Going Road Crazy

I pulled long days, driving driving driving and when I wasn’t driving, I was sleeping. Day one: Worked half the day and made it to Missoula, MT by 10pm. Day Two: Missoula to Bismarck, ND. Day Three: Bismark to Marquette, Michigan. 13 hours of driving. Day Four: Marquette to Grosse Pointe.

All by myself.

That’s some marathon driving, worthy of being considered an endurance sport. I know it probably wasn’t the smartest or best way to road trip, but I was anxious to return home, considering my rapidly approaching departure date (September 6!).

By the end, my lower back was shot, a sign that either I have bad posture, or I’m getting old (hah). My eyes couldn’t focus on anything closer than 20 feet in front of me. My knees were cramping. And my teeth had a sugar slime coating from too many gummi bears and Dr. Peppers. Basically, I felt fat and disgusting, like the guy from “Super-Size Me” on Day 30. Ironically, by Day Four, I kinda stopped eating meals because really, you don’t exert too much energy by just sitting all day. I’m sure that helped my feeling of malaise.

Sometimes, my caffeine would suddenly wear off and I had to pull over for a half-hour nap. This isn’t even like at 10pm, this happened mid-morning on my last day. I was instantly out, deep REM sleeping until I’d awake suddenly, thinking I was still driving. Interestingly enough, I had a lot of insomnia when it came time to finally sleep at the end of the day.

I need to detox. So far, home cooked meals and 10 hours of sleep have helped.

Don’t get me wrong, it was still a wonderful road trip experience and I know that when I’m stuck in the library come January, I’m still going to look fondly at the memory of getting calluses on my hand from gripping the steering wheel all day. As I’ve mentioned before, perfectly planned trips are not interesting; it’s the misadventures that you remember.

And so I guess that’s it. Thus concludes summer 2006. I think. I’ll blog a summary later on, but for now, I’m just going to relax in the bliss of not being stuck in a moving vehicle.

Well, as soon as I drive home, that is.