Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 17:58:55 -0800
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: SECRETS for staying awake
In-Reply-To: <001301bf798b$a6f74060$320dacd1@lawscomputer>
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At 1:12 PM -0800 2/17/00, LAWS HOME wrote:
>Even at 60mph. you can make 500 miles a day , with a lunch break, and
>taking a >rest stop every 3 or 4 hours.
Right on, brother! In our old air-cooled bus, we had a very enjoyable
15,000 mile trip all around North America, and we cruised at 57 mph the
whole way. We had 3 months to do it, so we had very few days we were
driving for more than 10 or 12 hours. The slow speed and the frequent
stops allowed us to enjoy the trip that much more. We're driving BUSES,
here, people! Get off the freeways, slow down, enjoy the scenery, smell
the flowers, take a minute to put on more patchouli, man! Leave the
freeway white-line fever to the Lexus drivers and other automatons!
I just brought up a new (to me) 1982 westy diesel from LA to Canada, did it
in two days comfortably with two drivers. OK, a trip like that needs
freeway driving, even if they are just a tool of The Man. Even with breaks
every few hours, we did 830 miles the first day, cruising at 62 mph--and 40
mph up hill in Northern CA.
Yeah, it was a bit of a long day, but we had two drivers, and I typically
sleep 5 - 6 hours a day anyway. And (important) the next day was a lot
shorter, leaving more time for drumming on my bongos and meditating with
crystals and my powerbook.
Whenever I do feel drowsy, I just pull over and find a quiet place to
sleep. With a westy, my pad's always with me, so I can crash anytime I
want. Sleep is *it*, man. Or I can make myself some herbal tea and cool
out. Or just pull the curtains, put on some GD, plug my lava lamp into the
inverter, and soak up the space. Always good for a couple more hours
driving time.
I don't think I'd be comfortable pushing for two or more 830 mile days. A
600 mile day is plenty when on a long trip--if you need to cover more
ground than that consistently, maybe you're planning needs a re-think.
Maybe you should even consider (eep) flying. If I had to drive long days
two or more days in a row my energy would get really screwed up and it'd be
really hard to relate to what was happening while driving. You can only
groove to the tunes of your ride for so long before you lose your edge, man.
T.
(whose diesel's got great tunes at 3800 rpm)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley Bowen Island, BC, Canada tobin.copley@ubc.ca
'82 westy 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell =============
'99 daughter Margaret /_| |__| |__|:| clatter
1995: 'Round US, Mexico, Canada 15,000 mi O|. .| clatter!
1996: Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT 7,400 km ~-()-==----()-~
Previous buses: '76 westy deluxe (Daisy), '76 westy standard (Mango)
http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/
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