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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2018 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 26, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Some Observations From a 2500 Mile Road Trip

I spent a large part of June on the American Interstate.

I decided to take an "open ended" summer vacation. What I mean by that is that I got in my Truck and drove with generally a city in mind, but with no reservations already booked or itineraries planned. I'd get to the target city or, in a few cases, decided on the fly to keep truckin' to a different city, and then book a Motel/Cheap Hotel instantly on my phone. Think "Holiday Inn Express" grade of places. Clean enough, with AC, locks on the doors that work, 24 hour person at front desk. Nothing fancy in the rooms, but they did have coffee makers.

I'd spend between one and three nights in a given city and then move on.

Here are some assorted notes on the moving on part - the driving.

  1. Drive between 150 - 200 miles at a time, then take a 10 minute break. If you do this, you can do 600 miles per day without feeling road weary. My longest day - where I was intentionally trying to set my own record - I hit 803. That was a lot and I wouldn't do it again. Trying to do a marathon push of 5+ hours behind the wheel, in my experience, creates a negative compounding tiredness.
  2. Big breakfast, snack and starve during the day. I started each day with truly epic breakfasts at the classics spots - Denny's, Waffle House, iHop. I'd leave with large ToGo cups of coffee. I was peppy and alert. Then, for the rest of the driving day, I'd eat some variety of trail mix and drink water. This kept my energy level smooth and consistent and I never got drowsy behind the wheel. I can do a bunch of caffeine in the morning but, after lunch, sodas or coffee get me feeling over-stimulated for some reason. The jitters make the drive more difficult. Dinners were only after I had checked into a hotel and were more modest the breakfast.
  3. (Staying On food) the reality really is grim for truckers. There can be lots of highway between even small cities, and its populated by gas stations and fast food outposts. The really is a dearth of semi-healthy food options. It took a lot of discipline for me not to eat a burger or hotdog each day, and I was driving without deadlines or within the context of a "job." It is easy to see how someone working under stress is going to default to the most convenient option.
  4. I don't think chronic speeding gets you to your destination faster. The naive argument of "It's speed / distance!" doesn't hold up for a number of reasons. First, once you're at 80 mph+, your effective miles per gallon plummets because of the energy needs to overcome air resistance at that speed. Depending on tank size, this can result in an extra fuel stop or two. If you aren't practicing your NASCAR team refueling process and, instead, using the bathroom, buying snacks etc. then these pit stops negate any time saved from speeding. More systemically, my observation was that traffic really does exist in "waves" even on the loneliest of highways. You may be able to speed at 80+ for some time but, eventually, you'll just run into a dozen or so cars / trucks moving in a rough "pack" closer to the speed limit. If you find something like an RV or a heavy load truck, it can be in the right lane doing below the speed limit and cause a jam up around it. You then have to fight your way through this "pack" before getting back up to speed. Much like the pit stops, this sucks back any time gains earned while speeding. Thus, my strategy was to be captain cruise control - speed limit plus 5 mph. People could pass me on the right as much as they wanted. When I passed people, I'd get back in the right lane ASAP.
  5. Silence >>>>> Podcasts > Musics. Driving without any podcast / music in the Truck was the easiest mileage I did, and I felt the best after. Still, eventually I did get a feeling of antsy-ness that would get cured with a podcast. Music I left for in town driving because I have a tendency to start hitting the skip button a lot trying to search for a "perfect" song.
  6. Drivers are truly insanely dangerous. The overestimation of ability is breathtaking. Constant tailgating and lane weaving at 70+ mph. A human simply doesn't have enough basic reaction speed to adjust on the fly at those speeds. Add in the fact that bad drivers seem to always be somewhat distracted. Death machines, each of them. I saw multiple cases of people clearly watching something on their phones while driving. One woman I passed was eating with a plastic fork and knife out of a Styrofoam food container she had balanced on the neck behind the steering while, obscuring her own dashboard. Another guy was tailgating an 18-wheeler, perhaps four feet from the truck's rear bumper, while laying on his horn. I have no idea what his intent was. According to Wikipedia motor-vehicle deaths are, if I'm reading correctly, the 2nd most common cause of accidental death in the US, behind "poisoning." As much as a car enthusiast as I am, I am beginning to think that driver training should be far, far more involved and thorough than at present, and that loss of license for repeated infractions (speeding, recklessness etc.) should be more common.

What about destination patterns? Did you enjoy any of the random cities a bit more or less than you thought?

Your music point is heard. I incur some non-trivial costs for playlist creation and maintenance, but over the past decade or so I've built up a critical mass of 1-8 hour playlist collateral I can safely just hit "Play" on in shuffle mode and fit the bill. I think it's worth doing so for a couple of your favorite artists and genres to start at least.

Thanks for your observations! I planned for the end of august my first real roadtrip as a driver and with my wife, so your insights are relevant and interesting.

Personally I enjoy travelling but dislike driving. I used to enjoy driving but my reaction speed is getting worse so it's more of a dangerous activity than an adventurous one.

2500 miles of driving sounds like a punishment to me, I'd rather lay down on the floor and sleep.

book a Motel/Cheap Hotel instantly on my phone. Think "Holiday Inn Express" grade of places. Clean enough

Any tips for sussing out hotels without knowing the area? I have stumbled into some horribly seedy hotels lately that all have cheerful 4+ average ratings on every website. It makes me really hate the entire yelp/google maps/whatever system as a whole.

(Staying On food) the reality really is grim for truckers

Have thought about this a lot lately. Idk if it's true in the entire country but at least I can always count on Panda Express and Chipotle in most places I've been for a relatively healthy relatively cheap meal. You're playing Russian roulette with a lot of other places imo and I just don't like regular tier fast food (so expensive now and really unsatiating)

I think you must be one of those visiting Europeans because, as a US native, a five hour drive is entirely unremarkable. I do more than that twice per week though with stops at job sites.

When I think of a 'push' I'm thinking of the SF Bay Area to Seattle in one go, or at least Bay Area to LA or San Diego. I've also driven across this great land of ours, probably 12+ hours of driving per day, though took a winding route so as to see some of the sights and it still ended up taking five or six days.

Silence >>>>> Podcasts > Musics

Audiobooks are the only things that keep me sane. Currently blowing through Aubrey/Maturin at a most prodigious rate. But after living this way for... fifteen years? I have something like 600 Audible titles and enough material at this point that I could easily go the rest of my life just re-listening to what I already have.

The really is a dearth of semi-healthy food options

I'm a believer in bringing at least a mini ice chest with good things in it.

I don't think chronic speeding gets you to your destination faster. The naive argument of "It's speed / distance!" doesn't hold up for a number of reasons. First, once you're at 80 mph+, your effective miles per gallon plummets because of the energy needs to overcome air resistance at that speed.

This is definitely underappreciated, and it gets much worse when instead of filling up a tank you're charging a tesla.

motor-vehicle deaths are, if I'm reading correctly, the 2nd most common cause of accidental death in the US, behind "poisoning."

Kinda weird. I've known of countless people who died in car accidents and none who died of poisoning. Wonder if it's a regional thing? Maybe a social filter bubble? Anyway I'd expect medical malpractice to be number one by far, though maybe for some reason that doesn't count as 'accidental'.

Drivers are truly insanely dangerous. The overestimation of ability is breathtaking.

And they vote!

I've known of countless people who died in car accidents and none who died of poisoning. Wonder if it's a regional thing? Maybe a social filter bubble?

Would "poisoning" potentially include accidental drug overdoses?

It seems so.

I guess you are stopping places so there is no need to do a lot of mileage but I don’t consider 800 miles in a day as a lot. I just had a friend leave Florida for Detroit to see family and he started at 3 am to avoid traffic.

Only a few western states would have a need for 800+ days when your not actually relocating etc.

I don’t consider 800 miles in a day as a lot.

Cool. What is a lot then?

Here's my math:

A heuristic for hourly all-in speed is about 60 mph. This takes into account stops for fuel, rest etc. You're doing 75 or so on the highway, but there's traffic etc.

12 hours would be 720 miles. 13 would be 780. 14 would be ... you get the idea.

I just would not consider it heroic. Especially on interstate highways where going 80 is realistic. 16 hours getting close to 80 for long distance travel.

y, and then book a Motel/Cheap Hotel instantly on my phone. Think "Holiday Inn Express" grade of places. Clean enough,

Just be careful of bed bugs.

Any reliable way to determine if they are present upon walking into a room?

I'd google it and try and see what tricks you can do, I think you can look at the underside of a mattress but with the way my travel habits work out it's not something I actively think about so I'm not the best source.

I would definitely use some of the other tricks in terms of things like where to put your bag and stuff, lower level hotels are much more likely to have the problem and taking it home suuuuccckkkksss.

I envy your ability to enjoy driving on long road trips. Most of my long road tripping strategies are just on avoiding annoyances.

I think speeding might only be worth it to avoid getting stuck at long lights on a short drive. I regularly have to take 10-20 minute trips around town. Some of the longer light cycles are five minutes. There might be two or three of these lights on the drive, so making both at the end of the red cycle rather than the beginning might cut your trip time in half. It's also a bunch of luck and if the lights are properly synced up you really just need to go the speed limit (however this makes getting behind a slow driver extra frustrating).

On long trips I like to avoid the packs as much as possible. The larger the speed difference between the passing and cruising lanes the faster the pack will clear. I like to avoid being the cause of the pack cuz I don't like cars being around me. I agree with you that they are dangerous as hell. So if I'm in cruising lane at 5 over the speed limit. And someone is just limping along passing me, I'll drop my speed to five below the limit and it will usually break up the pack, or at least allow it to get around me

For food and staying awake I've noticed that spicy snacks seem best for me as an emergency "stay awake" snack. Caffeine doesn't do much for me. I can have 200ml of caffeine and still fall asleep an hour later.

For entertainment we have an in car video system for the kids in the back, or we will pull out tablets that we only give them for road trips. I have a playlist of music I like. If I go with silence for too long I go a bit stir crazy and get too focused on things outside the car. I usually try and put together a list of topics to talk about with my wife.

We have 750 mile trip and 360 mile trip coming up this summer. The 750 one we will split up into two days with a hotel stop between. With the young kids we have there are so many more breaks and bathroom stops. Eating at mildly interesting places is more fun, since the kids will be entertained by the smallest of things.

Yep, the whole calculus changes with kids, and you have to be much more intentional and disciplined about meals, bathroom breaks, and finding ways to keep them occupied.

I didn't enjoy road tripping before kids either.

It makes some things easier. Looking back on it I don't think I took enough long breaks as an adult on road trips. I could go three hours without any stops, and maybe 6-8 hours with only minor stops. But stopping every 1 or 2 hours just makes the whole driving part far less exhausting. And ya it adds a lot of overall time to the trip. But getting where we are going an hour or two later barely matters in the long-run.

Our kids also legitimately enjoy some of the places we have stopped. Like our first visit to a buccees out in Tennessee. They took pictures with the mascot, ate some really good sandwiches, looked through the thousands of souvenir things they sold, got excited about the bathrooms, bought a buccees shirt, and then took pictures outside next to the buccees statue. They talked about that part of the trip for about half a year afterwards.

Had we been planning the trip I don't think we would have allotted an hour of time to visit a glorified and super sized gas station. But I'm happy we went.

buccees

Every company in the world needs to be researching whatever the hell is the secret sauce for buccees, even my completely zero whimsy elderly father loves that place.

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