The summer after my second year of university I had a summer job at a gas plant at Whitecourt, Alberta. We worked a 5 days on, 1 day off, 5 days on, 1 day off, 5 days on, 4 days off schedule. At the end of that shift schedule, being young and having little sense, I immediately drove to my parent’s home in eastern Saskatchewan to spend my days off with my friends.
The drive home was 950 Km (600 miles). In order to maximize my time at home I would work all day and immediately head for home, driving all night. My job was out of town so there was a half hour bus ride to and from work as well. So after a 9 1/2 hour work day, I undertook a 9 1/2 drive without any rest. I would get home about 4:00 or 5:00 am.
On one of these long drives I was within a couple of miles of home and the next thing I knew I was driving in the tall grass in the ditch. I had fallen asleep at the wheel. Without stopping (or even slowing down) I steered back onto the road and finished the drive. That was a hugely dangerous off-road excursion. The ditches were deep and there were large rocks here and there and level crossing approaches at half mile intervals. If I had crossed the road into oncoming traffic, rolled the car or hit anything in the ditch with that old car there would have been a grim outcome.
Did I learn anything? Nope. Kept making the same crazy trip all summer. Only in later years have I considered how crazy it was. I was just lucky.
The drive home was 950 Km (600 miles). In order to maximize my time at home I would work all day and immediately head for home, driving all night. My job was out of town so there was a half hour bus ride to and from work as well. So after a 9 1/2 hour work day, I undertook a 9 1/2 drive without any rest. I would get home about 4:00 or 5:00 am.
On one of these long drives I was within a couple of miles of home and the next thing I knew I was driving in the tall grass in the ditch. I had fallen asleep at the wheel. Without stopping (or even slowing down) I steered back onto the road and finished the drive. That was a hugely dangerous off-road excursion. The ditches were deep and there were large rocks here and there and level crossing approaches at half mile intervals. If I had crossed the road into oncoming traffic, rolled the car or hit anything in the ditch with that old car there would have been a grim outcome.
Did I learn anything? Nope. Kept making the same crazy trip all summer. Only in later years have I considered how crazy it was. I was just lucky.