The Return Trip Effect

It's true, it's true!! Getting back seems so much shorter than the going!

Just last week going to the beach was long, but the trip home shorter...same distance...Go figure. Those govt. studies are past ridiculous...save some of that cash and put it into cancer research and treatment. Bet they have stats on why the dropped toast always lands with the butter and jelly side down!

Off to the pillows....Reading Stephen King's 11/22/63 on my Kindle...a real "page tapper"!!

...Actually, I believe it is a faulty flux capacitor.                                 --Road Yacht McFly

Shoulda used a Budweiser can .......
 
 
 
The Return Trip cuts the "Unknown Factor" by at least Half ....... And that Half is replaced by a "Comfort Factor" derived from Known Quantities, Acceptible Norms, Familiar Faces & Things, that are among the few Constants that have never let one down ....... I much prefer sleeping in MY Bed ... I much prefer MY Crapper, MY Percolator, MY Kitchen, and MY Corkscrew !!! I long for days when my toughest decision is whether or not to use the Orefors, or the La'Lique Crystal .......  The Return Trip promises All of that for me ... The Anticipation Cass Elliot sang about make the Return Trip more enjoyable, which seems at least, to shorten it, for me ... I Wish the Same Grace Upon All Who Read This !!!
 
 
Good Day Y'all !!!
 
Bed Time .......

Little voice from rear of car:- "Are we nearly there?"

More little voice:- "I need a wee-wee!"

The above will come two minutes after you drove by a service area on a three lane highway - next services 25 miles.

Good morning! IVAN that was Carly Simon not Cass Elliott! But it brings home the point that so many great things in life are more about the anticipation and reminiscence than the actual whatever. And yes, it SO true that the trip home is always much faster....just as the 2nd baby is much easier. Knowledge always makes us relax a bit.

Good Morning Ivan, Chef Deb, and yes, Hazel, been there with those same kids.  Moose -- Just finished the book and ... "Wow"  - let me know what you think.  I'm only sorry I didn't get it on Kindle, it was hard to read in bed   (chuckled -- "real page tapper")

Back to travel --  though the aside about Stephen King is travel -- coming home more quickly only occurs if you don't have to pee -- if you do, you get every light, every 20 mph'r and every cop behind you.

I keep my little bottle of touch up paint because no matter how far away I park seeking a secluded spot and after I line up strategically between the designated yellow lines, a woman in a jogging outfit talking incessantly on her phone pulls sideways in her Surburban in the adjoining spot with 6 available ones on either side of me and then a host emerges on my side each banging against my "baby" as I stand watching & they pass without regret with their leader still on the phone chatting incessantly. I return first of course and must turn sideways and suck it up to squeeze into the cockpit. Then as I drive away I pass a sea of empty spots and wonder why- so I would like a study on The Ding Effect-

If you have a head wind out, you have a tail wind in. If you have a tail wind out, you have a head wind in. It all balances out in the end, unless there comes a storm.

I would establish a one man commission: a sturdy old guy, probably named Art, who from his back porch, would review all research funding requests from every level of government and respond thusly -- "Re: your premise, even if true, so what?"

I wonder if sometimes it isn't that I'm not sure where I am going and so am on the alert for turns and so forth.  In other words, if it is a repetitive trip, then future trips become shorter because they become routine.  I started taking classes last September at our local Community College.  The first couple of trips there were the longest.  Now, all I have to do is focus on the traffic around me and not on turns and stops, so the whole thing seems much shorter.

Stoney- Art for art's sake or as MGM would say: Ars gratia artis.
Your back porch cogitator pal made my point to what end at what cost? Part of the fun is what you don't know but wanna jaw about.

Tommy, Tommy, Tommy ~ a woman ! ?!?!?!?!  Never a man?  tsk tsk tsk

Andy- Purely for storytelling purposes m'lady. But you're astudeness is only exceeded by your beauty...It was actually an old redneck in his work truck that he also goes muddin' in on the weekend and as he banged against my door he spit tobacco juice on my tire while talking incessantly on his mobile about who is going to win the superbowl and who is the hottest Victoria's Secret model.    

p.s. I left out the part about when he bends over after dropping his keys and reveals the crack of dawn. Untsk me, pretty please...

That would be the butt-crack of dawn.....

There is a charter boat in Wachapreague, Crack of Dawn; the Captain's wife is named Dawn.

Miss Blue, I hope for his sake that it is considered a compliment.....

Fort some reason my experience is just the opposite. Going out I'm excited about my destination and the experience of getting there. Retirning, if I've done my job I'm worn out, impatient to be done with it and take a couple of days rest so I can get back to my routine. Contrarian I know but being in the minority never bothered me much.

PL/MB- Everyone needs to know where to "draw the line". It was the great Stephen Wright who said "even the crack of dawn ain't safe"

George Hall

I drove 5400 plus miles a few months back. The trip there and the trip back seemed to be equally time consuming. The best part of the trip was when my lovely bride met me in Vegas and we drove the west coast, the PCH down to San Diego, and San Diego straight through to Biloxi, Mississippi, then to Douglasville, Ga. and home.

Now that was a pull.

In 1979, 17 y.o.a., I helped drive my sister across the United States to Glendale Arizona...to graduate school...the rest is history...i sure was thirsty in the hot amazonian sun...and quickly chilled by the monsoon rains....heres a song...On the Road to the Wild Wild West....****Look overthere at the tumble weed..roll... (use your hands and give several rolling motions).....on the road to the wild, wild west,...you clap your hands...clap, clap, then 1,2,3.quick claps...Oh we lilke to clap and sing....on the roooooad.....to the wild wild west..1,2,3...keep clapping....Look overthere (and Point) at the Buffalo roam.....on the road to the wild wild west...oh we like to clap and sing on the road to the wild wild west....Look overthere at the Arizona catus blooms...on the road to the wild wild west....on the road ....we see no trees but desert rocks..on the road to the wild wild west...how we like to clap and sing...on the road..look overthere at the Suquaro trees (catus) on the road....to the wild wild west....clap clap clap and ad lib how you would like and have fun...Look overthere at Canyon Lake on the road...the wild wild wild WEST!!!!

I added two more posts to yesterdays...topic.

Here's your Anticipation song....Carly Simon on the beach....great lyric....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NwP3wes4M8&feature=player_embedded

However, I believe it is about postponing an intimate relationship, not a trip to the shore.....tee, hee! ;-) Oh, well the title speaks to the topic....and I love
"These are the good ole days!!"

For me it depends where I am going and what is awaiting me at home.
 
To waste government money we could study why people frequent chat rooms, and what they think they could be doing if they didn't.
 
Now I have to go check my "to do" list.

Like I said MOOSE, anticipation and reminiscence! The best!!

The jonquil are in bloom in West Georgia.  February has returned, right on time.

TT..."Duluth Trading" Co. offers t-shirts that are 3" longer than usual, their long-tail T, which is the cure for plumbers butt.

CHEFDEB:  Thank you for the Corrected Data ... but in reality, it makes no difference ... I Loved them both .......
 
GEORGE :  "Ever Body Gotta Pole Dey Own Pee ro " ... Isn't it  delightful that the Pirogue has not become over-Regulated, over-Tax'd, or illegal   yet .......
 
HOWDY  ANDY !!!!!!!
 
MOOSELOOP:  THANKS !!!  But ya know what ???  I always thought that Song was about, Ketchup .......  My Favorite Carly Simon Album (Remember 33 1/3 LPs ???) was a Collection of Old Standards from the 30's and 40's, that she did , with Harry Connick jr.
 
 
Y'all all have a Great Day !!!  Gotta go and start an early Dinner for the Krewe

Meanwhile, back in Pottsilvania, our heroes have declared that the relative duration of both ends of the same trip is determined by how much we look forward to reaching either point A or point B and/or how much we dread getting there.

The 'X' factor being on which side of the road the Dairy Queens, Dogs-n-Suds, donut shops and rest areas are located.

I usually fell asleep in the back seat on the return trip from our family outings so it just didn't matter much.

I remember road trips where my tiny sister would sleep up on the back window sill of the car, my brother would have the back seat bench as his bed, and I'd sleep across the wheel wells with pillows stacked on both sides to make it less uncomfortable. Time flew. This was in 1983 or so, before every child had to be strapped in, facing upside-down, with a gravitational device designed to protect them from every bump in the road and solar flares as well.
 
No wonder parents have put DVD players in their back seats. With all the carseat stuff (which may protect kids from accidents, but guarantees perpetual boredom), they have no other means of being entertained...
 
Car trips always flew by...

I would think the real reason the initial trip seems to take longer is because you don't know where you're going and you're paying more conscious attention. Any time you pay more conscious attention (because the information hasn't been wired into your neural network yet) time seems to slow down. I am not more "optimistic" on an initial trip anywhere. That's absurd. The trip back seems to go faster simply because now you know the route. Duh.

BTW, it's been my experience this phenomenon also applies with movies. The first time I watch a movie, because I'm so "optimistic" about its outcome (I'm being sarcastic) it takes longer than the second time I might re-watch the same movie. I've got it to where "Casablanca" now takes precisely 3 minutes, I've watched it so often, each time more pessimistically than the time before.

Optimistic. :-p I mean, really.

"Kids, do not look at that man standing with his back to us between the road shoulder and his pick-up truck"

Roadtrips with the family:  No matter where we started from or where we went or season of the year or weather conditions, my little sister never had enough room in the back seat.  Not ever.  And being older I of course relinquished what space I had.  Also, she always always wound up with the sun on her side of the car (no tinted windows in olden days), so we'd switch places, until Dad made a couple of turns and she said the sun was in her face again, and we switched places again.  It was better to capitualate than fight (CHEFDEB, you listening?).  I don't have a lot of happy roadtrip memories, I wish I did, but they were not fun.  And those old back seats were so huge ... but not big enough for the two of us.  Bottom line:  it took a long time getting there, and a long time going home.  Each way, just long, long, long. 

It’s not what you think, unless you think it is what it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCk-f03o6aA

Ivan - Yes, 33 1/3's! Her album with Harry C is still one to savor!

On long trips with kids - My own kiddos took those winter trips from Atlanta to Fla. to see relatives in mid winter in stride, but as noted above before we had to strap them down and turn them around....I had a nice 76 Buick station wagon so I could put the back seat totally flat and spread a quilt over it so they could have lots of room to nap, play Monopoly, read their books or color all stretched out, and never had a second thought that it was not safe. Only once do I remember having to make good on my threat, "If you two don't stop arguing and making so much noise, I will stop this car!" And that involved a mild spanking along the side of I-95 in the emergency lane! Ah, those were the days!

PL- Leave it to Yankee Ingenuity. Great idea and so nice for those who walk behind 'em. We once watched a tree service guy take off his tube socks (70's vintage and don't know where he still buys them) and then stuck one in his back pocket and tied the other around his noggin for a headband. He then took off up the tree to tie it off before he "felled" it. I swear the guy was part monkey but also prayed OSHA was nowhere in the vicinity.

TOMMY:  Isn't OSHA somewhere in Wisconsin ???

I'm one of those contrarions--like George and Miss Blue and a few others--coming home always takes longer!   I think because I'm tired--my energy and excitement are pretty used up and I need a good sleep in my own bed to revive.    Even as a kid I remember the excitement of "going" and the oohs and aahs of new things to see and experience, but returning was dreadfully long and thank goodness to those huge backseats that Park mentioned, because we were able to get a good nap in--totally unencumbered by seat belts.   And still today, whether it's the drive home from the airport, our daughter's, or a shopping center in the big city, coming home is long and quite soporific.....luckily, I'm usually a passenger, not the driver.   Oh! And the return to the airport before the drive home is also much longer than the trip that occassioned it.

Funny, the ten and one half hour drive to Omaha took but a mere six hundred and thirty minutes on the way back at least one hundred and eighty of which seemed to be devoted to the last twenty miles.

C-pants ~
Over the drive shaft… maybe?

Careful, Jalopkin, the Humbly Magnificent Center of the Universe has agents all over.

The well behind the back seat in our old Willys sedan was deep and safe from the mayhem between three much older and bigger brothers: two brutes and a squealer.

paolos ~
Just as I thought...

Sir Ivan- Twin Cities I recall not to be confused with Minnesota's Twins- KenOSHA and BarbieOSHA

The trip home from work takes longer in the evening than it does to get to work in the morning.  More traffice, of course, and since I arrive at work earlier, less traffic (THANK GOODNESS!!).  It seems that EVERYONE (or at least the worker bees around my office) goes home at 5:00 pm.
 
 
Truly that study is the DUMBEST waste of our tax payer dollars, but then we could talk about food sooner!!!!
 
 
IVAN isn't it KENOSHA WISCONSIN?   heh heh heh!

Tommy!   I will relate that to my friends from Minnesota "don't-cha-know"

OSHA: an acronym that strikes fear in the heart of every printed circuit board manufacturer.  Of any manufacturing company.  Of any company.  It's got a long arm.................And I thought Ivan was referring to another town here in the "Humbly Magnificent Center of the Universe" --  OSHKOSH - b'gosh.  Wisconsin has the best names for its towns.  But we're humble about it. Yessiree Bob.  Humble are we.    (We're going to Ashippunn next weekend, population 21.  And they are mostly all deceased and interred, excepting a handful, but I liked the name so to Ashippunn (two p's, two n's) we will go.)

Clarification:  Ashippunn has a few more people than 21.  That's just the cemetery.  Apologies to Ashippunnians everywhere.

ppunny name, though, isn't it?  It makes me smile.   Okay.  I'm going now...

PARK4--I am always listening to you! As well as totally relating.....

As an only child I had the backseat to myself and learned to love license plates and watching everything. It helped drown out the sound of my parents incessant bickering.

My kids were pretty well behaved and I would have to issue the "no touching" edict which usually took care of any boisterousness. I still smile when I think of listening to them say "I'm not touching you" with their fingers in each others faces
(and they weren't touching).

RY, it may be bittersweet, 'but Sring will soon come'. I hope it is fun and adventure that you will find. Mixed with the happy memories that are part of you. Be well.

In the good ol' US, if you are leaving for or coming home to, as long as you stay in your lane........you are on the right side.

It is obvious to me, said the tortoise to the
hare, that the Dutchmen who conducted this study do not live at the top
of a mountain.

Hey North-Sider! I am humbled. HU3

Coming...Going...we live wherever we are. Our address is inside us. Makes no nevermind.

Hi Ivan -- so good to have you with us again.
 
Tommy consider yourself 'un-tsked' -- like my son, you have me laughing and you KNOW I can't keep a tsk then.
 
Driving to Florida back in the day with the kids in "the way back", pillows, a portable television, snacks, didn't really seem so far -- it was that much fun.  We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies coming back -- things in every available space

One of my Dad's strange sayings:- "It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive." Nod da, dear people x

Nos da!

Hey southsider: don't be.  it's true. every word.

"nos da", she meant, as she nodded off..............Hazel must have been very sleepy tonight. Sweet dreams!

Loverly posts................I too find the drive home much longer.................OT, why is Nicholas Cage still making movies????????? Or I should say, allowed to make movies......................
 
RY.............................Even though I selfishly want my winter long, cold, icy, and snowy ( which is a joke because it's been like spring for a month.................) I hope for you a wonderful early spring and beautiful roads and memories................
 

Ha! Carol!~ I did notice and correct it! Feeling very fidgety tonight. Cat is blissfully asleep with a gentle purr rumbling.

Thinking of The Accidental Tourist a little favorite of mine and the comment- while armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put-

Bebe, I am in awe of your 9:20 time traveling post.... You deserve all of the made-to-your-wildest-dreams hot dogs you can eat! I doff my cap in your direction.

To answer Mr. Peterman's poser as to what I would use the NSI funding on? maybe to come up with a solution to yesterday's hot topic that would pass the universal stink test of common sense.

Then, if there are any funds left over, research why hot dogs taste so much better at baseball games.

Peace out.

ask Art

Is this today? as in Thursday night, Central Time Zone?  I went back in time post-wise and I'm having trouble posting on today, unless this is today.  Or I just can't see today's posts.  I was looking for BEBE's to print off for my Other. And I'm stuck here, which is yesterday, I'm beginning to believe I am lost.  Off goes the computer, then a swift kick, and on again sometimes that works.  Lost am I....

Now this is odd.............I just glanced at the post I see by Peter Lake above....directly above this box I see Park4 dated 2 Feb 8:20 p.m., and then I see Road Yacht 2Feb 12:16 a.m. an then...Peter Lake 1 feb.  10:47 p.m.............something surely got shuffled wrong.  It's like somebody spilled two puzzles and then mixed up the pieces while putting them back in their boxes.