limit. When being passed, as of course some US drivers would do, we found relatively few out and out speeders.
There is one exception to this rule and that is large trucks - semis and trains. American and Canadian truck drivers are equally intimidating. Most large rigs would slow down heading up a modest incline. After passing a truck and returning to the right lane, I would invariably see the same rig bareling toward us as we headed down the other side of the hill. Unless I sped up to escape, they would ride right up almost on our rear bumper unless they could safely pass. This is true for Canada too. However, there are many more trucks in the US (economy seems to be improving this year). I81 from Knoxville to Pensylvania has thousands of trucks on the road on any day.
Our most enjoyable drive on our trip - driving about 20 km of beach in the Daytona Beach area and south:
As for Jamaica, friends told us we would be risking our lives to drive there and perhaps they were right. You drive on the left side of the road there, and some of the roads are extremely narrow and pot holed. We drove our Toyota Corolla rental on the (new) highway from Montego Bay eastwards to Fallmouth and as far as St. Ann's Bay near Ocho Rios. Jamaican highway drivers are scary. Many drive at 50 km over the speed limit and will pass you on blind curves and zip back into their lane just in time before collision with oncoming traffic. Turn signals are not used often - its pretty dangerous driving.
Off the major highway the roads ar terrible: windy, narrow, gravel, pot holes, bumps, ruts, single lane and worse. We just barely made it to Nine Mile and I don't think we would do it again. However, it was an "accomplishment" and we had much fun site seeing nevertheless:
Finally in Jamaica, there is the parking security issue. You should park your car in a gated secure area or risk having it vandalized or stolen. This is somewhat common in 3rd world countries. At Nine Mile, we had to pay some local youth "protection" so that we could leave our car safely on the street as no one had offered us a spot in the gated parking lot shown.Well that's it for today.D.
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