MPN Specials

I should call this “Editor’s Rant” instead of “Editor’s Note”.  I just had a great July 4th weekend.  We went camping up in Lake Tahoe and the difference between New Jersey Drivers and California drivers was driven home to me.

When I would go camping as a boy scout, I was able to carry everything I needed with me in my backpack.  I had a few clothes, a sleeping bag, 2 man pup-tent, a tarp, a flashlight, my Swiss Army knife and my mess kit.

Then, as I got a little older and would camp with my girlfriend we would bring a few extra items and we needed a car.  By the time I got married, the car was getting fairly full.

When I got married and had a child it got to the point where a large SUV was not big enough to carry everything we needed.  In addition to everything listed above, we had an over-sized family tent, a door mat, queen size air mattress, gas stove, BBQ, charcoal, full set of kitchen utensils, pots and pans, lanterns, inflatable raft, air pumps, and a gourmet food assortment that included steaks, cheese and crackers and wine.

Now, you might ask, what does all this have to do with California drivers?

The answer is simple:  The trend has continued and this past weekend we upgraded to using a tent trailer!

Wow, what a way to camp.  Who knows, soon we might even use a mobile home. But I digress.

I originally grew up on the East Coast, in New Jersey, and moved to California 25+ years ago.  Of course, when I first moved out here I started analyzing all the differences between the two coasts.  I’ll go into that later.  One of the biggest differences I found was in driving techniques: Most notably the use of blinkers.

Very simply put, here is the difference:

East Coast – New Jersey Driver
- You decide you want to make a lane change.
- You put on your blinker to indicate you want to make a lane change.
- Turn your head and make sure the coast is clear.
- Change lanes.

That sounds simple and straight forward enough. Doesn’t it?

But here is the west coast (California driver) version.  The difference is subtle and it took me years to learn.  I couldn’t understand why my passengers were yelling at me until I figured this out.

West Coast – California Driver
- You want to make a lane change.
- Turn your head and make sure the coast is clear.
- Initiate the lane change.
- Put on your blinker.
- Complete the lane change.

You see, the blinker has completely different meanings on each coast:

New Jersey drivers use the blinker to indicate they want to make a lane change. Please leave a space for me and let me in.

California drivers use the blinker to indicate the lane change you are making is intentional.  If you put the blinker on too soon, it indicates that you want to make lane change, so the other drivers will speed up quickly to get in front of you.

The reason my passengers would get upset, was because they thought I was already in the process of making the lane change, not that I was still going to check that it was clear before proceeding.

What does all this have to do with camping?

The answer is quite simple.  I was pulling the camper trailer with me in stop and go holiday traffic this weekend while drive to and from Lake Tahoe.  There were many passing lanes that required traffic to merge along the way.  Even when I had my blinker on and was half way into the other lane people would still force their way past me just to be stuck in front of me instead of behind me.  I finally gave up using the blinker to be polite, safe and warn them.  I finally embraced the true California way.  It worked much better. (My passenger stopped warning me of other cars too.)

Please let me know about your experiences too.

Cheers,
Richard