In my youth I did those long distance hauls exclusively on a motorcycle. The cold wind whistling through the chinks in my clothing/helmet and the pavement whizzing by a few feet away were sufficient to keep me awake. To keep me from getting too bored, I used those times to work on math/physics problems in my head. It was good practice to learn to try to keep all the details in my head without paper to work on. I couldn't go as fast as I could with paper and pencil at hand, but I think it was a good exercise. I have no evidence that this type of mental exercise reduced my road awareness... it is interesting which types of multi-tasking works.
In later years, I used books on tape to keep me from idling to distraction. For the most part I've never had trouble getting sleepy while driving, or at least not until my much later years when I *usually* have the option and wisdom of not driving late into the night. When I do find myself needing to push past my comfort zone on wakefulness, eating sunflower seeds from the shell seems to help, the way I suppose smoking helps with smokers, but without the stimulant benefit of nicotine. The "compulsive" repetitive motion is a good metronome of sorts. Gary, any chance you knew Jack Horner at KSU? I think he might be a few years older than you... mid 60's now. He has recently returned to Manhattan for his retirement years. FWIW On 1/5/18 8:13 AM, ∄ uǝʃƃ wrote: > Yeah, singing *along* to prerecorded music works to some extent. But I can > still fall quiet, even if the music is nice and loud, maybe like Dead Horse: > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3EtqJ0OUDc There's something about the > engagement required for it to keep me awake. I've had good luck with no > radio, but trying to remember lyrics and sing them. But if someone else is > "driving" and I'm just "riding along", it doesn't have the same effect. > > On 01/04/2018 05:25 PM, Gary Schiltz wrote: >> Speaking of keeping awake when driving (a good idea), in my first few years >> of college, I went home to help out my folks on the farm nearly every >> weekend. It was a three hour drive from Wathena, Kansas to Manhattan >> (Kansas, that is, The Little Apple, home of Kansas State University). I >> often waited until Monday morning to return to Manhattan, even when I had a >> 7:30 am statistics class. So, I usually had to drive several hours in the >> dark before getting there. It took a lot of hot coffee and 8-track tapes to >> keep me awake. I especially liked listening to John Denver and singing along >> (badly, I'm sure, but with no traffic and only cows in the pasture along the >> highway to awaken, I blasted it out at the top of my lungs). One of my >> favorites was "Two Shots" from the Windsong album. One line in particular >> sticks in my mind: "I took two shots, got no ducks, and cold, cold hands." > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
