Day 744: Speed Limit

Yesterday I spent a solid 6 hours listening to Everything is Awesome, on loop, approximately 154 times. By the time I reached 2 in the morning, it was more like "Everything is Awful," and I was ready to be done, but this blog post has nothing to do with Everything is Awesome, other than the fact that this is my explanation as to why I didn't write this post on time yesterday. I mean, come on, after listening to that song for six hours you wouldn't want to sit and write a blog post either.

Anyway, the real topic today actually occurred to me a few days ago. It's possible I thought about it on Monday, or maybe it was when I was driving home from Milwaukee on Saturday, or it could have even occurred to me while on the plane or on Test Track or at a time I'm not even considering. It does, on the other hand have to do with driving.

I remember, back when I was in Driver's Ed, this one day early on in the course when the instructor asked us if we knew what this sign was for:

I, of course, being my Disney educated self, knew exactly what it meant and where it was on the road and what it was called. A Chevron, and it's placed on curves to notify the driver that there's a turn. Maybe the class hated me a little bit after my quick answer to the question, but I knew the answer, and that's just about the only answer I knew the whole class.

I knew what a Chevron is because of one simple attraction: Test Track. I get asked quite often (more often than I actually would expect) if I prefer the old or new version of the attraction, and I always have to say old. While I like the new one as well, there's just something missing, and maybe it's got something to do with the lack of real automotive education that goes on in the attraction. Regardless, I find Chevrons popping up more and more often, like on my college bedspread or the washi tape that lines my desk drawers. Coincidence? Probably not.

Since actually getting my license, I've found that I love driving. If my family is going somewhere, I'm probably the one getting us there, and when my friends and I are on an adventure, we always take my car and I lead the way. And I'm not even sure why I enjoy driving so much, but I do, and it was the other day that I realized one of the reasons why.

On Test Track, my brother and I always make a note of yelling out the top speed as we pass the speedometer on the outer loop. It's been that way for quite some time, and if you actually hear the audio on one of the many rides on Test Track I have filmed, you'll hear me yelling out that number. Generally it's 64.9, and as a kid I'd get excited every time we reached 65 miles per hour on the van as we went along (I had a perfect view of speedometer from my seat in the back and loved to watch it). Now, as I drive myself places, I find that I take the routes with the higher speeds, not because I want to go faster, but because when I hit that 65 MPH mark on my car, it reminds me a little bit of Test Track, and I think about it for a second as I imagine going around on the curves at Epcot. It may be one of the littlest things ever, but it certainly still brings just that little bit of magic even to my drive to school.

And if, on my way to SNC today to do more work on the good wifi, I thought about how I was almost part of the "Rat Race," that's just a whole other story for a great big, beautiful tomorrow.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on January 15 due to work conflicts).