Earlier this week, I took a solo road trip from my home in Wichita, Kansas to St. Louis, Missouri. The 884 mile round trip took about 15 hours to drive, not including stops for gas, restroom, and meals. That made for a lot of time driving by myself, and when I'm driving for a while by myself, I tend to spend a bit of time thinking. Here, in no particular order, are some of the things I thought about in all that time on the road.
The importance of speed limits: Really this one should be a no-brainer, but it seems like a lot of other drivers were not paying any attention to what the signs said. Shortly after crossing the state line, I saw a sign about how there had been 396 road fatalities so far this year, and 58% weren't wearing their seatbelts. That means that 42% were, which is a whopping 168 people belted in who were killed in car accidents in six months. That figure astounded me until I actually got into St. Louis. As I left the hotel to come home, I got onto I-64, and started driving 60 miles per hour, which was the posted speed limit. However, I seemed to be the only one on the road doing so, and from the way others were passing me, they were probably going at least 70, if not more. There were a few points where I bumped my speed up to 65 just because there was so much traffic going so fast that it was dangerous to maintain the posted speed. Speed limits are posted for a reason, and that reason is not so they can be ignored. While I did not witness any accidents on my trip, there were a few near misses, and I can very easily see why almost 400 people have lost their lives on Missouri roads so far in 2018.
Facing our fears: I was very glad during my trip that I have mostly gotten over my fear of driving around semis, because there were a lot of them sharing the road with me in those 15 hours. I was still cautious around them, but there's a big difference between being cautious and being scared. At one point in my trip, I was behind one cab that was being towed by another. As usual, the cab being towed was facing backwards, which has led to many a YouTube video pranking a sleeping passenger (which I think is pretty cruel).
In this instance, the towed cab was a deep, devilish red. I was behind the two cabs for a few miles because while they were going below the speed limit, it was only slightly below, and there was enough traffic that I didn't want to try passing them right away. In the time I was following, I stared at the devil-colored cab, and visualized that I was having a staring contest with Satan himself. When traffic cleared, I went to pass them, but knew I had to get my timing just right. Between the weight distribution, the wind, and the winding road, the driver was having a bit of trouble keeping everything within one lane. The two cabs shifted to the right, and I began to pass. Suddenly, a gust of wind hit the cab in front, and the tires slid into the space in front of me in my lane as we approached a bridge with no shoulder. I slowed down so I was behind them once more. After we crossed the bridge, the cabs swung to the right, and I floored the gas and slid past them, yelling, "Not today, Satan!" I had faced my fear head-on, and told it that it would never rule me again.
Good, Christian music: The CD changer in my car was loaded with two Jordan Feliz CDs, The River and Future, two Steven Curtis Chapman CDs, Declaration and Speechless, Casting Crowns' The Very Next Thing, and I Am They's Trial and Triumph. All six are filled with good, uplifting songs, which were great at helping reduce anxiety, and helping me be nicer to other drivers. At one point, I put on my blinker to pass a very slow truck, and before a spot cleared in the other lane for me to move over, the semi behind me decided that he didn't want to pay attention to my blinker, and moved over into the spot I was about to have. My sinful nature really wanted to call him every bad name in the book, but having just finished belting out an SCC song, I couldn't. Admittedly that didn't prevent me from snarky comments later on after I was finally in front of him again and went to pass someone else, but it did cause me to pause in the moment. It's much easier to remember who you are when every song playing through your speakers is a reminder.
Technical difficulties: On a related note to my last point, good uplifting songs can help you deal with frustrations as well, even when those frustrations interfere with said songs. At other times, I had noticed that occasionally a CD would mess up while I was driving, but on the road this time, I discovered a pattern. Future, The River, and Trial and Triumph, which were in positions 1, 4, and 6, messed up at least twice, with The River never playing all the way through any of the three times it played. As I thought about it, I realized that all the other times a CD had messed up, it had been in those same positions. While it is quite annoying to know I have three bum slots in the CD changer, I am choosing to see the good in the situation. Since only three and a half songs of Future played the first time through, I was listening to the first five songs of The River while driving through construction in Kansas City, and since I know those songs well, it was comforting during a stressful situation. Since the two Steven Curtis Chapman CDs played well all the time, and they're older, I know all the songs and got to hear them three times. Also, the CDs that messed up had songs that I knew at the beginning, and with one exception, I got to at least hear all the songs I knew. The Casting Crowns CD had the songs I knew scattered throughout, and since it played well all the time, I got to hear all of those as well.
The importance of speed limits: Really this one should be a no-brainer, but it seems like a lot of other drivers were not paying any attention to what the signs said. Shortly after crossing the state line, I saw a sign about how there had been 396 road fatalities so far this year, and 58% weren't wearing their seatbelts. That means that 42% were, which is a whopping 168 people belted in who were killed in car accidents in six months. That figure astounded me until I actually got into St. Louis. As I left the hotel to come home, I got onto I-64, and started driving 60 miles per hour, which was the posted speed limit. However, I seemed to be the only one on the road doing so, and from the way others were passing me, they were probably going at least 70, if not more. There were a few points where I bumped my speed up to 65 just because there was so much traffic going so fast that it was dangerous to maintain the posted speed. Speed limits are posted for a reason, and that reason is not so they can be ignored. While I did not witness any accidents on my trip, there were a few near misses, and I can very easily see why almost 400 people have lost their lives on Missouri roads so far in 2018.
Facing our fears: I was very glad during my trip that I have mostly gotten over my fear of driving around semis, because there were a lot of them sharing the road with me in those 15 hours. I was still cautious around them, but there's a big difference between being cautious and being scared. At one point in my trip, I was behind one cab that was being towed by another. As usual, the cab being towed was facing backwards, which has led to many a YouTube video pranking a sleeping passenger (which I think is pretty cruel).
In this instance, the towed cab was a deep, devilish red. I was behind the two cabs for a few miles because while they were going below the speed limit, it was only slightly below, and there was enough traffic that I didn't want to try passing them right away. In the time I was following, I stared at the devil-colored cab, and visualized that I was having a staring contest with Satan himself. When traffic cleared, I went to pass them, but knew I had to get my timing just right. Between the weight distribution, the wind, and the winding road, the driver was having a bit of trouble keeping everything within one lane. The two cabs shifted to the right, and I began to pass. Suddenly, a gust of wind hit the cab in front, and the tires slid into the space in front of me in my lane as we approached a bridge with no shoulder. I slowed down so I was behind them once more. After we crossed the bridge, the cabs swung to the right, and I floored the gas and slid past them, yelling, "Not today, Satan!" I had faced my fear head-on, and told it that it would never rule me again.
Good, Christian music: The CD changer in my car was loaded with two Jordan Feliz CDs, The River and Future, two Steven Curtis Chapman CDs, Declaration and Speechless, Casting Crowns' The Very Next Thing, and I Am They's Trial and Triumph. All six are filled with good, uplifting songs, which were great at helping reduce anxiety, and helping me be nicer to other drivers. At one point, I put on my blinker to pass a very slow truck, and before a spot cleared in the other lane for me to move over, the semi behind me decided that he didn't want to pay attention to my blinker, and moved over into the spot I was about to have. My sinful nature really wanted to call him every bad name in the book, but having just finished belting out an SCC song, I couldn't. Admittedly that didn't prevent me from snarky comments later on after I was finally in front of him again and went to pass someone else, but it did cause me to pause in the moment. It's much easier to remember who you are when every song playing through your speakers is a reminder.
Technical difficulties: On a related note to my last point, good uplifting songs can help you deal with frustrations as well, even when those frustrations interfere with said songs. At other times, I had noticed that occasionally a CD would mess up while I was driving, but on the road this time, I discovered a pattern. Future, The River, and Trial and Triumph, which were in positions 1, 4, and 6, messed up at least twice, with The River never playing all the way through any of the three times it played. As I thought about it, I realized that all the other times a CD had messed up, it had been in those same positions. While it is quite annoying to know I have three bum slots in the CD changer, I am choosing to see the good in the situation. Since only three and a half songs of Future played the first time through, I was listening to the first five songs of The River while driving through construction in Kansas City, and since I know those songs well, it was comforting during a stressful situation. Since the two Steven Curtis Chapman CDs played well all the time, and they're older, I know all the songs and got to hear them three times. Also, the CDs that messed up had songs that I knew at the beginning, and with one exception, I got to at least hear all the songs I knew. The Casting Crowns CD had the songs I knew scattered throughout, and since it played well all the time, I got to hear all of those as well.
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