On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:00:00 -0400, "J. Clarke"
wrote:
>Todd Michel McComb wrote:
>> In article ,
>> J. Clarke wrote:
>>> Did anybody say that this was supposed to be a sightseeing vacation?
>>> The OP certainly didn't.
>> I'm getting the impression that all the naysayers are people who
>>> have never actually travelled any distance by car, just read about
>>> it in a book.
>>
>> Well, there was never any reason for the invective, but I've been
>> across the US more than a few times. Maybe the people you cited
>> genuinely enjoyed those trips you mentioned. I won't say they
>> didn't. At the least, pushing yourself is something you can say
>> you did. For me, trying to relax and have a decent time of it,
>> sightseeing or no, is just a more enjoyable choice. An inexperienced
>> driver, especially, shouldn't be feeling pressure to make time.
>
>Who said anything about "enjoying"? Most people don't enjoy their jobs,
>but they still do them 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for decades at a
>time, and a lot of those jobs are _far_ more taxing than sitting behind
>a steering wheel. If the guy's got 6 days to make the trip he's got 6
>days.
Way back in my thirties I'd have jumped at a chance to do a long
road trip, and I've driven straight through over distances like
Tucson to DC, stopping only for fast food drive-ups and the
occasional quick nap in a roadside rest area. But there comes an
age when it gets a bit much. Back then I enjouyed the ologn
drives, now I don't.
>That's the other thing I'm seeing, the assumption that he's taking a
>vacation. He's going one-way with a fixed time limit and no stated
>plans to return. That sounds like he's relocating, not taking a
>vacation, and in relocations the schedule isn't always set by the
>traveler, and it doesn't matter if it's "fun", only that one gets from
>one end to the other in one piece.
>
>Anybody who thinks that back to back 8 hour days in a car make for an
>"ambitious" drive and constitutes "pushing" just isn't in touch with the
>world of long-haul truckers and taxi drivers and the like.
Long haul truckers are restricted by law to a certain a specified
maximum of driving hours per day, and usually carry a partner to
trade off with. Also, today the long haul tractors have rather
comfy bunks for the non-driving partner.
--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen@cox.net) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * |