I was driving somewhere, possibly headed south, in a van with a friend... I think it was with the purpose to deliver something to somebody. It had a sort of road-trip kind of feel to it since I had a bit of a distance to go and it was to a place I had little knowledge of.
The landscape was not entirely unfamiliar to me but it was not someplace I had been before. There were hills on either side of the road I was driving, the hills on the east were much more distant. I remember consulting a map with my friend and taking a turn down one of the highways toward the hills which were westward before taking another turn onto a road which continued southbound.
I arrived at a place which I did not believe was my destination but seemed relevant to stop at and go inside. My friend Cris, previously unidentified in the dream, decided to come into the building with me.
It was a church building which seemed vacant upon my entering although the lights were on anyway. I went most of the way through the main hallway to get a drink at the drinking fountain. Cris was following me talking to me as we went but I don't remember the topic of conversation. As I was drinking the water from the fountain I noticed an old friend from Red Robin a little way down the hall in the direction from which I had just come. I asked her if another of my friends from Red Robin, one which I knew she knew well, was there and she told me they were having a gathering/party for him there right then.
I started looking for him in one of the side rooms and saw a lot of people that I did not know. This is where my memory of the dream gets weird... I think my dream went into an entirely different story... sort of.
Upon entering another room I saw an old gruff man. He did not seem friendly or inclined to even talk with me. I started talking to him anyway. He began telling me about his son and how he trained his son from the time his son was a baby to be tough. He told me stories about ridiculous ways his baby son would outsmart him in his equally ridiculous methods of training. He seemed to hold quite a level of disdain for his son and even moreso for the fact that his son, even as a baby, was outsmarting his attempts to basically do away with him.
He even did this really spiderman-like maneuver in the description of something he did in attempt to foil his son. Then told me about the fact that he was a fisherman and how he did well to support his family on that. There was a bit more that happened at this part of the dream but I don't remember it other than I somehow got back to the van I was driving in and it was night time.
I was trying to drive back to my house and was getting very drowsy... in my dream. I caught myself dozing off a couple times. This is where the dream gets weird.
I woke to find myself sitting in the cab of the van, still buckled in, somewhat disoriented and confused about where I was and the fact that it was now mid-morning. My dad opened the passenger door and told me that he was glad he found the van. He and Cris had to come find me and tow it back since I had apparently driven off the road after drifting off to sleep and totalled the van while I was trying to drive home. I had that distinct feeling of helplessness after realizing I had not been able to make it home safely and felt extremely agitated that I had let myself continue driving even though I was so tired I was losing control. I was also agitated because I thought that I had actually woken up in real life and that I had to now deal with the consequences of wrecking the van and such.
I don't usually think I'm dreaming while in my dream but waking up while in my dream made it seem more like I was really awake. I had all the strange physical feelings of drowsiness and cloudy mindedness which I typically feel right after waking up but I was, in fact, still in the dream.
I don't remember much more of the dream but after waking up in real life I was quite
relieved to know that it was just a dream and that I had not wrecked a van which did not
exist anyway. Quite a happy feeling to start the day off with I think.
