Open Letter To Old Lady Who Tried To Run Me Off A Bismarck Road

I think it's safe to say that "road rage" in the Capital Region is at an all-time high.

Maybe it's another long summer of road construction that has brought this on but I don't think I've ever seen more aggressive driving.  Including an elderly lady that did something to me, I could never imagine.

It all started at the Washington and Bismarck Expressway intersection on a Sunday afternoon.

I was 2nd in line at the light behind a little grey Honda.  The light turned green and I was in the left turn lane heading into work in a great mood after a Minnesota Vikings win.

Even though the light turned green, the grey Honda didn't move in front of me.  I literally did a countdown in my head, "One thousand one, one thousand two" and I got to five and finally tapped on my horn.

I didn't lay on the horn with a loud honk, just a tap, and the grey Honda finally sped off onto to Expressway.  I didn't think much about it, I figured she was on her phone or distracted somehow.

As I'm heading west towards Mandan, this grey Honda changes lanes and slows down dramatically to let me catch her.

I thought to myself, "This can't be good". As I pulled up to this grey Honda, I looked over to a little old Lady "flipping me the bird".  Not only that, she grabs her iPhone and starts filming me.  I was literally shocked.  I mean, I just tapped on the horn lightly after her sitting there for at least 5 seconds.

However, this was only the beginning of this potentially dangerous situation. 

I waved at her and smiled as she was flipping me off while filming, (yep no hands on the wheel) and at this point, she sped off in front of me.

Unfortunately, I still wasn't done with this woman.  She slowed down once again to allow me to catch her and this time, she veered her little Honda at my Ford pickup truck.  Yep, she swerved at me like she was trying to run me off the road.

I was literally getting nervous at this point.  I took the exit to Memorial Highway and she got behind me and started to follow my truck very closely.

What do I do next?  All, I could think of was how to defuse the situation.  I didn't want to pull into the radio station parking lot for fear of a confrontation with this obviously unstable woman.

I instead decided to keep driving towards the Mandan Police Station.  She was still right on my a$$ on the strip and as I turned to go to the police station she finally pulled off and kept driving on Memorial Highway.

My nightmare was finally over.  All this because I lightly tapped on the horn to alert a driver who was distracted.

Maybe this elderly woman forgot to take her medication or maybe she was a New York Giants fan?  Either way, ridiculous to act this way.  It goes to show, that ANYBODY, no matter what the age, can become very dangerous behind the wheel when you let ROAD RAGE take over.

Be on the lookout for this grey Honda, with a grey-haired lady with glasses and an iPhone.  She's dangerous and not "North Dakota Nice."