Banana Eating Foot Driving Hippie

OK...this story is from late last year so it isn't in chronological order but it is a memory we can't resist sharing.
To set it up you have to realize that my family and I drive over 40 thousand miles a year all over the US, Canada and Mexico. Though 98% of every trip is typical of any other trip. That much mileage lends itself to the opportunity to see the bizarre, the unusual, the crazy and the offensive.

(I should also like to mention on an aside that we also notice trends of drivers and cops. Like CHPs in Cali seem to be on a bust everybody more often roll...perhaps fundraising for the state. We would see maybe 1 stop per trip up and down the Cali hwys in the past but recently we see well over 6-10 stops along an 8 hour drive. Some may say it's because more people are driving unlawfully. Perhaps, but it doesn't seem that different than any year over the past twelve in regards to speeders and the number of nut case drivers...besides there is never a cop around when the nut-birds are driving by. )

While performing at the Sonoma County Harvest Festival in Santa Rosa, CA last Fall we missed our turn off from one country hwy to another in the wine country...I was probably gabbing away with one of the kid. Instead of trying to trace our steps back I knew the current hwy would take us to the freeway, 101. So We just drove on through. We pulled out of the vineyard covered foothills into a small town either Petaluma or Wilfred and drove the in town-hwy toward 101 when we stopped at a light. It was James who noticed the driver in the beat-up old faded red coup with the faded-weathered peeling anti-war stickers and unwashed windows. "Look at that guy. He's driving without his hands. He's holding the steering wheel with his foot!"
Sure enough the guy was reclining somewhat int he driver's seat with one hand behind his head and the other holding a half peeled banana, taking bites now and again. He gripped the steering wheel between his big toe and the others. We were stopped at the time so we thought he was fiddling around waiting for the light to change. (I should mention that our van has limo-black tinted windows so he didn't notice all six kids staring at him. )
When the light changed he pulled off actually steering with his foot, munching on the banana. We were heading the same direction down the sometimes residential, sometimes ruralistic, sometimes commercial road. So we had the wonderful opportunity to observe him. He had sandy blond unkept long hair. He had a few facial hairs that seemed to be all he could manage to grow.
After a while he noticed us noticing him and (still with his hoot on the wheel) gave us an annoyed look and sped off. Lights and traffic, however, always brought our driving diversion back to us and that seemed to annoy him to no end. When we finally reached 101 he merged onto the hwy and took off ; we don't speed so our National Geographic-like observation of the Sonoma County Banana eating Foot Driving Hippie came to an end. But the story lives on.