river_one
04-13-2009, 09:45 AM
I've been back behind the well for a couple of months after a few years of not daring to drive at all. I have an issue with open roads and when I do take small sections I drive much slower than I do on narrow and twisting roads. Rich has defined this as an illusion, which I guess is true.
Yesterday, my son feel and broke his hand and I needed to take him to the hospital via a highway that I had been avoiding. The traffic for the most part was very thin so I didn't feel that I was being pushed around too much by other cars. I took it real slow and anyone who came up behind me could pass me easily. Most of the way I felt OK, at one point where I came into more traffic and met a lane merging in from my right, I felt that I was panicking and that I would surly cause an accident because I was driving too slow and felt confused by cars coming at me from behind from left and right. I thought that I would pass out and that the cars coming from behind me would smash into me.
I don't really know .how I got though it and continued driving (slowly).
By the time we finished at the hospital it was after 12:30 midnight. There was very little traffic on the road on the way home. I could have asked someone else to drive, but, I wanted to prove to myself that I can do it, regardless to how long it takes. I drove back at between 30 and 40 MPH, on a road that the speed limit is 55. The few cars that were on the road sped past me at much more than that.
1. I'm glad that I did it. I had felt that this road was "off limits" to me and now I have "conquered" it.
2. I'm not sure if I am doing the right thing by driving so slowly. One the one hand as I said, now I have driven on this road too, I've done it. On the other hand, I am conditioning myself that on such roads I must drive real slow.
The question that I am asking you, and myself is, if I do it again and again even incredibly slow am I making myself more comfortable on the road and that will lead to my being able to drive on it at a normal speed or am I conditioning myself to drive slow on this type of road?
Yesterday, my son feel and broke his hand and I needed to take him to the hospital via a highway that I had been avoiding. The traffic for the most part was very thin so I didn't feel that I was being pushed around too much by other cars. I took it real slow and anyone who came up behind me could pass me easily. Most of the way I felt OK, at one point where I came into more traffic and met a lane merging in from my right, I felt that I was panicking and that I would surly cause an accident because I was driving too slow and felt confused by cars coming at me from behind from left and right. I thought that I would pass out and that the cars coming from behind me would smash into me.
I don't really know .how I got though it and continued driving (slowly).
By the time we finished at the hospital it was after 12:30 midnight. There was very little traffic on the road on the way home. I could have asked someone else to drive, but, I wanted to prove to myself that I can do it, regardless to how long it takes. I drove back at between 30 and 40 MPH, on a road that the speed limit is 55. The few cars that were on the road sped past me at much more than that.
1. I'm glad that I did it. I had felt that this road was "off limits" to me and now I have "conquered" it.
2. I'm not sure if I am doing the right thing by driving so slowly. One the one hand as I said, now I have driven on this road too, I've done it. On the other hand, I am conditioning myself that on such roads I must drive real slow.
The question that I am asking you, and myself is, if I do it again and again even incredibly slow am I making myself more comfortable on the road and that will lead to my being able to drive on it at a normal speed or am I conditioning myself to drive slow on this type of road?