S4E13: Sara Beth Wald – Followed by Random Car + Wedged into Fence (Transcript)

(sneak peek)

SARA: When I was in college and, I was trying
to get moved out of my apartment and clean it. And I was taking my stuff to
storage it was quite a drive from my apartment to the storage space. And I
noticed that there was a car following, so I started taking a really fast turns
and trying to lose them.

 And I noticed it was the car full of, college
guys, my age at the time. And they followed, they were right on me my heart was
pounding 

(intro music)

BHAVNEET: Welcome back to another episode of drive
with us podcast. I’m Bhavneet.

TARANJIT: And I’m Taranjit. We hope everyone had a
wonderful Thanksgiving break for those that celebrate it. And welcome back to
another episode. I hope you missed us.

BHAVNEET: I missed

TARANJIT: you. Missed us.

BHAVNEET: I missed us. I hope you miss us too.

if you had any
memorable or crazy driving experiences over the break, share them with us on
our Instagram, at drive with us podcast. And we might even share some of those
stories on a future video

TARANJIT: And now let’s meet today’s drivers. Sara
Beth Wald. Sara, married to a firefighter and a mother of two boys, age 15 and
19 is the owner of content empowered, a content creation and design service
based in Montana.

She’s a former
newspaper columnist and social worker with a master’s degree in journalism from
Michigan state university. Sara has worked as a writer, editor and journalist
in the academic corporate and print media sector. She is a creator of
redefining love, which seeks to teach others how to love others with
boundaries, accountability, and grace Sara’s most recent project is an online
media masterclass in response to the trauma response. So many are experiencing
to current events and how they are reported in the news media. Let’s meet Sara. 

(transition music) 

BHAVNEET: Welcome Sarah to drive with those
podcasts. Thank you so much for joining us today.

SARA: Thanks for having me.

BHAVNEET: We’re super excited to have you on
before we dive into your crazy driving experiences. Let’s give the listeners a
little background about your driving. What are some of the places that you’ve
driven and where are you currently?

SARA: I live in Montana, which is in the
American west and it’s very isolated kind of, and, , I did live in the Midwest
for a long time. The farthest I’ve ever driven was from, Missoula, Montana,
which is on the Western side of the state all the way to Michigan, to mid
Michigan. I drove through Chicago and I’d never, driven in urban traffic
before.

So, it was an
experience. But most of my driving is in rural areas of the United States.

TARANJIT: How would you describe your relationship
with driving? Is this something you enjoy something you don’t like? Do you like
being the driver of the passenger? What are your

preferences?

SARA: I love driving actually. I do find as
I’m getting older, That I don’t love it as much, especially at night, which
makes me feel really old to say out loud. I kind of have a lead foot. I kind of
drive a little too fast.

BHAVNEET: So being in Montana you probably have
like a lot of wildlife and moose of there has that, are you like, is your
driving change knowing that, there’s a chance that you might encounter moose?
Are you still just like,

I will speed.

SARA: Well, I wish I could say that my driving
changed. We do have a lot of wildlife we’ve we just, this last summer had a
bear running down our street, which is not common where I live, actually. That
was, super weird. But, Yeah, you have to, at certain times of day, dusk and
early morning, there’s more deer on the road and actually deer in the streets
and the deer everywhere.

 But no, I’m afraid I knock on wood. I have not
hit an animal yet.

TARANJIT: And we hope

you don’t, don’t
want

BHAVNEET: that.

SARA: you.

BHAVNEET: Yeah, we can. We can understand the deer
problem. There are so many deer here in Maryland. It’s more infested with

TARANJIT: yeah. I had to do your accidents So
yeah, I wouldn’t want anyone to go through that.

SARA: yes. I’m sorry to hear that.

Yeah. Well, and
when I lived in Michigan too, there were deer everywhere. So I, it doesn’t seem
that I can escape them.

TARANJIT: have you ever had a passenger experience
where you were like a passenger in a car and you’re like, oh man, this was not
a good idea. Like I wish I could get out of this car

right now.

SARA: I’m sure I did when I was a teenager,
but now I actually have a teenager my own and. It is as terrifying as, as you
would imagine to teach your kid how to drive. I think once you get experienced
as a driver, you forget, that you had to actually learn that at some point. it
has been an adventure teaching, a teenager, how to drive.

BHAVNEET: What would you say is the biggest thing
that you’ve learned after being in driving? So like from actually having the
driving experience that you taught your son,

what is the
biggest thing?

SARA: Maybe I shouldn’t say this out loud. He
hasn’t gotten his license yet, but he is actually different than me in that he
likes to follow all the driving rules. And there are times where I’m like, You
can speed a little bit here. This is going to take forever to get to where
we’re going.

So I may not be
the best influence as far as teaching him to drive, but he says I’m more fun to
teach to learn from than his dad’s. So.

TARANJIT: Okay, that’s good.

BHAVNEET: Speaking of you enjoying to drive fast,
what would you say is your craziest driving experience,

SARA: The craziest, I mean, I’ve had several,
but the craziest was probably when I was in college and, I was moving it was
the end of finals week and I was completely exhausted. I don’t think I’d slept
for like 24 hours something crazy.

Cause I’d had a
big test I was trying to get moved out of my apartment and clean it. And I was
taking my stuff to storage it was quite a drive from my apartment to the
storage space. And I noticed that there was a car following, so I started
taking a really fast turns and kind of trying to lose them.

Cause I was
getting a little bit freaked out. And I noticed at a light that it was the car
full of, of guys like college guys, my age at the time. I got freaked out. So I
drove like crazy and they followed, I mean, they were right on me I finally
lost him right before I got to the storage space and my heart was pounding and
I was freaked out.

And then I get to
the grocery store after I dropped the stuff off, or maybe it was the gas
station. I can’t remember, but somewhere where I needed my wallet and I didn’t
have my wallet. I. Totally freaked out. I went home. This was before cell
phones. That’s how old I am. I went home back to my apartment called my mom
told her, and she’s like, well, actually I just got a weird call that somebody
had your wallet.

 She had the number, I called them and they’re
like, yeah, we tried to pull you over and give you your wallet back. It was on
top of your car, but you’re driving like a crazy woman. I was just like, oh,
sorry. I didn’t know, why they were following me, so I, I outran them, but they
were very nice and they gave me my wallet back.

TARANJIT: I mean, I feel like anyone in that
situation, if some random person or a group of guys were following you, you
wouldn’t

stop and pull
over.

SARA: Yeah, I felt kind of dumb and they were
kind of rude about it. They were mad at me, Carla guys following you young
college girl, but now it’s just a funny story. I got my wallet back.

TARANJIT: Yeah.

At least you got
your wallet, especially like going through the whole, getting your license back
again and all, anything else that was in, it

would be a pain.

SARA: Right, right.

BHAVNEET: Well, at least they did end up still
giving it to you. It was like, we were trying to be good Samaritans, but you
trying to

outrun us.

 I don’t know if you can top that, but. What
would you say is your second most craziest driving experience?

SARA: Well, just this summer, I actually got
rear-ended speaking of teenage drivers, at a stoplight. So this one wasn’t my
fault. And this was the worst accident that, I’ve ever been in. So I’m glad it
wasn’t my fault.

And everyone was
fine. Nobody got hurt, but.

there was a kid
behind me and it was summer and he was going to a summer job at a coffee shop
and he was waving to a friend in the other lane and he didn’t stop at a red
light and he hit me and he smashed my car between his truck and the car in
front of me.

 It was crazy. I don’t know if you guys have
ever been in an accident before, but just like in the movies, everything goes
really slow. Like everything goes slow and my glasses flew off my face and it
was like slow motion. And that’s what I noticed first. I was like, that’s
weird. My classes are falling off.

Like, I, it just.
Register in my mind what was happening and then all of a sudden I’m just kind
of sitting in the middle of the intersection and my car is stuck it did drive.
I was able to pull into a parking lot, but it was totaled and I was very sad
because it was the favorite car I’ve ever had.

And then the poor
kid gets out of his car and he’s like this. Senior in high school kind of kid.
And he sees me and he just melts in tears. And I was like, oh, he’s like, my
dad’s gonna kill me. Instead of being mad, I just, because I have a son that is
also a new driver and.

All I could see
was my son. And I just gave him this big hug and I happened to have this shirt
on at the time. It says love anyway. And I was like, you know, if you have to
hit someone, he hits the mom that has a teenage son. He ended up going to the
same high school as my son. So in my son is a freshman, he’s a senior.

And he’s like, he
said, I’ll watch out for your, your kid. And it was, it was kind of one of
those cool things. I think everything’s connected. When my husband came to pick
me up, he was looking at the kids’ insurance and he’s like, wait a minute. Is
your dad so-and-so? And he says, yeah, he’s like, oh, I work with him.

So my husband was
able to call his dad and break the news. The universe was watching out for.
Kid, because he learned an important lesson about driving, and paying
attention. But it was a pretty gentle reaction to his accident.

BHAVNEET: I was so surprised at like, how fast was
he going? That you were at a stoplight and he totaled your car.

SARA: right? Yeah. He, he really nailed me. It
was a little bit crazy that nobody got hurt and my airbags didn’t go off, which
I don’t even know if that’s why. Hopefully they worked properly, but it was
fine. Nobody was hurt.

TARANJIT: Yeah, that’s good. No one was hurt and I
guess that’s the best way to learn that lesson even though. You know, it’s
better if you just don’t get in that situation in the first place, but yeah, at
least all as her. And then he knows now to pay attention more on the road
because driving can be very

dangerous.

SARA: Yeah.

BHAVNEET: And then the person that you got is
sandwiched between was there a vehicle. Okay. Were they as forgiving, as you
were.

SARA: It was actually funny because, he got
out, he was a guy and, , he got out and he looked a little bit like he was
ready to. Rumble. He was pretty mad, but by the time he got out, I was already
hugging the crying teenager. And so I think he was like, oh, okay. I guess this
isn’t the right place to rumble.

And by the end, my
husband, he and my husband were.

joking around. It
actually turned out pretty good for that kid.

BHAVNEET: He got really lucky. That’s that’s good.
And good thing. No one was hurt. luckily have not been in any accidents. I can
only imagine being in the vehicle when you’re.

TARANJIT: Yeah, I got

rear ended before
too, but not as severe as your instance.

 It was also at a red light, but she was, she
just let go of the brake and she just kinda hit my car and I understand what
you mean by like it, everything slows down. I froze in that moment. I’m like,
what do I do? Do I get out of the car? Do I like, like, what do I do in this
moment?

SARA: yeah, yeah, it really is the way that
they portray it in the movies, which, It’s maybe good. Cause then you can
remember what happened, but, , it’s a whole different experience when you get
in an accident.

BHAVNEET: What would

you say is your
third craziest driving experience?

SARA: If I don’t count the times that I’ve
gotten pulled up, Tickets, which is a lot, I would say this is actually when I
was in high school. I drove my dad’s car and he very generously let me drive. I
drove it a lot. I look back at it now and I’m like, what did he drive? Because
I always had his car.

, and he’s never
heard this story before, so hopefully. Hear this, but, , I guess it’s old news
now, but, It was in Montana, out in the country. Everybody lived on gravel
roads out in the country. And, my friend and I were going to another friend’s
house and she lived down a country road.

And the driveway
before hers was, a different kid, a boy that we were very embarrassed to. We
didn’t want to show up at his house on accident. So. Very wintery. There’s
probably two foot snowdrifts on either side of the road and there’s, there’s
barbed wire fences. And when we realized we took the wrong turn, there was no
space to really turn around.

And this is in
like the early nineties. So I’m really dating myself here. , But the cars were
really long, really big. And we tried to turn around, we slid into the ditch. I
was driving, I slid into the ditch and, , Got the card lodged between two fence
posts in the barbwire fence. We couldn’t get it out.

And we were going
to, we would like sit there and freeze to death before we got out and asked
help from this, this boy that we were embarrassed to show up at his house. So
I’m crying. My friend was very calm though. And it’s interesting because we’re
still friends. We’re very good friends and she’s a therapist now and I look
back at it and I’m like, Yeah.

I can totally see
how she became there.

But anyway, I
crawled in the back seat and we were going to spend the night, so I had a
pillow. Back there. And I was all covered up and like covering my head with the
pillow. And she just backed it up and, you know, back and forth until it came
loose and she got it out. But we were pretty stuck and we were there for awhile
and,

you could just
hear the screeching of the barbwire against the car. And I’m just picturing my
dad, you know, I was just like the kid who hit me this summer, I was like, oh
my dad’s going to kill me. We got out, we went to our friend’s house and then
the next day, I just hoped and prayed. My dad wouldn’t see.

And he didn’t, he
didn’t notice the scratches. I’m not sure how that happened, but, I can’t
remember the sequence of that, but I told him on Monday when he noticed that
someone had keyed my car in the parking lot, because I didn’t want him to know
the truth. So be here’s as you will know the truth now.

BHAVNEET: That’s crazy. I mean,

the fact that,
well you didn’t have to end up going and asking that person for help because
she was able to get

TARANJIT: it out.

SARA: Yeah. I’m sure that they noticed when
they left their house the next time that there was a big disturbance in the
snowdrift I’m sure they were wondering what on earth happened right there, but
no, we never did. And I think we may have let ourselves freeze to death because
we were mortified to go and knock on that door.

BHAVNEET: Wow. Well, I’m glad one of you, was it
calm? To get, get you out of that situation. I feel like, like if you’re the driver
and it’s your car, you’re going to be more freaked out. it’s good that you had
someone there who could be rational, like, okay,

we can do this.

SARA: Yes. And she, she had great presence of
mind. So it’s not a surprise. She’s a therapist now.

TARANJIT: Well, since you have mentioned that
you’ve driven in several different places, how would you describe the types of
drivers in those areas? Are there like distinct typo drivers in

certain areas?

SARA: There, there definitely are. People in
Montana tend to drive slower. And I think one of the reasons, I mean, I’ve
always liked to speed. if I’m honest, but when I lived in a more urban area,
It’s just a higher intensity environment and everybody, everything moves
faster. And when I first moved back to Montana, after living in the Midwest for
so many years, and I was in a urban area, , it was hard.

I was just like,
oh my gosh, these people drive slow. , they definitely, , They like their
scenery. They like to take their time. , I say that though, and then people do
tend to speed more on the highways. So in town they drive slower, but when
there’s several hours between yourself and the next town, and it’s just endless
wilderness, it’s pretty easy to just speed away because there’s not very many.

, highway patrol
men, for per mile.

BHAVNEET: Yeah, I can, I can only imagine,

So now that we’ve
heard a little bit about your crazy driving experiences, let’s switch gears and
talk about the type of driver that you are. I know you’ve hinted a little bit
at it, but how would you describe yourself as a driver and would your family
and friends agree?

SARA: I would describe myself as an impatient
driver, which is interesting because I tend to be a pretty patient person and
every other area of my life, it’s almost like driving is my release of
everything that I have pent up. I would say I’m a good driver.

I mean, Again,
knock on wood. I have not ever caused an accident. , unless you count the time
I got the car stuck between the fence posts, but we won’t count that one. And
yes, I think my family would agree?

with that.

TARANJIT: What would you say is your biggest
driving pet peeve?

SARA: Well, you’ll probably guess this, but it
is driving below the speed limit. Like I’m one of those people that when you
pass someone that’s driving slow, I have to look at them like, who is it? What
does this person look like? That would drive so slow.

BHAVNEET: And then when you see them, are you
like, oh, okay. That makes

SARA: Yes. I’d be like, oh, of course. And
then every once in a while it’s someone like, I don’t know that wouldn’t fit a
stereotype. Like isn’t an old person in or something and I’ll be like, huh,
well, like why what’s going on with them? That they would drive so slow. Like
it just can’t my brain doesn’t really compute.

BHAVNEET: Are you the type of person who, if
someone is going the speed limit or like a low below. Are you the type of
person that will just immediately overtake them or will you stay behind them
and be like, oh, I wish would go

faster.

SARA: You know, I think that I am chilling out
a little bit as I get older. There was a time when yes, I would always pass. I
would pass even if there was someone in front of me and they were going a
little over the speed limit just because I needed to, I don’t know, be in front
or something. But now that I have kids and, and I’m, you know, I’m, I’m, I see
older people drive slow, but I’m, I’m working my way into that category where
I’m a little safer, conscious of that sort of thing.

And, So I don’t
always pass them now and I try not to tailgate.

BHAVNEET: Have you ever experienced road rage?
Whether it was towards yourself, or if you’ve seen someone

having road rage.

SARA: I have experienced road rage myself. I
didn’t do anything. Too crazy about it, but there have been times where I have
raged behind people, maybe flashed a gesture.

And then, another
time I did in front of my kids school, I just, I didn’t react. I didn’t do
anything, but there was a guy who was driving really recklessly, actually knew
it was in front of the school and there was kids everywhere and I decided I was
gonna follow him. I used to write a newspaper column and.

I wrote about him.
I called this person out. It described their vehicle and my editor in eight and
a half years of writing every week, it was the only time that she ever rejected
something that I’d written. She’s like, we can’t really publish your, your road
rage incident. So I had to rewrite something else. My personal vendetta. Yeah.

 Everyone would have known who they were.

because it was a
small town. So my editor was like, Yeah,

I don’t think we
want to put this on the paper.

TARANJIT: Yeah,

you’ll get over it
in a couple of days. We’ll

let this slide.

So now that we
heard a little bit about you as a driver, let’s go back to where it all
started. How would you describe your first time driving experience and.

SARA: I’m trying to remember. In Montana we
learned to drive pretty young if you live in rural areas and I did not grow up
on a ranch, but my grandparents had a ranch and those kids, I have a cousin
that was driving him himself and his siblings for school when he was 11. , and
he’s, hopefully there’s a statute of limitation, so he can’t get arrested for
that now, but, , it’s been a long time ago,

So I was driving
out there on those country roads when I was pretty young. And my grandpa tried,
he was the most patient man on earth and he had taught, he had five kids of his
own and he had, oh gosh, how many grandkids are there? 17 of us or something.
And I’m about in the middle. So he had taught quite a few kids to drive and.

it was a stick
shift.

, after about two
hours of like jerking up and down the gravel roads in the stick shift, he, he
said, get out. And I got out and he’s like it, he switched places with me and
he drove me home and he walked in and told my grandma, threw his hands up in
the air. And he said, I give up and I never have learned how to drive a manual
transmission.

I just. I dunno,
there’s something about that whole trying to get it all coordinated that I
can’t master, but he gave up on me.

BHAVNEET: Would you want to learn how to drive
manual at some point?

SARA: You know, I I’ve tried many times over
the years and they’re less and less common now. My husband really wishes. I
would learn. He drives a firetruck. He’s a firefighter. So for him, it’s like,
Really, he just really thinks I should know how to do it. , but I don’t know
that I have any burning desire.

TARANJIT: Yeah. You never know with the direction
that cars are going, you might not even need

it.

SARA: Right, right. Exactly. I think it’s, ,
it’s sort of like cursive handwriting and answering machines. They’re obsolete
eventually.

TARANJIT: Exactly.

BHAVNEET: How would you describe your driving test
experience and were you able to pass it on the first try?

SARA: I was a really bad parallel Parker. ,
I’m excellent at driving forward, but I’m not excellent at driving backwards.
So even teaching my son and my husband has to teach him because I. I couldn’t
master it. During driver’s training, backed over a little tree, you know, they
plant those trees in the sidewalk.

Like there’s a
little square in the sidewalk. There’s a tree in it. I, it was brand new tree
and I backed over it and my dad’s giant car. I was very nervous and I don’t
think I’ve ever once successfully parallel parked in my life. I’ll drive
around. You know, for an hour and until I find a place to pull in.

So when I did my
driver’s test, yes, I passed it. But, , the instructor, when we parked, I was
fully aware that we had forgotten to parallel park. And I wasn’t gonna tell her
because I don’t want, I didn’t want to do it. So we’re walking through the
parking lot and she’s got her clipboard and she says, oh shoot, we forgot to
parallel park to the go.

You did great. I’m
sure you’re fine at it. And so I never had to do it and I passed.

TARANJIT: Awesome.

feel like that’s
the one thing that most people fail at is parallel parking

on

our, on our
driver’s test. That’s the first thing they make you do if you don’t pass us,
there’s no point in them doing the

rest of the test.

SARA: uh, which is a smart way to do it, I
suppose, but I was very glad that I did not have to do that.

BHAVNEET: You got so lucky. Wow.

SARA: I did.

BHAVNEET: since

you’ve mentioned
that you are better at going forward than backwards, so when you go to park, do
you just prefer to pull in forward or do you prefer to reverse in the parking
spots? So you can get out of.

SARA: Oh, I definitely pull in, I, I just, I
mean, I could probably spend this whole time just talking about my parking
experiences. There was a time where I pulled into a parking spot where my son
had a doctor’s appointment and somehow I pulled so close to the car to the left
that I couldn’t like, the mirrors were overlapping, so I couldn’t reverse
again.

And I don’t even
know what. I defied the laws of physics to even get into that, parking space.
So it took me about 15 minutes of like tiny little forward and back to get out.
And I was laughing so hard and my son did not think it was as funny as I did.
And obviously he was late for his appointment, and the more I talk about it,
the more I think. Gosh, I maybe I’m not as good of a driver as I think I,

TARANJIT: You’re good at the

driving part.
You’re not good at the stopping and putting the cart in park.

SARA: Yeah,

exactly. Yeah.

BHAVNEET: That’s what I would say when I had to
drive our van. It’s like, I can, I can go. I can drive, but don’t ask me to
stop.

SARA: Right, yeah.

TARANJIT: Do they still require parallel parking
there? Cause I know here in Maryland, at least they removed it for the driver’s
test. So I’m just curious. Is this still part of the test?

Their.

SARA: That’s funny that you asked that cause
he hasn’t had the test yet. , I don’t believe he had to for the passing of
driver’s training, but , I’ll have to get back to you on whether he has to do
it at the, the test, the licensing test. He has practiced it. So my husband and
I have taken him and I wrote in the passenger seat.

 I did not do the teaching. My husband was
teaching. , but, , he is much better at it than me.

BHAVNEET: Well,

that was good.
Cause maybe he won’t get as lucky as you and they forget to ask him the
parallel.

SARA: Yeah, I, I doubt that that lightning
will strike twice. That that would be pretty lucky.

TARANJIT: I just, I’ve never heard that happened

before.

SARA: I think that again, you know, the stars
were aligned for me or something.

TARANJIT: So earlier I know you mentioned that
you’ve gotten lots of tickets. Have you had any, memorable ticket experiences?

SARA: And another thing about Montana is you
get a lot of warnings. I don’t know if that’s How it is everywhere, but I,
especially out in the highway, I think they know there’s like no cars on the
road, everybody including probably the highway patrol men are going. 10 15
miles over the speed limit.

So I’ve gotten
pulled over a lot. I’ve I’ve gotten, I shouldn’t say I’ve gotten pulled over a
lot. I don’t know that I’ve gotten lots of tickets, but I have had some
speeding tickets The only time I got something other than a speeding ticket was
in college. I was late for work and I ran a red light and I knew, I mean, I, I
actively was like, okay, it was just changing.

And I’m like, I
just have to get through this light to get to work. And, There was a police
officer directly behind me. It was really dumb. He pulled me over and I pulled
into a video store, parking lot to get off of the main road.

 All I remember from the incident or the actual
ticketing was when the. Police officer came up to me and there was a poster
with Matt Damon, a movie poster, and it’s like Matt Damon. He was, had his arms
crossed and he, and that’s just like burned in my mind. Like Matt Damon was
shaming me and glaring at me.

And I was so mad
at that poster. I was like, oh yeah, I know. I ran the red light, Matt Damon.
He knew what I had done.

BHAVNEET: so you said you’ve gotten a lot of like
warnings for being pulled over. I don’t think that’s the case here. I feel like
if you get pulled over, cops are coming. You’re getting a

TARANJIT: ticket.

SARA: It might be a uniquely Montana thing
I’ve been pulled over. When I lived in Michigan, I was pulled over for speeding
couple of times, and I did get tickets there. I got a warning once though. ,
There too, but in Montana, I’m not sure I can even count. And the only time
that I got a ticket in Montana, besides the running the red light, that was in
Montana, Was I was driving and I had my, I wasn’t even speeding that much.

Like all the times
that I, they would actually give me a ticket. I was probably going maybe like
eight miles over the speed limit, which in Montana and on the highways is
hardly anything. And I got pulled over and there was no other cars for miles
and miles and miles. It was this highway patrolmen who honestly looked like he
was.

15. It was like
his first day on the job and his face was all red. He was visibly nervous. He
was shaking. And again, I sort of just felt like, oh, you poor, you poor kid.
And, uh, he’s like, mom teach, you know, you were speeding. And I instantly
just felt. Empathetic within that. I just like, yeah.

And my son, my
younger son was with me in the car seat in the back and he was probably three.
And by the time I got back to home where I was driving to, , I’d kind of
forgotten. I got a ticket, like it’s So, commonplace for me to get pulled over
that. I didn’t even think of it.

And my son walks
in the door and the first thing he says to his dad, his mom got pulled over and
she got a ticket and my husband was like, oh, are you not gonna tell me this?
And every time after that, my son would, he watched the speed and he’d be like,
mom, are you speeding? Are you going to get a ticket?

And we’d drive
past that place. Mom. You remember when you got a ticket here and he’s nine
now. Still when we drive past that spot, we’ll say mom, remember that time that
you got a ticket here, so he will not let me live it down.

TARANJIT: So, yes, I know

we can’t forget
those now.

SARA: Right. Exactly.

TARANJIT: now that we’ve talked about the past,
your past experience of driving your current experience of driving, let’s dive
a little bit into the future of driving. What are your thoughts on self-driving
cars? And is this something that you would get in?

SARA: I don’t love the idea. Like, I guess I
feel like we should probably be paying attention. And it doesn’t seem foolproof
to me, but I suppose that’s the future and it will probably become a thing.
Plus I just like driving. So, , I think that there’s something to be said for,
for navigating yourself.

BHAVNEET: I agree. I, I enjoyed driving to wash to
fully let go of that control. I mean, I’ve heard that they’ve already started
making auto self drive semi-trucks and I’m like, ah, I don’t know how safe I
feel next to like

an 18 Wheeler.

SARA: yeah. That would, that’s scary to me. I
do love the idea of a self-parking car though. I think that’s, that’s a great
idea.

TARANJIT: Just push the button and let us do it
thing.

SARA: Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I would get on
board with that idea.

BHAVNEET: Then you wouldn’t have to drive around
and around to find the spot. You just be like just parallel park,

wherever.

SARA: absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It would be
great.

BHAVNEET: All

right. Bonus
question time. Are you ready?

SARA: I am.

BHAVNEET: If you could make one, a new driving
law, what was

it?

SARA: This is probably what I would do, and
this probably wouldn’t surprise you. I think I would eliminate speed limits in.
Montana. Yeah. In, in rural areas, like I think that it’s necessary in town,
but Montana did that for, as an experiment for a few years and they lost their
federal highway funding.

So they had to put
speed limits back in. , but it was wonderful. So yeah, I think I would do a way
with, highway speed limits.

BHAVNEET: Yeah. I was like, no, one’s following
them anyways in Montana.

Right.

SARA: exactly.

BHAVNEET: And that’s interesting that they’ve
already tried that. I didn’t know that.

SARA: They did. I don’t remember when it was,
I think it was in the nineties maybe, but it didn’t last.

TARANJIT: Yeah. They want the money. They’re like,
okay, fine. I’ll we’ll put it

back in place.

SARA: Right.

BHAVNEET: Well, like, what are your speed limits
on highways? Are they like really high in the first place?

SARA: yeah, I think it’s 70 on, two lane roads
and then it’s 80 on interstate expressway roads

BHAVNEET: I don’t think I’ve ever gone 80 and my
life.

SARA: really? Oh man, come to Montana, but
we’ll cut you loose so you can go crazy.

BHAVNEET: Yeah. Like our

highways cap at
like 55 60,

any cars?

SARA: Yeah,

Wow. And I’m sure
that the traffic. Changes things because it’s a whole different thing. When you
have no one that you, you can’t, you miles and miles of road that you can see
ahead of you that there’s no cars coming.

TARANJIT: Yeah,

it makes sense to
have a higher limit where there’s not as many people on the road because
there’s less chance of collisions or accidents or anything. But if it’s so many
people. It’s hard to justify such a high

limit.

SARA: Yeah, right, right. Yeah. And Montana is
such a big state that it slows down when you get into the mountains. Cause
there’s so many more curves and you have to slow down, but on the Eastern side
of the state, it’s just flat and there’s hardly any trees and you can just see
until the horizon.

So it’s pretty
easy to go pretty fast.

BHAVNEET: And now we know that when we go to
Montana, this has to be on the far right lane. Just be like, I’m over here
going 70. Barely. You guys could go.

SARA: Right, right. Or you’ll speed and you’ll
get a ticket and you’ll be like, dang it, Sarah. You told me that that I could
speed here.

TARANJIT: Yeah. Do you have any final thoughts or
any advice that you would like to give

other drivers?

SARA: It’s funny because I have tried really
hard to. Be more patient and full of grace as a driver. And a lot of that has
to do with having kids in the car. But, it also is affected by my husband being
a firefighter. He is actually a wild land firefighter. He doesn’t do city
fires, but, He’s still hears all the stories of the accidents and what happens.

So, even though I
just talked about speeding for the last 45 minutes, I would recommend you honor
the speed limit because, there are some crazy accidents that happen when you’re
speeding. I know I should slow down. I’m trying to do better.

BHAVNEET: Well, they should

know when you’re
working on it. That’s, that’s the important thing.

SARA: Yes.

BHAVNEET: Well, before we let you go, we want to
give you a chance to plug anything and to let our listeners know where

TARANJIT: they can find you.

SARA: All right. Great. Well, I am kind of all
over the place, but, , if they are looking around me, I’m hosting a holiday
summit right now, an online virtual summit called the serene holiday summit.
And, Speaking to seven experts and seven days, and they are going to talk about
how to navigate the holidays in an angry world.

So It’s all about
finding serenity, despite all of the chaos in the world right now. And I am the
founder of redefining love, which. How to navigate life with boundaries,
accountability, and grace. So, this topic fits very nicely into that. I’ve even
used road rage as an example, , in my writing about redefining love,

 And then I have a mastering the media course
that is also about navigating, The news media. And, , I’m all about helping
people come to some unity and ending divisions. So, anybody who wants to look
into that can go to learning.sarabethwald.com

BHAVNEET: It’s all very fitting with the driving
experiences that you shared. Thank you so much for coming on. Sarah’s really
fun talking to you and hearing about the craziness that is Montana.

SARA: Well, thank you for having me. This was really
fun.

 (transition music)

TARANJIT: I loved how patient understanding Sarah
is. And no matter how intense her driving experiences were on the road, she
always takes a step back and thinks like. Must that person be going through and
be understanding of their situation as well, even the time that she was
sandwiched in between two cars

BHAVNEET: and our car was completely totaled, it
was terrible that her car got totaled, but lucky for that kid who was a new
driver, that she was there because the guy in front was furious.

And I don’t think
his truck got out much damage, but he was. Really mad and good things. She was
there and her husband, and then they like diffused the situation.

TARANJIT: Yeah. I feel like that moment is such a
formative moment of someone’s driving like, yes, you got in the accident. Some
people could take that as a trauma that stays with them forever.

The point that
they might not be comfortable getting behind the wheel again. And I feel like
her comforting him in that moment probably helped him be able to get behind the
wheel again, in the future, as opposed to what, if it went the opposite
response, then he might not be right to drive at all anymore.

He was like, okay.
I’m not, I’m not doing that again.

BHAVNEET: Yeah.

TARANJIT: , hopefully it was a good lesson, even
though it was a terrible way to learn the lesson, but hopefully he learned. For
the good from it.

BHAVNEET: Well that was Sara. We hope you enjoyed
hearing her driving stories and be sure to stay tuned until the end of this
episode, to hear a sneak peek of next week’s episode with Bill Cushing.

TARANJIT: Who shares about the time he had to
drive 30 miles per hour from Virginia to New York, and no mechanic can figure
out what was wrong.

BHAVNEET: Thank you for tuning in this week. And
if you enjoy this podcast, you can help support the show by sharing it with
your friends or leaving us a review. It truly does help us get discovered.

TARANJIT: Thank you for choosing to drive with us
and we’ll see you next week.

(outro music)

BILL: We’re leaving, Virginia and it was just fine for the first 40 minutes or so. And then all of a sudden, my car just slowed down.

And I, I called my friend. I said, look, I’m having a problem with the over. And we said, look, let’s just go to the next exit. We’re going to find plenty of mechanics here. Can’t find a mechanic, so we finally went, alright, look, we gotta be back in New York to go to work tomorrow morning.

Even if it means I got. No slow. We’ll just do that. We went from Mechanicsburg to New York, never went over 30 miles an hour the whole time.