Descending into silence
My favourite part of a long drive is when the entire car descends into silence. Alone in our separate thoughts and activities, Heather reading and the boys playing on the iPads, we were on the final stretch of our long trip from Fort McMurray to Red Deer when everything became still.
Usually after 6 hours of driving, I start to battle drowsiness. However, the combination of an early evening coffee and being on a strict eating program left me feeling acutely awake, almost in a Zen-like state.
My mind was sharp, twisting and turning from one interesting pathway of thoughts to another. It was lovely.
I'm not a big fan of driving at night anymore. The lines on the QE2 were difficult to make out in the half-light of sunset. While I was fully alert, the optic signals my brain was attempting to process were misleading at best, distracting at worst. I can see how accidents happen, even in perfectly fair weather. All you need to do is make one millisecond mistake, and your world can turn upside down.
We arrived at our hotel by 11:30 pm, ready to hit the hay and restore for the relatively reasonable leg to Hillcrest in the Crowsnest Pass this morning.
It was clear that we had acclimatized ourselves to the raging heat of the summer, often going to sleep with an indoor temperature of 28-30 degrees - we don't have AC. The hotel room was set at 22 and we were all freezing. However, it made for a great sleep, all nestled under the covers.
Usually after 6 hours of driving, I start to battle drowsiness. However, the combination of an early evening coffee and being on a strict eating program left me feeling acutely awake, almost in a Zen-like state.
My mind was sharp, twisting and turning from one interesting pathway of thoughts to another. It was lovely.
I'm not a big fan of driving at night anymore. The lines on the QE2 were difficult to make out in the half-light of sunset. While I was fully alert, the optic signals my brain was attempting to process were misleading at best, distracting at worst. I can see how accidents happen, even in perfectly fair weather. All you need to do is make one millisecond mistake, and your world can turn upside down.
We arrived at our hotel by 11:30 pm, ready to hit the hay and restore for the relatively reasonable leg to Hillcrest in the Crowsnest Pass this morning.
It was clear that we had acclimatized ourselves to the raging heat of the summer, often going to sleep with an indoor temperature of 28-30 degrees - we don't have AC. The hotel room was set at 22 and we were all freezing. However, it made for a great sleep, all nestled under the covers.
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