Damned it !! That’s too close.
One if My Thank You God close ones. Broad daylight, perfect weather and I’d been up for 36+ hours. Driving though Austin, TX on the upper level of IH-35N which is 2 lanes elevated probably 60-80’ and I was bone tired doing 75mph in the left lane and dozed off for a second and when I snapped awake I was about 6” from the LR corner of a car and getting closer. Well that adrenaline rush kept Me awake the next 12 miles to home.
I no longer even let Myself get close to drowsy after that rodeo.
I drove to Oregon to watch the eclipse in August 2017. I was planning on going to Madras, Oregon, but, because of the heavy wildfire smoke, I drove a lot further east to get to clear air. It was too far to drive back to Redmond, OR to stay at my motel, so I "camped" in my car the night before on BLM land. Trying to sleep in the driver's seat was horribly uncomfortable and I got zero good sleep that night.
The eclipse was absolutely spectacular. I viewed from a high hill overlooking the John Day River with a couple dozen other people from around the USA and Germany.
On the way home, I was dog-tired from no sleep and could feel myself getting drowsy. I planned to find a spot to pull over to nap, but it was too late. I dozed off and drifted to the right. Oregon has rumble strips just to the right of the right-side lane line and they woke me up! I know about your adrenaline rush. My God was I scared. Fortunately, I didn't panic and got the car back in the lane. The guy behind me saw what was happening and had dropped WAY back as he expected to see a head-on in front of him or me rolling over the drop-off to the right side.
Like you, I won't get anywhere near drowsy again. On the bright side, the location was spectacular and the eclipse was amazing. Here's a photo of the location on the hill over the John Day river. The eclipse shadow came from that direction toward us.
Here's my "campsite" where I didn't get any sleep. I made a viewing screen for our telescope which worked great for watching the image of the eclipse. I was testing it out here the night before using it on the actual eclipse.
It’s a little past midnight and I’m stopped at a red light with one car in front of me.
I decide to change the CD. I happened to drop the CD into the footwell on the passenger side. I bend down to get the case and reach it with a little effort.
I look up and see that the light had changed to green and car in front of me was almost through the intersection. As I start to advance, a loaded Semi barrels through the intersection at around 45 to 50 MPH.
Had the CD case not fallen and had I proceeded as I usually do when the light turns green, that Semi would have t-boned me on my side and I doubt I would have survived.
I didn’t drop that CD case...God did it for me.
yep- falling asleep is scary scary stuff- i have sleep apnea- and certain meds i was on made me drowsy, and driving became an issue for me as i was constantly fighti9ng to stay awake, and would doze briefly from time to time- i didn’t realize it was the meds at the time- then i came off them and it’s no longer an issue thankfully-