My husband and I have been taking some short trips--an
overnight, a two-day, like that. Even though it's brief, we feel as if we've
been away, and that's what we're after.
We already knew that highway hypnosis, becoming drowsy after
driving a while no matter how much sleep you got the night before, is worse
with every passing year. We laugh that it now begins within an hour of our
departure, which is funny only because it's true.
After a half hour of increasingly large yawns, my husband
the driver revitalizes himself by pulling over to some quiet and shaded spot,
sleeping for fifteen or twenty minutes, then driving onward. We favor parks and
college campuses, but too often settle for rest stops where it's hot--or
freezing--and noisy, our sleep fitful.
Recently we agree getting off the limited access highway and
taking routes which pass through towns and farm fields may take longer but is
much less tiresome. Would we rather be in the car five hours, yawning for four
of them, talking silly nonsense or blasting music to stay wakeful enough to
drive, or slowing down for towns and trucks loaded with hay and logs you can
smell? Would we rather risk being detoured for a small town's bicycle race (as
we were one weekend), discuss the architecture, poverty, charm, or farm crops
we pass, or drive the same highway a the same speed until our minds are gone?
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