Late night driving advice

vanity ^ | me

[gop4lyf]

I will be driving from Dallas to Navarre, FL (Pensacola area) in a few weeks. I will be driving at night so that my 3 year old can sleep most of the way. I figure it will be much easier that way. I have two questions for my FRiends, if y'all would be so kind as to lend me your pearls of wisdom.

First, I would like to listen to a "books on tape" or audio book if you will type of recording. I assume that they can be found on a CD or mp3 download. I do love to read, but have never listened to a book before. I like authors like Clive Cussler, Stephen Hunter, Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, etc. Basically anything where the good guys whoop some bad guy butt. How do the audio books sound? Is it just some monotoned guy/gal reading the lines, or is there more inflection? Any suggestions on what to listen to?

My second question, has anyone tried 5 hour energy as a way to keep awake and stimulated? I don't drink energy drinks, just usually iced tea or water. I am diabetic so I can't drink anything with too much sugar in it. I won't go into sugar shock or anything, it just makes me have to go to the restroom really bad. I plan on sleeping most of the day before so that hopefully I won't be so overly tired. Thanks for all advice y'all may have!

[Yosemitest]

CORRECTION:

If you've got help driving and want to save some time go I-20 east to Jackson MS and then take Highway 49 South to Biloxi, Mississippi, and then I-10 east to Florida Highway 87 South to Navarre.

[RegulatorCountry]

Watch for critters while driving at night in the south, deer primarily. They’re large enough to cause a serious accident.
If you even think you see eyes glinting red or yellow off in the trees or bushes, ease off and prepare to brake or take evasive action. Unless you’re in a big SUV and well off the ground, you really don’t want to hit one at highway speeds.

[airedale]

Most of the people who read the books are voice actors. They do an excellent job. Sometime, bu not often, a reader voice rubs me the wrong way. If I can not stand the readers voice after one CD I stop listening and go on to the next book. I usually have 3-4 books in the car at one time.

You want unabridged books. That is especially true if you like the author. . I listened to Brad Thor’s Lion’s of Lucerne, Full Black and Black List. They were well done. The guy that reads Cussler is good, but I don’t like Cussler. For that kind of thriller I prefer Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. This pair of authors do a better job. The authors you like have lots of books available on CD or for download.

You can get the books on CD from the library and then rip them to another CD, MP3 or USB flashdrive so you don’t need to take the library’s CD’s with you. A lot of libraries also have electronic downloadable recorded books which you can load on a MP3 player or flashdrive. You just need a library card.

Audible sells a lot of the books and last time I looked they allowed you to get 2 books for free for new customers. I used to rent books on tape from Recorded Books but decided I’d use the library. The Los Angeles Public Library has an excellent reserve system which transfers books and CD’s to the branch where you want to pick it up.

A fun series, but not exactly of the type you like is Flashman by George McDonald Fraser. Donald Westlake, Carl Hiaasen, John Saul, Micheal Connelly, Lee Child, Lawrence Shames and John Sanford are all good authors with good readers. I love the reader that does Janet Evanovitch’s books about Stephanie Plum series, but that is really out of you shoot-em-up books.

Go to you local library and see what they have locally, for download and how to find the CD’s in other branches and how to get them delivered to the branch you want.

[Smokin' Joe]

I personall would just stick to coffee.

It keeps you going in more ways than one...

[Revolting cat!]

Depend on the experience of an ex-cosmonaut who once covered pretty much the same route:

[Yosemitest]

I was at March AFB when we lost one of our air traffic controllers to a deer crash.
She was driving a Honda Si when she hit it late at night.
The Highway patrol said the deer was still alive when it went through the windshield and landed in the passenger's set on it's back.
They said the deer had hit her in the neck with it's hoof and cut her jugular vein wide open.
She was dead on the scene when they arrived, and they had to shoot the deer due to a broken leg.

[gop4lyf]

LOL!! I actually did laugh out loud.! Thanks for that!

[Nepeta]

Take a nap during the day before you leave.

WATCH OUT FOR THE DEER! Watch for pairs of eyes along the else of the highway. If one crosses the highway, there is a good chance that his buddies are not far behind.

Bring something you can safely munch on. I used to call it "road food". I don't recommend cold drinks because you will need more potty stops, and that can be chancey at night, even on interstates. In fact, I would intentionally stop drinking anything hours before leaving.

Night people are different. There are live radio shows that cater to the all night workers--Coast to Coast AM has everything from legitimate scientists to oddballs who claim to be in contact with the dead or aliens. (You won't go to sleep~and is now on 550 stations) There are shows for the truckers, too, with a variety pf topies.

If all else fails and you find yourself impossibly sleepy, what you can do in desperation is park right in front of an all night restaurant. Don't try this unless there are a lot of safe-looking people around.

[jocon307]

I think we are relieved that you’ll have other adults with you.

Of course the first advice is, if you are feeling sleepy PULL OVER.

As to audio books, hubby and I love them. And now that I know you’re a guy I can strongly recommend a really, really good one: Word War Z. My understanding is they’ve totally changed the book for the movie, but the book is an episodic tale, told by many narrators of their “personal” experience during the Zombie wars. So there is a narrator, but there are also many others who read. It was just a great listen. I don’t even like Zombie stuff, but the people who read it were great, more like actors which many of them are; Mark Harmon actually read the main character (the one played by Brad Pitt, I think); he was excellent.

This audio book is abridged, we didn’t find that out until later, to us it didn’t matter.

We also listened to some Clive Custler ones, “The Wrecker” was good of those.

Hubby always downloaded them from Audible onto his i-phone and then we plugged that into the aux jack on the car stereo. If you do this and you have your phone in a case make sure you get a cable with a jack that fits with the case on.

Be careful of ones from libraries on CD, we had a lot of problems with those. I know they are supposed to be indestructible, but we still had issues with skipping, etc.

Years ago I listened to the “Rumpole of the Baily” stories. They were read by Leo McKearn who played Rumpole of the TV Series. If you liked the stories or the show, you’ll love the audio books.

[PilotDave]

I prefer to drive at night. Pull over and nap for an hour when tired. 1776 is a good listen. Matt Bracken is a freeper author. Castigo Cay will keep your attention. If it’s available on audio?

[Hot Tabasco]

has anyone tried 5 hour energy as a way to keep awake and stimulated?

Try it tonight and see how it works........

[Bon mots]

Try some audio books to see.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Audiobooks%20-inurl:(htm%7Chtml%7Cphp%7Cpls%7Ctxt)%20intitle:index.of+%22last%20modified%22+(wma%7Cmp3)%20-%22index-of-mp3%22%20-vmp3%20-shexy%20-pickbrains%20-kaboodle%20-mp3gle%20-ihackr%20-indexofmp3%20-blogspot%20-franceradio%20-insanbilimleri%20-%22english-4-free%22%20-audiozen%20-hyooge%20-%22game-freaks%22%20&btng=google+searchr