Seattle Arrival, The Drool Cycle, Infuriating Facial Hair, Etc.

We have finished our 3 week journey having ceased driving at our intended destination at about 6.30 PM Pacific Time. It’s a little saddening as our surroundings will be the same every day instead of something new and exciting (except Kansas) everyday. Although, to be fair, Seattle’s offerings should keep us entertained for the next few time increments…and then…!
We do want to get around to see more of the Northwest Coast (Oregon, Washington, British Columbia) and other road trips of shorter length will be undertaken. Our position also puts us in good stead for flights to Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, China, Alaska, and Hawaii. Of course these opportunities will have to wait a while before we can set off on them.
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Over the course of our switching of the driving responsibilities the passenger would occasionally grasp the luxury of a nap. Oddly enough neither of us would doze off for too long a duration. Once I was out for 10 minutes. I felt dead tired, closed my eyes, and awoke 10 minutes later well-rested, invigorated, and with a little puddle of drool on the neck pillow. This has happened more than once. REM Cycle sleep happens 3 to 4 times over a regular sleep period and normally takes some time to get into. Studies have shown that sleep deprivation can induce the REM cycle to occur more quickly one study even going as far as to describe a method where the body can effectively function on 6 evenly spaced apart naps of 30 minutes a day (that’s 3 total hours) given a dedicated training of the body to accept this cycle. I have not trained my body accept crazy sleep styles and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t undergo REM cycle sleep within a few minutes of shuteye. So we have The Drool Cycle. The mode of sleep where your body loses all ability to effectively operate your mouth and it’s salivary operations so that you begin dribbling like a Harlem Globetrotter. This can occur pretty quickly within the onset of sleep (as told above), but shouldn’t be confused with day-to-day mismouthed salivations. Although another explanation could be that the brain goes into overdrive to come up with a competent excuse for the wet spot connected by a silvery strand to your mouth, but at this point Aubrey and I are well aware of each other’s sialorrhea.
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I have not shaved since we left Hudson, NH. That’s 3 whole weeks of unshorn face. The description is spotty at best. I can grow a nice chin beard, capable mustache, and visible sideburns. Anything else is maddeningly inoperable. Sure, there’s visible hair growth, but it just looks random hair clippings have become attached to my cheeks and neck. There is more hair on my chin than there is on the rest of my face. So I will be shaving when I build up the strength to lift a razor.
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We have developed severe cases of insanity and/or mental incapability during the trip.
-We passed a Public Transport Bus in Albuquerque and Aubrey read “Get Relief at Happy Feet” and I heard “Get Really Fat Happy Feet.” They sound exactly the same.
-I misread a Drunk Driver sign as “Report Drunk Beavers; Dial 911″
-Many vans, trucks, buses, etc. have “How Is My Driving? (Phone #)” stickers, but we were at one point behind one with “How Am I Driving?” This nearly killed Aubrey.
-For some reason there was a running theme of us pretending to talk like Rosie Perez from “Do The Right Thing” especially when she mentions Spike Lee’s character, Mookie. Eventually we misspoke and said ‘Wookie’ and now if you replace all instances of Spike Lee with Chewbacca you will have a glorious recreation of the movie.
-One summer my cousin, David, visited my family and he brought a Trance CD. This set my brother and I off on a weird Trance/Techno phase that has since petered out (somewhat). With all the music that was played there were a few of these such CDs heard. You wouldn’t be able to catch me, my brother, or my cousin dead on a dance floor, let alone in a club considering that any of the rhythm that we do have is something akin to rigor mortis. Aubrey bore with me while I relived some moments of my awkward mid-teen years.
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So here we are.

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