Road Trip Tolerance Meter

Theo has an internal road trip tolerance meter that is permanently set to go off (and go off spectacularly) 20 minutes before the end of any and all road trips.  It doesn't matter the length of travel involved.  Driving 9 hours?  He quietly entertains himself for 8 hours and 40 minutes.  Then.  Watch out.  He gets antsy and wild.  He starts jabbing his brother, poking his mother, driving us all a bit crazy.  I know I should be extremely thankful that the kid can sit and amuse himself for over eight hours.  But there are two problems.  The first one is that this alarm goes off for him 20 mintues prior to any destination.  So our 25 minute drives to both sets of grandparents only give us 5 minutes of quiet self-entertainment.  Then bonk.  It's kind of uncanny.  The second problem is that I totally have this same meter in my body.  And it's taken me 40 odd years to get to a place where I can almost ignore its call.  But when Theo's tolerance meter dings, my body hears it loud and clear and I want to act out in just the same way he is.  And sometimes I do.  Ok.  Maybe most times.