So, did you have a little trouble adjusting to the “Spring Forward” time change? Kinda got you all flummoxed, didn’t it! Wide awake at the wrong time, sleepy when you’re usually chipper?
Well, just imagine losing four hours instead of only one. And not all at once, like on an international flight. But, losing time, one hour at a time, over a span of two weeks. Just when you start to get used to losing an hour, it’s time to lose another one.
This is what happens as you drive from West to East in March across our big country.
Start in California. Let’s say it’s 8:30. (For illustrative purposes, let’s make the time changes occur in a linear fashion, as opposed to the various times of day that you may cross a time line.)
Lose an hour when you cross into Arizona and it’s 9:30.
Lose another hour when Daylight Saving Time begins a couple days later and it’s 10:30. (Oh, and we won’t count the flip-flop that happens when you enter and exit a Reservation that doesn’t use Daylight Savings Time!)
A few days later, lose another hour when you enter Kansas and it’s now 11:30.
Two more days and you’re in Indiana and you lose another hour, making it 12:30.
Find yourself asking “What the heck time is it?” and “Where did the day go?”. Because the days end quickly at the eastern end of this trip.
I also think about my traveling friends, the Livingston’s, who have 4 little boys who don’t understand what’s happening. Just that they have less play time each day for a while. Oh, the whining!
Good thing we’re still (technically) on the Tramper Voyage. Not having to work right now is a wonderful thing. Makes adjusting to time changes, and a lot of other things, that much easier.
– Jane
The Voyage of the Tramper 