Random Thought Thread

Moorik said:
Tomorrow I have to drive again — 450 miles, actually even a bit more, around 500. I want to stop by one place while I’m still in the area where I am now.


My wife bought a special bag and gel ice packs. Thanks to that, even after 12-14 hours everything in the bag stays perfectly cold, so I drink ice-cold drinks the whole way.


What tips or tricks do you have for long drives?


Basically, ways to make spending such a long time behind the wheel a bit more bearable?


For example, I keep eating something steadily throughout the trip and take a couple of 30-40 minute breaks where I always get out of the car and walk around.

And some good music,loud enough 😅
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Done long drives more than once. Some of them were pretty dumb, and I certainly wouldn’t repeat them now (like doing a straight round trip that entailed driving to South Carolina to pick something up, have lunch, then turn around and drive straight back.

I think I was awake for ~40 hours. Started getting really sleepy somewhere around 4 hours from home. Did my dumbass pull over to take a nap? Nope.

I got lucky. Hit some ridiculously dense fog. The kind where the taillights of a vehicle ahead are completely obscured if they’re further than ~100 yds (as in can’t even see the red lights in the dark).

Having to be alert, helped keep me awake. I learned a long time ago, that I can drive well enough in dense fog by using my high beams (something which generally advice says will blind you from glare). In my case, the high beams allow me to see the cats eyes further down the road (and reflective markers on curves) AND silhouettes (whether it’s vehicles or deer).

Then I got even luckier. Someone in an F150 blew by me, so I immediately floored it to follow him.

This guy was going WAY faster than anyone else around, so I reasoned that either;

A) he was a nut, so I stayed far enough back that I could juuuuust barely see his taillights in the fog, reasoning that if he crashed, I’d see his taillights jump and be able to slam on the brakes in time (and of course, my high beams were off).

B) he had thermal, which sees right through fog.

After following him for a bit, I determined that it HAD to be option B. I also discovered that the driver is an asshole.

Before he blew my me, I was the fastest vehicle on the road (due to using the high beam technique). That meant when I passed other vehicles, they would speed up to follow me through the fog, so I had a little conga line of 3 vehicles behind me, which I didn’t mind at all. The first vehicle behind me was keeping a safe gap, and the fog was so dense, his headlights were dim in the mirrors and not the least bit annoying.

When the F150 blew past all of us, and I floored it to follow him, it left the other vehicles behind.

Even though I was keeping a longer gap than the other vehicles who’d been following me (so I KNOW my headlights would’ve been really dim), this a-hole decided, “Ah paid for this’ere thermal so ah can drive in fog. You ain’t using it for free”, and proceeded to go even faster, trying to lose me in the fog.

Well, that led to me being wide awake, chasing this dumbass down foggy roads for 2-3 hours 😂. By the time we parted ways, I was only an hour from home, daylight began breaking, and I was no longer sleepy.
 
When we go on long road trips, we usually just listen to music and constantly joke around and chat with my wife.


But on this trip, at a certain point it started to feel really tedious and boring to drive.


Plus, the road in the direction we went this time was… well, pretty bad and completely empty — no civilization around.


Because of that, you have to drive carefully and not very fast most of the time.


Only in certain stretches can you really speed up and just cruise.


Those are some insane stories though.


But I wouldn’t dare do that… Seriously.


I can imagine doing 600-800 miles in a single day, but day after day 😅

Blues said:
I've also done 800 mile days several times
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bluemax_1 said:
think I was awake for ~40 hours. Started getting really sleepy somewhere around 4 hours from home
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So we went camping in the ponderosa pines last weekend and our Plott Hound has pine sap spots all over her belly and legs.
Any suggestions on how to remove the sap? I use WD-40 on my hands / arms when I get stuck but I'm not sure it would be good for the dogs.
 
Big DJ said:
So we went camping in the ponderosa pines last weekend and our Plott Hound has pine sap spots all over her belly and legs.
Any suggestions on how to remove the sap? I use WD-40 on my hands / arms when I get stuck but I'm not sure it would be good for the dogs.
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Vegetable oil or olive oil.


Something cheaper or more accessible — I used to remove it from my Labradors that way.


Pet stores sometimes sell special products specifically for glue or sap/resin. They’re usually better and cheaper than that stuff.


Man, vegetable and olive oil end up being more expensive than such a product — it really doesn’t cost much.


Although I did use vegetable oil 😅


There weren’t any stores nearby in the evening.

Also work with humans!
 
I've used (pharmaceutical grade) mineral oil in the past for sap.

ETA: Peanut Butter is mentioned also, (but must be Xylitol free, it's dangerous to dogs). I never thought of trying anything like that.

Dawn isn't recommended, and I wouldn't use WD-40 either.
 
Oh I didn’t read Big Dj’s post and didn’t understand what you were talking about. I’d probably rub it on my dogs paws and then wash them off with soap and water, same as I would with my paws. I have mentioned it before on here and I think people thought it was dumb. But I use it for stuff like tree sap, asphalt, tar
 
Put this in the wrong thread earlier sorry.

My thoughts can't help but bubble over sometimes. They mostly.... mostly they enforce up here

''Jet fuel can't destroy foreign passports.

Or one airplane wheel.

If I were the manufacturer of either of those things.... id be shouting from the rooftops that I made em.''
 
We regularly drive 650 miles between Atlanta and NW Arkansas when we go visit family. It takes about 11 hours. It helps that there is *nobody* on the road between Birmingham and Memphis, but the section of I40 between Memphis and Little Rock makes up for it by sucking especially badly.

My longest drive was a bit over 2,000 miles in 50 hours between Portland OR and NW Arkansas. I was pulling a 6x10 enclosed trailer behind my Grand Cherokee. That was a tough drive.

I honestly find driving in most of the middle of the country to be fairly relaxing. It’s nice to drive when you’re not surrounded by traffic. Driving on I95 up and down the east coast or I81 in VA is a whole different experience, and one that I find very stressful. It’s much harder to pile on the miles along those roadways.
 
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