Well, I can never get a good night's sleep when I've got a long trip next morning. RF is right. Books on tape are great. But it's best to have someone else with you, to talk or spell you off if need be.

But I won't drive sleepy again. A couple of years ago, my buddy and I were heading down to Hamilton for a few gigs. It was just after sunup and we'd only gotten about 40 miles out of the Sault and were behind a Winnebago. Came around a curve and saw the `Bago wandering into the other lane so we came up beside it. We thought he was going to take the next left, but he wasn't slowing down. "He's gonna flip that thing over when he goes to turn," I said.

But I needn't have worried. The RV blew through the turn and piled straight into the rock cut just the other side of the intersection. At full highway speed. Luckily, we were the only other vehicles on the highway nearby so nobody else was threatened.

I slammed on the brakes and pulled it over and we both jumped out and ran over to the crash, figuring on pulling bodies out or something... not that we had a lot of time to think. We ran across the road, only stopping to check for oncoming traffic after we were halfway across.

Just as we got to the wreck (which had bounced backwards and fell over on its port side), the driver's door flips open and this wiry little guy climbs out, bald as a cue-ball on top but with a long ponytail hanging from his male pattern fringe. He looks dazed and has a little cut on his forehead, but is otherwise alright. The first words out of his mouth (The truth!) were "Hi. We're with the circus!"

Apparently, he'd been up all night, packing up the travelling circus and then stayed at the Husky, eating and drinking tons of coffee in preparation for the morning run to Sudbury where the circus was setting up next. He had 2 guys and a dog sleeping in the back and had fallen asleep at the wheel with his cruise control on.

So, in addition to drunks and fools, I guess God loves circus people too, because none of these guys was hurt. One guy (not the driver) had a bruised rib and the shakes and wanted a cigarette bad. We couldn't get the back door open so my buddy went over to the roof vent and broke it open to check on the guys inside. The driver started yelling at him for busting his vent, but that was before he saw the front of his vehicle. The thing was totalled. Then he didn't want us to call the OPP because his license plate tag was expired. And he was agonizing over how he was going to get his crew to Sudbury.

"Buddy, you got much bigger problems," we told him. "And you should be pretty grateful you're still walking around pissing and moaning at this point too."

So we got a pretty good lesson that day. I have no illusions about how much luck I'd have in a crash like that. It still amazes me.