[Win73]

Reminds me of an incident of road rage that happened to me. My family and I were driving back from a vacation out west. We were on I-70 in Kansas City. We were going to take in another tourist attraction in southern Missouri. I had picked out the route to follow on a map. This was before the days of GPS in every vehicle. When I came to the exit for that route I left the interstate. The route was following a four lane city street. We drove a few blocks and then the route made a left turn. I was in the right hand lane so had to cut into the left lane. The traffic was thick so the hole I cut into wasn't very big. The passenger in the car I cut in front of got very angry. In my rear view mirror I could see his head sticking out the window and see his mouth moving. I couldn't hear what he was saying but I am sure it wasn't fit for mixed company. After only two blocks the route I am following makes a right turn. Now I am in the left lane and have to cut into the right lane. Guess who I cut in front of? Yep, the same guy. This time he has his head and shoulders out the window and his mouth is going a mile a minute. After we both make the right turn, the other vehicle whips into the left lane and comes speeding up beside us. We were in a full sized van so I am looking down at him. My son sitting in the back of the van told me he saw him reach under his seat for something. At this point I am getting worried. As he is coming even with me he has his head and shoulders out the window again and his mouth is still working. With my window shut and the traffic noise I still can't hear what he is saying but he is obviously not a happy camper. I am going about 40 at this point and I would guess that he was going about 60 when he caught up with me. Just as he came even with me, I hit the brakes fairly hard. I slowed down to about 15 and stayed at that speed for a couple of minutes. This had the effect of him slingshotting ahead of me. This put us several cars behind him. I was pretty proud of myself for outsmarting him when I look over at my wife. In that big van with its picture window size windshield, she is waving at him with a big grin on her face. By now the guy has gone totally ballistic. He is so far out the passenger window, it would not have surprised me if he had fallen out on the pavement. He was shaking his fist and yelling. I yelled at my wife, "What are you doing? He is mad enough at us now to follow us all the way to Alabama to take a shot at us!" I slowed down even more and they continued to pull ahead of us. Maybe the driver got a little sense. We never saw any more of them but I had everybody in the van watching the side streets and parking lots in case they would pull off and try to come in behind us again. That trip all I had with me was my S&W .38 snub. I never travelled that lightly armed again.