There is this very basic 12 hour drive I’ve been doing 3 times a year for about ten years now. Some things I’ve learned:
I find that cruise control is dangerous for me on long drives: the pressure of my foot on the gas pedal keeps me in “driving” mode.
Singing good.
Math good. I am CONSTANTLY checking my tripometer and recaluculating my MPH, my ETA, etc. I’m making predictions of when I will reach certain spots. Also, I do fractions “Ok, I’ve one-sixth of the way there. So I have to do what I have done five more times. I can do that. . . .”
Double checking the highway people’s milage. Ah, it says it’s 230 miles to Birmingham. What do they count as “Birmingham” then?
Trying to remember things, like where I’ve spent every Christmas and New Year’s eve the last decade.
Having converstions with the people in my head. Mostly these are rants.
Leaving early in the morning–not driving all night. I like to leave around 4, so that it is getting light right when things are getting monotonous.
Ditto the hard candy. Back when I smoked, the smoking really helped keep me amused.
Note, though: I don’t really get sleepy on a twelve hour drive. I don’t think I could do 16 in one sitting–I’d have to stop for the night or hand it off to someone.
On long (daytime!) drives, my mother pulls off the highway and attempts to find a non-scuzzy looking, crowded, and well-lighted parking lot–whereupon she proceeds to take a twenty-minute nap.
No, really. :smack:
I can’t think that’s all that safe, but then again, as she says, it’s got to be safer than getting in a giant auto smashup…
Music - heavy metal. I will load all my rammstein collection, most of my led zep collection, acdc collections, or the whole 4 disc woodstock into the car…I love singig along, as mrAru likes the same music so we will sing along together=)
He tends to fall asleep, but music keeps me awake. I can’t fall asleep in a moving vehicle so for anything over a 16 hour drive we get a hotel room when I can’t drive any longer. We tried sharing the driving on one trip across the country. I picked him up at the boat and set off and we broke just over in North Carolina. Next morning we decided I would drive the first 6 hours and him the second. Bad idea. The little lizard in my hindbrain must be named Rincewind because it set up a refrain of O MY GOD I AM GOING TO DIE for the next hour. So I figured it was because I was tired. Next morning Rob started off. The lizard showed up shortly riding shotgun. I can’t ride with Rob driving unless I am whacked on enough valium to put me into a twilight sleep. We travel by me driving for 12 to 16 hours and then stopping. We stop for gas and a walk/whizz/snack every 2 or 3 hours.
I love audio books, unabridged. I have a bunch ranging from Suetonius Lives of the Caesars, through several Harry Potter novels, to Vincent Price reading stories from E A Poe, and steven king stories=)
I hate listening to radio, the commercials annoy me intensly and I hate the choice of playlist for pretty much all stations=(
I can usually only do about 3 hours at a stretch without a small break. (at least 15 minutes). I figure it’s probably good for everyone for me to get out of the car for a few minutes…
And usually, if I’m travelling that far, 15-30 minutes is not going to make or break me.
Talk radio that you really disagree with is good, too. And I have (both intentionally and unintentionally) stopped drinking caffeine about 2 weeks before a long drive. Normally, coke does nothing, but after being entirely uncaffenated for a while, a half can of coke does amazing things.
Florida’s new state motto: Our schools are no worse than Kentucky’s!
I used to let my wife drive for a little while and I would be so badly frightened that any drowsy was pushed away by the adrenalin for hours.
ShibbOleth, I entertained the idea of moving to Florida a while ago, until I had visited. All I can say is that I will not move to the Sarasota/Venice/Nokomis area. I think the area is, well, flat might be the polite way to say it. Featureless. Blah. I’ve never been fond of those palm trees plants. And the heat in summer is, well, hot. The only plus side is that I believe it would possible for me to wrangle a convertible something out of it.
Perhaps in the future I will not travel at night, and I will try making more regular, longer stops. We’ll see.
It is flat, moslty. Definitely flat compared to the rolling Kentucky hills. And it skews old. But we’ve got lots of nice restaurants and you don’t have to drive 16-20 hours to take the kids to DizzyWorld. Oh, and we do have some interesting wildlife. And Ocala is sort of rolling hills/horse country like Lexington, but you probably slept through that part. Ditto Gainesville. Farther south you go = flatter it is.
Also, FWIW, if you’d bought that place in Sarasota county some time earlier you could have sold it now, moved back to KY, and bought a mansion. The prices there are going up that quickly.
Ref: Money Magazine
We were visiting for my wife’s aunt’s funeral. I was discussing local housing prices with her uncle. The last couple years has seen his home’s value almost double. So whatever I had imagined about moving down there has quickly gone from my price range. Oh well, like I said, I wasn’t all that interested anyway.
I’m a fan of highway rest stops. I once lived out of my car while traveling the country for a few months, and I figured out that at a rest stop or a truck stop or any similar stop, for every one person who might give me trouble, there’s ten truckers who are going to kick his ass.
I do all of this as well. I also tend to break down a long drive into smaller drives in my mind. That is, “I have 300 miles to go. That’s just two trips to Santa Cruz and back, that’s easy!” I make the SF-SC trip at least once a month, so it just flies by for me.
One time I actually fell asleep, and next thing I knew I was still coasting along - but in the next lane. There were cars all around me but somehow they managed to avoid being hit by me. :eek: Since then, whenever I feel seriously sleepy I find a parking lot or rest sleep and take a nap.
Satellite radio is a good investment if you drive long distances often. Or if you have an iPod or laptop, you can get a lot of talk radio content for free (most of Air America Radio’s content is available through podcast now, without commercials!), or you can buy downloadable audiobook files at Audible, many of them unabridged. I’ll need to go on two more 8-hour trips to finish Atlas Shrugged (unabridged).
I think a novel like Atlas Shrugged, particulaly if read by someone with a soporific voice, is a really bad idea if you tend to fall asleep while driving. I’ve had some books on CD like that. Go for something a little more exciting and lighthearted.
I used to drive a lot for work. I’ve always driven a lot just for myself. I can drive 8 or 10 hours easily getting by with only the breaks for gas or the restroom. More than that, I start getting tired and 16 or 17 hours would probably be my limit. I’ve done 17 hour drives twice. If the trip would have taken longer I probably would have stopped at 16 hours but I felt I could do the last hour safely.
If ever I am driving and find my eyes trying to close on me, I stop at the next place I can and get at least a short nap.
Once or twice a year, I make the drive from here (see location) to my mom’s place near Palm Springs. I just got back yesterday, in fact.
My Neuros helps a lot. I’ve got a few audio books on it, and I heartily recommend the audio version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (which is a bit abridged). Especially for that stretch of I-15 between Barstow and Las Vegas. Before I had the Neuros, I’d stop at truck stops and look through their selection of comedy tapes.
My biggest recommendation for long distance driving, though, is to invest in a good road atlas. The first time I made that trip, I Mapquested it and it took me through Salt Lake City and Arizona! That wasn’t fun. Now I just take the 93 down to Vegas (taking the 318 shortcut through Nevada) and go from there. And a Mapquest direction list doesn’t help at all if you get lost. As I regularly make a wrong turn somewhere in Las Vegas, it’s a lifesaver.
I’m 43. ( Age has been mentioned in some posts ) I happen to enjoy driving. In the last year, I’ve done NY to Toledo straight shot ( about 11 hours ), and Philly to Chicago in snowstorms. ( day and a half ). I have XM Radio, and long drives like this are why I got it. I’m driving to Chicago again this August and plan to enjoy the heck out of it then as well.
Books on tape were a crapshoot. If the actor’s voice was engaging, the hours could fly by. If their voice was droning, I was in serious doo-doo. The XM Radio changed all of that. I slide from music to CNN ( confirmed news junkie here ) to the comedy channels, etc. Always something neato to listen to.
I drove the tank more than once since getting it. I tend to drink enormous amounts of water or soda when driving, as well as iced coffee. Mmmm…love mah Hazelnut coffee over ice. Caffeine does help, but having my mind engaged with music or spoken word helps more.
I second what Tentacle Monster said about the atlas. My first time driving in NYC, and using mapquest, was supposed to take the GWB, mapquest said zig. We we supposed to zag. Ended up in what looked like the Bronx. I dug it, but Mrs. Jockey was none-too-pleased. We went from Chicago, to Montreal, to Toronto, all through New England (NY, NJ, NH, VT, ME, RI, MA) and back home, and what kept me going was a couple of riveting audio books (no atlas shrugged, for the lurve’a god) and plenty of things to do, like trying to remember the UN placard numbers on tankers and such. Plus, hot tea and/or diet coke, in quantity.
Personally, I LOVE to drive alone. I can stop as much or as little as I want to, I can eat my beef jerky without all the fuss about the smell, and can sing along with any stupid little song I choose to.
And OP, if your’re tired, stop. Sleep deprivation or tiredness for any reason is as bad as having your limit to drink, and just as dangerous.
Wyhat dances said. For the longest time I was nodding off in meetings and while driving, and attributed it to advanced age. After I was diagnosed as having a sleep disorder (a rather severe case of apnea) and started treatment for it, my sleepiness disappeared.
CHECK YOUR EXHAUST SYSTEM! Carbon monoxide can kill you in two ways: directly or by knocking you out while you’re going 65 miles per hour. Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, and Rick Mast have all admitted to “falling asleep” at the wheel of a NASCAR Winston Cup car - during a race. In Petty’s case, he managed to finish, then realized something was wrong when he couldn’t remember what position he was in.
The 65 MPH (100 km/h) limit is deadly for this reason. Sixty-five on a modern highway induces both highway hypnosis and boredom through understimulation. If you want to drive long days on the Interstates, buy a Valentine One, on credit if you have to. It is cheaper than any one speeding ticket and a lot cheaper than getting towed out of a cornfield after you fall asleep. The other advantage of going 95 instead of 65 is that you’re wasting every third minute when you’re going slowly - most modern, aerodynamic cars get approximately the same mileage at these speeds. If you drive 700 miles, you’ll be tired after the drive is over. If it takes you eight hours, the fatigue will hit you like a ton of bricks as soon as you get out of the car. If it takes you twelve, you’ll suddenly realize after about ten hours that you don’t know what mile marker you’re at.
