Driving Strategies

I have a lot of driving coming up over the next few weeks, and could use some suggestions for ways to stave off boredom or fiery doom.
Over the next two weeks I’m going to be driving up to Santa Cruz and back (4 hours each way), and back from San Francisco (5 hours or so… I’m going up, too, but not alone, so it’s different).

What strategies do you guys use when driving to stave off boredom, cramps, or what-have-you?

Right now, I try to buy stand-up comedian CDs, make sure not to play relaxing music, take breaks every 2 hours, and avoid using Cruise Control (it’s too easy to lose focus without that extra mental effort of maintaining the speed with the gas pedal).
Any other suggestions?

11 Responses to “Driving Strategies”

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Buy a book on tape/CD by James Burke (Connections guy). If you’ve got a tape player, actually, I could mail you some (er, five) and A Brief History of Time.

Owen - October 11th, 2004 at 1:08 pm

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“Harry Potter” (or some other popular book(s)) on tape/cd?

Teisha - October 11th, 2004 at 2:44 pm

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(or… tapes on learning a foreign language? :-))

Teisha - October 11th, 2004 at 2:45 pm

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Books on CD are a good idea. I used to listen to Anne Rice books on CD when I had to drive a half an hour to work. The copious amount of detail between plot points meant that I never missed a plot point and got confused.

For the record, though, the Silmarillion on CD is also pretty cool.

I think foreign language CDs *might* be a little too computationally intense for driving. Just maybe. 😛

Paradoxdruid - October 11th, 2004 at 2:51 pm

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Fine, try to drive safely and not learn a foreign language.. see if I care 😛

Teisha - October 11th, 2004 at 5:12 pm

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How about one of those Everthing’s alright detector (Patent Pending)?

Khirsath - October 11th, 2004 at 5:17 pm

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Not a bad idea — if he had one of those (assuming you mean the one from the Simpsons episode where Homer becomes obsessed with Edison), then when he went deaf everything _would be_ “alright” (if you can’t hear an approaching fire truck then it doesn’t exist, right?).

Teisha - October 11th, 2004 at 6:05 pm

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An Everything’s Alright Detector (patent pending) would be pretty cool, but what I really want is a Automatic Hammer (patent pending). 😀 Then every problem of mine could become a nail.

Paradoxdruid - October 11th, 2004 at 6:17 pm

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Check your battery before you go, charge your phone, drink alot. This will do to things, mean you stop often and keep you more alert.

Gilvoro - October 14th, 2004 at 5:59 pm

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I certainly have a hard time falling asleep at the wheel when I have to go to the bathroom so badly it hurts! 😛 Oh, you meant stop BEFORE you reach that point?

Mallorn - October 15th, 2004 at 10:59 am

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You’re probably different, but man, I can’t drive long hours during daylight. Something about sunlight coming through a winshield, makes me want to drift off to sleep. Play something loud and just engaging enough that it doesn’t become repetitive too quickly. I couldn’t get enough of Tenacious D when driving from Denver to Wichita…..Lots of coffee….lots of coffee…and also some coffee

Jon - October 17th, 2004 at 1:03 am

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