California Transplants Can’t Grasp One Simple Idaho Driving Rule

ICYMI: April showers bring May flowers...and fog.

I'm lookin' at you, California transplants. Normally, I'm the first to roll out Idaho's transplant welcome wagon. After all, I, myself moved to Idaho just 10 years ago. Who am I to judge someone for wanting to live in one of the most amazing states in the nation? It's not like I don't understand the appeal.

But there's one thing our newest transplants haven't grasped behind the wheel.

And that would be fog—how it impacts a driver's vision and how the heck they're supposed to drive in it 😳

From one foggy morning to the next, Boise's Treasure Valley is a revolving door of coupes, SUVs, and station wagons with California license plates with high beams on blast. It's time to put an end to the madness, y'all.

This isn't a California transplant rant or criticism. It's a cry for help.

Over the weekend, I was nearly run off the road at 4am on my way from Star to Boise. On a backroad covered in a blanket of thick fog, I was making my way to 84 when the approaching driving in the opposite lane blinded me so badly, I swerved and nearly hit a deer. I stopped my Subaru just two feet shy of a steep irrigation canal.

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How did I know the driver was from California? 

In the past, the license plate or a window decal would give away their transplant status. This time, however, it was the driver herself.

She felt so badly about blinding me, that she pulled over to see if I was alright. In the past, my retinas had been victimized dozens of times by high-beam-happy-drivers, but this was the first time someone pulled over to apologize.

The woman apologized her heart out to me. She said that she was new to Idaho and driving in fog, and all she could think to do was flip on her brights. She had no idea how dangerous it was for her or other drivers around her, or the mirror-like effect it cast on the fog itself.

If you're new to Idaho, welcome transplanted one 😉 

If you're new to driving in the fog, two things: one slow down, speeding through the fog to get through it quicker is never the answer; and never-ever-ever use your brights, just your foggers.