This is how I rolled my car off the interstate.

(I’m fine!)

I was less than a mile from my exit and I thought I could make it. I was trying to hard to stay awake I ended up driving past several exists. Suddenly, I realized my eyes were closed and I wasn’t sure how long they had been like that. I panicked, afraid I would hit the median, slammed on my brakes and swerved.

Once that happened, I was alert and I knew I couldn’t stop the car from rolling so I let go and let it happen. Apparently, that’s partly why I wasn’t seriously injured. I didn’t tense up and try to brace myself. That and seatbelts/good safety design.

I was scared to drive for awhile but it’s fine now. Though, I never speed. I always pull over if it doesn’t feel right. By that I mean, if I’m tired, if there is bad weather, if my car isn’t driving properly….anything. I don’t risk it.

Other drivers seem annoyed that I’m going the speed limit but I don’t give a fuck.

We were helping to move a friend from one house to another years ago. It was all rushed with little time to do or plan anything ... we had to move truckloads towing trailers full of all their things and drive 400km to make a deadline. And we had to start by driving to them 500km away first! And it all had to happen within 20 hours ... it was complete insanity. I ended up driving, packing, working, then driving again non-stop for about 30 hours to everything to the new house. And midway through the trip of hauling everything, we drove through the biggest lightning rain storm I've seen in years. The only way to keep things from getting totally soaked was to keep moving.

I remembering driving past the rain and weather and it was 4am and we were dead tired and couldn't stay awake. We parked on the side of the road and I sat in my driver seat and finally fell asleep. Unfortunately, I was so full of coffee, sugar and food that I couldn't really sleep ... my body went offline and my brain kept racing. I started dreaming that I was still driving and in my driving dream, I kept pushing myself to stay awake and not drift off the road. In my dream, I kept dozing off and wandering on the road. In the dream, I kept scaring myself, held on to the steering wheel and bolted awake again ... and again ... and again. Finally, still in the dream, I fell asleep and as I dozed off I knew I was drifting off the highway at speed and I could see and feel the truck crashing into the bushes, the trees and into the forest .....

I bolted wide awake back into reality, gripped the steering wheel like a madman and slammed on the horn and the brakes as hard as I could ..... I was still sitting quietly on the highway shoulder. My cousin in the other truck walked over and asked if I was OK and asked why I just sounded my horn.

I was so freaked out by the experience that I stayed awake for the rest of the drive.

The only thing that really helps is some shut eye. Take a 20 minute nap, be a little late then to never arrive.

Keep gum or some type of snack with you on long drives. Your brain is really against falling asleep while chewing

Good guy brain

And then you bolt awake, with adrenaline now surging, only to be staring at your wall and it's 4am so you definitely won't be feeling rested when your alarm goes off.

...and then the weird thing is, as frightening as it is, I did it again a few minutes later. You've had a brush with death, and I'm still drowsy after that. How does that happen? If a bullet came through my window would I fall asleep right after? "Ah, tomorrow I'll look at it, honey."

this was me back when I had hour plus commute just one way