Contemplations of Road Trip Sleep

One thing that has always been on my mind, for most of my life, is the idea that the best sleep you can get sometimes happens in the most unlikely of places. For example: hands down, no questions asked the best sleep I have ever gotten in my life is when you find a crappy Motel 6 or similar lodging on the road in the middle of nowhere during a road trip after a long days' worth of driving. There is just something about it, I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's the days' worth of focus on the road and not falling asleep and keeping your mind entertained while those white lines on the highway stretch on and on to what seems to be eternity. Maybe it's the coolness of the room when you walk in, with those box a/c units that sound like it hasn't been oiled since 1972. And you know, honestly, I am guilty from time to time of putting on a YouTu

be video of nothing but 10 hours of a motel a/c running while I try to sleep, I highly recommend you try it. Maybe it's the constant hum of the highway, all those souls still awake, still driving on to their destination in the dark, paired with the yellow streetlights from the parking lot creeping in through the slits in the curtain. Maybe it's the solitude, being in a tiny square room in a motel in the middle of the desert in the pitch blackness of night. Maybe it's the relief knowing that you are done for the day, with a chunk of your travel already done, with less to go than when you started. Or the promise of mediocre coffee in the morning from the in-room coffee machine. Maybe it's the glow of the tv, with reruns of the X-Files or some movie on HBO that you've seen a million times playing in the background. Maybe.... just maybe.... it's all of these things combined. And maybe it's just me, but seriously, I think it's the best sleep you can get. Think about it the next time you check in...