A Cure for the Car-Sick Slug

Slug Tales 

As much as I love slugging, there’s one little thing that can make the ride a bit less enjoyable for me – I get car sick.

It’s not something that bothers me all the time, but if I even attempt to read, scroll through Facebook, or simply look out the window sometimes, then forget it. It’s the worst feeling, and when you’re riding in someone else’s car, can make you feel trapped.

When I get car sick, everything feels like torture. A slight tap on the brakes, loud music, a stuffy car… just thinking about it is nauseating.

It’s not just riding in the car that gives me motion sickness, either. The Metro, or sometimes even a bad bus ride can leave me feeling queasy.

A few weeks ago, I took the Metro from Franconia Springfield, at end of the Blue Line, all the way to the L’Enfant Plaza stop, which takes close to an hour. About halfway through the ride, I was starting to sweat and feel a bit green under the gills, when I noticed other passengers were also fanning themselves and complaining about the heat.

I realized at that point that we had probably chosen a car without AC, and though I considered moving to the next car, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to do so before the doors closed.

“We’re almost there… just a few more stops,” I told myself, as I suffered through the rest of the ride. It was miserable!

I’ve been a little under the weather for the last week or so, and that certainly hasn’t helped my general issue with motion sickness. One morning last week, I rode into work with a nice lady that I often run into in the Slug Line. She’s always so nice and so friendly, but I was feeling pretty blah that day, and her peppiness only made me feel worse.

I felt terrible for not being more talkative that day, but on the inside, I longed for a driver who didn’t know me and didn’t insist on carrying on a conversation. Despite wanting to close my eyes and shut out the world, I didn’t want to seem impolite, so I continued talking. When we hit traffic just past the Pentagon, I didn’t think I was going to make it.

For a moment, I envisioned what a disgrace it would be to get physically ill in a Slug Driver’s car – then I quickly put it out of my mind, before it actually happened.

Normally, I like to take a nap while riding up and down the Interstate 95 HOV lanes, and I think this is partly to avoid that horrible feeling of car sickness. I’ve known other people who suffer from the same problem, so surely I’m not the only slug who feels this way from time to time.

Luckily, the typical slug ride from the commuter lot to my office, or vice versa, is only around a half hour – so when I do feel car sick, and don’t have a chatty driver, a power nap is usually the perfect cure.