Off-Topic

[pietasterp]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

Found out today my Dad is going to have a pacemaker put in because his heartbeat is way too slow. He is consistently feeling winded/tired/weak due to slow rhythm.

Apologies for not commenting on this earlier, but it must've gotten lost in the shuffle of posts. Obviously sending your family well-wishes and hope everything gets better after the pacer gets put in.

[TripleCrown9]

Quote: Originally Posted by ProfessaPackMan

Solo? If so, what’s you do to keep from getting tired?

I just usually don't get tired during the day, and if the sun is up I'm not usually a victim of "highway hypnosis".

I've also driven from Dallas to Lubbock (5 or 6 hours) after sitting through an entire Rangers game. Like, walked out of the stadium, got in my car and drove home.

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

I drove from NYC to San Francisco solo in 4 days. Honestly, I don't get tired at all behind the wheel (provided I had a good night's sleep the night before, didn't get hammered, etc). Queued up the iPod (that dates things a bit) and let it rip. I get into a weird, Zen-like zone at some point and the miles and states just fly by. I love it, to be honest. It's freeing. I feel like it's one of the few places I'm totally free, no email, no phone commitments, can't really be reached, etc. And if "Thunder Road" happens to come up in the song shuffle, and I happen to be on a deserted stretch of highway, I can get any car up to triple-digits.... It's the great American activity - the wide-open road trip. Watching the landscapes and vistas change while you roll through the endless horizons is as close to a Kerouac experience as I'm gonna get. I'd do it every year if I could.

This is pretty much me to a T. I love driving to new places.

I'm in a perpetual state of planning a trip to Chicago (been planning it for years, and something always comes up) and I plan on driving. Granted that's a two day trip so I'd be stopping, but still driving to somewhere you've never been and exploring is the best thing in the world.

[BurghFan]

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

I drove from NYC to San Francisco solo in 4 days. Honestly, I don't get tired at all behind the wheel (provided I had a good night's sleep the night before, didn't get hammered, etc). Queued up the iPod (that dates things a bit) and let it rip. I get into a weird, Zen-like zone at some point and the miles and states just fly by. I love it, to be honest. It's freeing. I feel like it's one of the few places I'm totally free, no email, no phone commitments, can't really be reached, etc. And if "Thunder Road" happens to come up in the song shuffle, and I happen to be on a deserted stretch of highway, I can get any car up to triple-digits.... It's the great American activity - the wide-open road trip. Watching the landscapes and vistas change while you roll through the endless horizons is as close to a Kerouac experience as I'm gonna get. I'd do it every year if I could.

Quote: Originally Posted by TripleCrown9

I just usually don't get tired during the day, and if the sun is up I'm not usually a victim of "highway hypnosis". I've also driven from Dallas to Lubbock (5 or 6 hours) after sitting through an entire Rangers game. Like, walked out of the stadium, got in my car and drove home. This is pretty much me to a T. I love driving to new places. I'm in a perpetual state of planning a trip to Chicago (been planning it for years, and something always comes up) and I plan on driving. Granted that's a two day trip so I'd be stopping, but still driving to somewhere you've never been and exploring is the best thing in the world.

If I could drive, I think I'd be the same way. On long car trips, I just enjoy watching the scenery go by from the passenger seat. In open world games e.g. Grand Theft Auto Series, The Crew 2, sometimes I just liked to cruise around the map aimlessly. Heck, I'll even do that on Google Earth street view sometimes just to see where I end up, though it always seems to crash after a while (at least it did on my old computer).

[pietasterp]

Quote: Originally Posted by TripleCrown9

I just usually don't get tired during the day, and if the sun is up I'm not usually a victim of "highway hypnosis". I've also driven from Dallas to Lubbock (5 or 6 hours) after sitting through an entire Rangers game. Like, walked out of the stadium, got in my car and drove home. This is pretty much me to a T. I love driving to new places. I'm in a perpetual state of planning a trip to Chicago (been planning it for years, and something always comes up) and I plan on driving. Granted that's a two day trip so I'd be stopping, but still driving to somewhere you've never been and exploring is the best thing in the world.

Quote: Originally Posted by BurghFan

If I could drive, I think I'd be the same way. On long car trips, I just enjoy watching the scenery go by from the passenger seat. In open world games e.g. Grand Theft Auto Series, The Crew 2, sometimes I just liked to cruise around the map aimlessly. Heck, I'll even do that on Google Earth street view sometimes just to see where I end up, though it always seems to crash after a while (at least it did on my old computer).

That's the best part about long-haul drives across vast swaths of the country. Seeing how the land and terrain and look of the country changes as you drive from one part to another is endlessly fascinating to me.

Going from the density of the cities of the eastern seaboard to the hills in the Alleghenys to great plains in the Midwest, then the Rockies, the desert, and finally the west coast...it's amazing. Even the parts that everyone thinks are boring (like Iowa, for instance) are not at all, IMO. I love driving through the endless cornfields and seeing the occasional river or lake, and the long horizons which are occasionally dotted with an old farmhouse or grain silo. There certainly some areas of the country where the drive can get a bit boring, such as western Nebraska (the eastern part of the state is great though), but you're soon rewarded for your persistence if you keep going once you get into Colorado and you start to climb into the mountains.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Yeah, once I got my Apple Music going, I can pretty much zone out and enjoy the ride/trip.

Definitely why I prefer driving > flying in most cases.

[Majingir]

Quote: Originally Posted by BurghFan

If I could drive, I think I'd be the same way. On long car trips, I just enjoy watching the scenery go by from the passenger seat. In open world games e.g. Grand Theft Auto Series, The Crew 2, sometimes I just liked to cruise around the map aimlessly. Heck, I'll even do that on Google Earth street view sometimes just to see where I end up, though it always seems to crash after a while (at least it did on my old computer).

I'm surprised google or anyone else hasn't come up with something like that. Imagine "driving" using Google street view. You get to drive around anywhere. That's a true VR experience.

Quote: Originally Posted by pietasterp

That's the best part about long-haul drives across vast swaths of the country. Seeing how the land and terrain and look of the country changes as you drive from one part to another is endlessly fascinating to me. Going from the density of the cities of the eastern seaboard to the hills in the Alleghenys to great plains in the Midwest, then the Rockies, the desert, and finally the west coast...it's amazing. Even the parts that everyone thinks are boring (like Iowa, for instance) are not at all, IMO. I love driving through the endless cornfields and seeing the occasional river or lake, and the long horizons which are occasionally dotted with an old farmhouse or grain silo. There certainly some areas of the country where the drive can get a bit boring, such as western Nebraska (the eastern part of the state is great though), but you're soon rewarded for your persistence if you keep going once you get into Colorado and you start to climb into the mountains.

Country roads suck in the winter for obvious reasons, but I love driving by them in summer. Kind of a sad "city folk" moment getting fascinated seeing cows and horses on farmlands.

Sucks that most of my vacation traveling was when I was a kid. You don't appreciate those things as much, and didn't have google maps to find every possible destination in the middle of nowhere in some small passersby town.

But it is nice and relaxing on an empty country road on a summers day. When going on vacation, I like stuff like that more than going to indoor attractions. Might as well be back in the city if you're just going from building to building. Enjoying scenery is way more fun. Part of me feels like that's something I'll do if I ever get the time /money to do it. Just take a road trip wherever the road takes me. People talk about the places they'd fly to if they won the lottery, I wouldn't care about flying, I'll just go from small town to small town, enjoying all the little things.

[LambertandHam]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

I'm surprised google or anyone else hasn't come up with something like that. Imagine "driving" using Google street view

There is Geoguessr, which puts you in a random place via Google Maps and you have to mark on the map where you're, I've seen a couple Twitch streamers play it.

[l3ulvl]

Quote: Originally Posted by BurghFan

I'm the same way. Every time I go to the ophthalmologist you'd think I was a little kid being uncooperative because as soon the the dropper for the drops to dilate my pupils gets close to my eye they immediately close and my eyes roll back in my head no matter how hard I try to keep them open. The doctor actually has to hold my eyes open to get them in. One time a med student or someone was going to put them in, but he was unable to because he had an injured left wrist and couldn't use that hand to help me keep my eyes open while putting the drops in with his right hand.

That's how I am with the air puff test for glaucoma. I know this machine is about to shoot the air in my eye and I can't stop blinking.