Given the focus on energy for this article, the topic that comes to mind is long-distance endurance driving. My love for the road began with a trip from the far north in Massachusetts down to the Florida Keys back in 2002. I had been regularly taking long trips across the northeast before this point. A bit later I crossed the country and moved to Los Angeles for a year. I flew back from LA to the northeast that time, but my cars haven’t seen the back of a truck since then, as I’ve driven nearly everywhere I’ve moved to, unless I travel abroad. This past month I’ve beaten my own previous records in terms of the number of hours I’ve been driving per day. I cannot beat my record of driving between the coasts in 4-5 days, unless I drive one way and then immediately head back, or attempt to move to Alaska, or Mexico. But I have previously assumed that I could not drive for over 14 hours per day without falling asleep. This month proved this assumption to be wrong.
I have been driving around to look at potential land to put a small manufactured house on to finally settle down. The first trip in this cycle took me to Horseshoe Bay in middle Texas. It was a seven-hour trip one-way, then several hours there inspecting land sites, and then the same number of hours going back. The “break” in the middle to take photos of the land means that I don’t count this attempt as a non-stop venture. On the other hand, the stop to take photos made me especially tired because I did it mid-day in the Texan summer sun, so I developed a slight sunstroke, and dehydration.
I avoid drinking much of anything on long trips for obvious reasons. The sunstroke meant that the dehydration was heightened, as water escaped my body. So, if anybody attempts long-distance driving, definitely do not sunbath in the middle.
But the record I am amazed about is my latest drive up to the topmost part of Texas from its southernmost tip in two days. I visited two cities on this trip and took a scenic route between them because Sygic suggested it and I was too tired to figure out which route was shorter. (Sygic is a better app in isolated places because it works offline, but it’s harder to find locations in it than with Google Maps.) In the two cities, I inspected over a dozen pieces of land. This time, it was raining rather than too sunny. So, I got a bit cold from soaking as I tried to get some good pictures. The drive up there took around 11 hours. It went smoothly enough. The tougher part was staying in the Best Western motel. The smell of cigarettes nearby, the cold room, moist and dusty sheets, and other annoyances kept me up for most of the night. The 3-hour nap was pretty exhausting. If I skipped the motel, and just looked at the properties, I might have been more energetic on the drive back. But, no, it’s more likely that the nap gave me the burst of energy I needed to continue. I did the viewings on the second day, and then drove back from the northern point of the trip for fourteen hours. I departed at 10am on Saturday and returned at 3am on Monday. There was an hour-long traffic jam at one stretch because police officers closed down four exits length of the highway for no apparent reason, (a delay during which I got some shuteye).
From Texas
Long Distance Driving
by Anna Faktorovich, PhD