Distance driving...

...and why I hate it.

In the last two and a bit weeks I have been completely out of my comfort zone. The reason for this is that we have been visiting lots of family and I have driven almost six hundred miles this way and that across the country. I'm not new to driving. I passed my test when I was 17, which is more years ago than I'd like to admit to, but until recently I rarely ever drove distances and I don't like it one bit.
(Due to Mr A's eyesight issues, I am now the sole driver.) 

The mind is a strange thing. I can drive around town and not have to concentrate on, or even be aware of, what I’m doing, but when I’m driving on a journey I have to fight my brain to not think about my feet, about my hands, about keeping the car in a straight line. This last point mystifies me. I have never, to date, veered off the road or drifted into a wrong lane, so why does my brain start to worry that I might be about to do just that when I’m driving long distances? It's not only a motorway thing either. It's any roads.

This is an old photograph of me driving - before I went blonde!
I don't have an up-to-date one.

One strategy that seems to be working is to have music playing, music that I can sing along to! This may not be particularly relaxing for passengers but it does stop my brain from ‘over-concentrating’. As regular visitors to this blog will know, I do love listening to music, so having to work out a journey playlist isn’t exactly a hardship for me.

Yesterday's music of choice, to accompany my drive from Manchester to Leicester, was from a selection of Tamla Motown CDs.


What is your favourite music to drive to?