If any of you live in a town like Savannah, who makes a large portion of its revenue from tourism, you may have found yourself in a hurry behind a slow-moving horse and carriage full of rubberneckers. It’s my experience that about 65-70% of the carriage drivers are conscientious and know to move over at the first opportunity to let the cars pass. Find yourself in a hurry, however, and you will find yourself behind the remaining 30-35%. There is a secret to getting them to move over without honking and scaring the horses…loud music.

Mike is the main driver of our sole automobile so he figured this out sooner than me. Loud music, usually blues, is enough to annoy the tour guide/carriage driver but doesn’t cause the horses to start that freaked out prance/trot. Most always pull over right away.

In driving home with coworker, N—, yesterday, we found ourselves in one of these slow horse situations. We were on one of the many narrow one-ways, lined with parking spaces on both sides. The spaces were mostly empty so the carriage could have easily pulled over into one of the spots and let the backed up traffic pass. Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to the carriage driver to make such a courtesy, and N— tells me how much this annoys her. I tell her about what Mike and I do and suggest she try it. She quickly finds some very obnoxious hip-hop and turns it up. That carriage moved over faster than any I’ve seen. It was hilarious. N— thought this was great and vowed to use this trick from now on.

It takes a lot of patience to live in a tourist town. It also helps to know little tricks like these. I guess I should make the disclaimer, in case it is not clear, that this should only be used if the carriage driver has the opportunity to pull over and doesn’t. If there is simply no room to pull over, you will ruin some family’s tour by blaring your music. No need be rude.