Journey vs. Destination

I ended up driving the whole day today. C drove almost all of yesterday’s much longer leg. But I am a little tired now. Let me catalog how I felt when when we stopped (most of this was typed waiting for checking into the hotel and then waiting for dinner).

• My eyes feel like they went to the beach and rolled around in the sand without me. Then they were put back in with an air gun to dry them out.
• My eyelids are so heavy that every blink is an ever-increasingly-difficult effort of will. It made driving the last ten miles very difficult.
• My lips tingle with sunburn and I think I’m glad I can’t feel the tip of my nose.
• My fingers are tired both of gripping the steering wheel and tired of dangling limply from it.
• My ankle is tired as though my foot was really made of lead. The cruise control only helps so much and it was not enough.
• There is a muscle in my lower right back that has been threatening to cramp for the last hour. I think I can stretch it if I turn… aaaaaaah!!! not that way, no, don’t turn that way. That way leads to cramping.
• My insides are so jostled my pancreas thinks it is my kidney and does not know how to do its new job.
• My throat is so dry, I expect a tumbleweed to tumble out of my mouth. And yet my bladder is so full the it is going to be a disaster soon. How is this dichotomy possible?
• My sinuses are so full of dirt and pollen from unknown plants, they don’t know whether to be stuffy or leathery dry, mirroring my windburned cheeks. So each one has done something different.
• My hip hurts (though, really, not as much as I expected so this one is kind of a win).
• My butt, though, oh, that doesn’t bear thinking about. Maybe if I don’t think about it the pain will go away. I may never sit down again. Certainly, I’ll need a tailbone transplant before we go on.
• Even my hair feels tired.

A beer and some dinner and I already feel better. A quick shower before bed and I’ll be fine tomorrow. I hope. I suspect we’ll be sharing the driving duties from now on.