In the summer of 1996 Michael Melton, Heather Hughes and I spent two weeks on a singing tour. ORU loaned us a huge van and a sound system. At one point we drove from Midland Texas to my house in Kansas in one day. That was quite a drive especially considering that we stopped in Dallas for about 3 hours. Heather didn’t want to drive so Michael and I handled the wheel. At one point we thought we had worked out a good way to switch drivers without stopping the van, but just as we were getting ready to try it I was hit with a wave of responsibility and maturity. Responsible mature people don’t go jumping out from behind the wheel of an 11-passenger van while it is going 65 mph down the highway, so we didn’t do it.
On this trip back to Kansas I experienced something that was (and still is) quite novel to me. I hallucinated. At least I’m fairly sure I hallucinated. We were about 20 miles from my house and since I knew the way I volunteered to drive. I was totally exhausted and the fact the Michael and Heather were both asleep instead of actively helping me keep my brain functioning wasn’t helping.
I stopped at a light on a deserted area of 69 highway and decided I needed to get my blood flowing so I got out to run around the van. As I got out part of me decided it would be a better idea to hop around the van because it would be more active and since it would be a slightly odd experience it might help me wake up. I started hopping around the van. When I got the to passenger side Michael woke up, looked at me through the window like it was perfectly natural for me to be outside the van hopping by his window, and went back to sleep.
I made it around the van and was starting on lap two when I thought I remembered hearing someone yell at me from behind some nearby bushes. I jumped back in the van and we drove off, but then I realized that I don’t think I ever actually heard anyone. I just thought I remembered hearing someone. This puzzled me which was good because it kept my brain active for another 5 miles or so, but then my mental processes decided to take another nap. As I started driving up a hill I looked to the top and saw a huge, purple and black, wide as the road bowling ball. I hit the brakes right before my brain woke up to inform me that what I was seeing was nonsense and that hitting the brakes was dangerous.
Sometimes my brain seems like it is just out to annoy me.