26 FEB 07
We're heading south today in the snow, on the road to Atlanta (about 1,775 miles round trip). We'll make a couple of stops. Our friend Maurice (who averages 300 miles a day, six days a week) sent the following driving tips.
Things I have found make the drive less stressful:
1. Map out before you go, spend a few quiet minutes looking over maps and making simple instructions you can read (or have read to you) while you drive. This will save time trying to find a place where you can pull off and try to read a map in the car, always a nightmare. Use a magnifying glass, much easier on the eyes.
2. Take note of the street before the street you need so you are ready to turn.
3. Drink a 12-ounce coffee before hitting the road. You can hold it for 2-3 hours and you are in sync with other drivers.
4. Carry water and sip it now and then. Also carry hard candies like lemon drops, or grapes. Treat yourself now and then.
5. Wear sunglasses and use the visor even when you're not going into the sun, the sky is full of glare. Your face will relax, and you will relax.
6. Put your hands at "4 & 8 o'clock" on the wheel, turn your hands over now and then.
7. If you have speed control use it, then don't worry about the troopers and relax your legs. I set mine at 5 miles over the limit.
8. Don't worry about what other drivers think or do, they will forget everything soon. And don't try to get out of the way of all the speeders, let them go around you.
9. Stay out of the far left lane on big roads, let the crazy people use it.
10. Pick a lane and stay in it.
11. I don't use the rear view mirror, it's annoying, too much information. Just be very careful changing lanes especially going left, there's a huge blind spot there. I always lean way forward and take a good look before I move into the left lane.
12. Yes, that was Lake Merritt. Karen & I were there a long time ago on one of our weird dates so seeing the shark in the lake was perfect. Sometimes we met in the cemetery or the abandoned house next door.
13. Take a break every 2 or three hours, and stretch. Breathe deep and bend up & down, and side to side, etc. It will really refresh you and help keep you awake.
14. If you feel drowsy, pull off and stretch, or take a short nap.
15. Your passenger will be on the cell phone or working on a laptop or reading or even staring into space or dozing off, we don't initiate conversation or ask personal questions. We want to give the clientele a smooth ride and we don't want to frighten them.
yours truly, Maurice
P.S. I'm not experienced in snow but if you hit water and hydroplane don't brake, take your foot off the gas and coast until it feels like the car is touching, meeting the road. It really helps to have a clean windshield, inside and out, because poor visibility is tiring.
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