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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1712 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.

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.

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