Long drives - what do you do?

[tzijlstra]

This last week was spent in the glorious Highlands, very high in fact - an hour north of Ullapool, the last bastion of remote civilisation in the North West of Scotland.

 

The trip there took 9 and a half hours, the trip back, including a planned 1 hour stop at a gallery took 11 and a half due to bank holiday weekend traffic and me underestimating the impact of Scots going to England for holiday. In the past I have driven 14 and 16 hour journeys from the North of England to the North of the Netherlands using the Channel Tunnel. This trip though made me think of the stuff I do on these journeys and made me wonder what my fellow forummers do.

 

What I do: Eat (way too many) mints, listen to BBC Radio Scotland/Radio 2 depending on the country I am in at the time, talk to the dog who is in the back of the car, get annoyed with people who are glued to the middle lane for no reason, chat with my wife about the sights and delights of the country-side until they run out, at which point I usually get annoyed with people that annoy me and get her telling me to calm down.

 

So what do you get up to?

[dutch]

She has got a point.

Getting annoyed with others is done by your own free choice. No matter what others do you have the freedom of choice to enjoy it or get annoyed.

 

The reason you don't feel like you have that freedom happens because it has become a habit and you blame the others for how you react instead of acknowledging your own responsibility of how you react.

 

I have stopped taking things personal and stopped believing others are responsible to behave a certain way to please my expectations. If I do get annoyed or upset I immediately look at myself as the source of that annoyance and calm down.

[Penistone999]

On long drives i just stick Radio 2 on and enjoy a few cigs along the way . Perfect.

[Guest]

Audiobooks, podcasts and music playlists. Prefer to fly for very long journeys, though, if at all possible.

[tzijlstra]

She has got a point.

Getting annoyed with others is done by your own free choice. No matter what others do you have the freedom of choice to enjoy it or get annoyed.

 

The reason you don't feel like you have that freedom happens because it has become a habit and you blame the others for how you react instead of acknowledging your own responsibility of how you react.

 

I have stopped taking things personal and stopped believing others are responsible to behave a certain way to please my expectations. If I do get annoyed or upset I immediately look at myself as the source of that annoyance and calm down.

 

Meh you make it sound like I am raging in the car for the entire duration, I now realise you could read it like that

 

So for balance: just three times I got annoyed yesterday:

 

An Audi overtook before a blind corner and had to cut in front of me to avoid slamming into an artic.

 

A white van man tailed me at less than five car lengths distance for the entire length of the A9 from Perth to Glasgow, he had ample opportunity to overtake (it's a dual carriageway!) but never did.

 

On the A1/M1 north of Leeds we had a horrendous deluge, people in front of me decided to slap on the breaks to cut speed from 60 to 30 when visibility dropped to some 20-30 meters and the road was covered in a sudden inch of water. If I hadn't kept distance I would have been right in their boot, if the car behind me hadn't kept distance or had had bad tyres they would have been in my boot.

 

You tell me that you wouldn't get annoyed!

 

(and yes, I will grant you I get annoyed with people glued to the middle lane... and that happens a lot, so perhaps you are right...)

[dutch]

I did not mean anything nasty tzijlstra, I don't see myself as perfect. I fully understand the feeling of frustration, that is why I started looking at the source of it.

Still fall into that same trap but when I do have changed the direction I look.

 

Main danger is to start blaming, yourself or the other does not matter, it will start the judgemental machine in your head and frustration is born.

Let them stick to the middle lane. If you don't like it, it is your decision to get frustrated, you could also have decided to like it and have a good time thanking them for it.

 

I don't really suggest that bad driving habits are good or something to feel happy about. But if there is little you can do when others drive a certain way you can at least make sure you are not ruining your own life when you can use that same time and energy to feel joyful.

[tinfoilhat]

Don't assume mr white van had the legs to go past you on the a9 ;)

 

Cricket is very good in the car if you can get a reliable lw or DAB signal. Radio 2 is pretty good if you can stand Chris Evans. Vital for the traffic news though.

[medusa]

I have to stop and take breaks frequently (tiredness due to medication, pain from back problems, letting the dog stretch her legs and go to the loo etc) so a 5 hour drive takes at least 8 or 9 hours.

 

In between rests and having little walks to bring the feeling back to my feet I put on lots of music and sing to it or listen to Radio 4 and argue against whatever discussion they're having, usually whilst drinking tea and playing sweetie roulette.

 

We have an old sweet jar in the car which has sweeties in it- they're all boiled sweets but I bought a big bag from a sweet shop and asked them to put in a few of every boiled sweet that they could find, so the challenge is on to a) identify the flavour before you've finished it and b) identify what it looked like so you can either have the same again or avoid it in future, dependent on whether you liked it or not

 

Little things please little minds etc

[GUZZIOWL]

I once rode 10,000 miles in 7 weeks ....and on another trip i rode to Somerset and back ..500 miles .....in a Blizzard (working as a Bike Courier )

[dutch]

I once was very angry and frustrated about some carton box that blew of an open van in front of me in the rain.

Later I was very happy about it as I got flashed by a speed check and the box covered the plates.