Have some patience on the roads when it comes to holidaymakers. Photo / File
Have some patience on the roads when it comes to holidaymakers. Photo / File
They call it the "holiday time" or the "holiday break" or the "holiday period" but I call it the time when one of humanity's most unpredictable components can be well tested.
For it is the time of patience.
Especially on the roads... urban and rural and highway.
Like coffee shops,playgrounds, restaurants, seasides and scenic lookouts, they are also a favourite domain of the traveller.
And they are more often than not an unfamiliar piece of the landscape, which means at times there are discussions between the front seat holidaymakers about which is the best way to get to wherever it is they have decided to get to.
Satellite navigation — which according to a news report last week is one of the factors which has led to growing concerns about just how much stuff is now up there.
The Satnavs are everywhere in orbit because travellers and holidaymakers are everywhere down below.
There are 4994 satellites orbiting around us... so we'll soon break the 5 grand mark for sure.
They are kind of useful, although a few years back when we were heading off in the rental from Brisbane for a day at Surfers it had us on a stretch of road that did not stack up with what we were watching glide by.
So... off it went and we used the road signs instead.
On another occasion, when it came to heading north out of Melbourne for Hanging Rock and the goldmine town of Bendigo we took a map.
So we were travellers, holidaymakers, in a rental car on unfamiliar roads. And there were a couple of occasions where I misjudged a turn-off and sort of got in the way of one of the locals, whose rolling eyes and slap to the forehead sort of suggested he was a tad miffed at what this dope in the rental Toyota was up to.
It happens, so I have worked on strengthening my patience factor.
And last week it came to the fore.
Roger Moroney
I was heading to work and just ahead, on a two-lane section of road which emerged from traffic lights, I saw the large rental motorhome thing ahead, in the right lane.
So I assumed the pilot of the thing was going to turn right.
Nope.
The great beast (the motorhome not the driver) just veered across into the lane I was in and caused me to slow up to avoid re-designing its rear bumper and my front fender.
No indicators... for it appeared to be a spur-of-the-moment decision as the occupants clearly realised they needed to go straight ahead, not veer off potentially into "I think we're lost" land.
I saw a hand emerge from the passenger side in an open palm gesture of "sorry mate" and I waved back in a gesture of "been there, done that".
I hold back when there are either marked rental vehicles or motorhomes and campervans close by, for they may be having an argument with Satnav and an out-of-the-blue road direction sign takes over.
It's that thing I started out with on this journey of words... patience.
Yes they can hold others up but others need to be aware that one day they may be in that position in a faraway town, city or land.
And they would hope "others" in that unfamiliar landscape may understand.
There will of course always be a doltish factor on our roads.
The tailgaters, speedsters and lane hackers who just don't give a toss.
But travellers, holidaymakers, do.
So I give them some benefit of the doubt when their travelling and holidaymaking kind of slightly veers off the intended path.
What's a few extra minutes attached to one's travel time?
No hurry.
Just make way where you can and give visitors to our patch leeway where required, because come the time, in distant parts, you'll kind of hope they'll see you right when the Satnav just told you to go left... on to a railway track as it once did with us in a remote part of Ockerland.
Crikey, there's 4994 satellites up there... you'd think one of them could have got it sorted.
Roger Moroney is an award-winning journalist for Hawke's Bay Today and observer of the slightly off-centre.
