A few years ago I did my first solo drive of over 1000km one way. I had a friend visiting from the UK and we took several days to drive through the Rockies camping at various points along the way. She had an international driving license but I wanted to do the driving to see what it would be like. Many of my friends did long drives when they were in their 20's and early 30's - Calgary to Las Vegas without stopping 4 of them taking turns at the wheel while the others slept. Trips like that. I drove often from Banff to Calgary in all sorts of weather, but that's a drive of only an hour and a half. Once I drove 350 km by myself and had painfully stiff shoulders by the time I finished.
On our trip out to the coast we listened to an audio book, chatted, drank tea from a thermos and lit campfires each night. We slept in a borrowed tent and got our feet wet in the deep snow at the top of Roger's Pass. We had good weather and both of us enjoyed the trip. My friend had arranged to fly home from Vancouver so, at the end of our workshop, I drove home alone.
True I had done all the driving on the way out but I had company and someone who could take over in an emergency. I was a bit apprehensive about the trip home all by myself. I left on the ferry from Bowen Island at 5:30 a.m. With me in the passenger seat was my iPod, loaded with 2 new books and a thermos of hot water to re-steep my green tea. Some people say they would be terribly distracted by listening to an audio book while driving. I find it enables me to relax just enough so that I tire more slowly. With the story going through the speakers and the mountain scenery unfolding around me, I didn't think about the fact that I was driving alone.
I identified certain vehicles and thought of them almost as friends as we passed each other and then passed again after one of the other of us stopped for gas. I never knew who was driving and yet I felt a kind of kinship with them. I fell into the habit of setting my cruise control a couple of kilometres below the speed limit so that I didn't have to do much passing. Once in a passing lane I feel as if I'm on a treadmill needing to keep ahead of the cars in the slower lane without slowing down those in the faster lane. I prefer to just find a spot in a line of traffic and stay there. Vancouver to Calgary isn't an arduous drive in that there are many places where the road is twinned and when it isn't, there are passing lanes every few kilometres.
I decided to stop as often as I wanted to and to let my energy level determine the length of the breaks. Home was at the end of the drive and if I got tired and wanted to stay the night somewhere I had a credit card. I considered camping by myself but Richard was less thrilled about that idea so I agreed if I stayed overnight on the road I would get a motel. I stopped for tea a few times, for fuel and for lunch and each time I walked around a bit. When I got back into the car I adjusted the seat slightly and found I wasn't getting stiff. The weather was rainy in spots but nothing worrying so I just kept driving. About 15 hours after I left, I pulled into the garage at home. I was tired mentally and was quite pleased with myself. I felt more self-sufficient, almost as if I had passed some kind of test. I enjoyed the solitude. In a strange way I felt fulfilled.
I'm not going to seek out long solo drives but I am no longer intimidated by them. It's a good feeling to have that confidence.
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