On the way to and from Sulaimaniyah last week, we passed several streams around which folks had gathered and seemed to be having a picnic. At one I saw a long line dance. At a couple of others, a car was pulled into the middle of the stream and was being washed.
The highway had no markings or road signs. No dashed center line, no road edge marker, no speed limits, just a strip of asphalt. It was a two lane highway, I guess, as cars would so side by side. Since there was no road edge, it made the whole strip open for traffic. Two cars could fit side by side okay.
In the hummers, we drive down the middle, in order to be as far as possible from IEDs. However, we'd pull over to let someone pass, which happened a lot. Our machine gunner, who faced the rear, would hollar down through the hatch "red car" or "white truck" or "several cars", and the driver would veer to the side.
Going up the hills, not particularly steep ones, the hummer would slow due the weight of the add on armor. I'm told they weigh around 9,000 pounds. They get around 6 miles to the gallon of diesel.
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