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It's a driving day. And we're driving. Whee! After an on-time start and a breakfast of beignets from Cafe du Monde, we hit the road for the 30-something hour drive back to the Compound, er, home.
| 5:32am (CST) | The phone rang, with Rachel giving the wake-up call. We opted to summons the valet to a 6:30am departure, per the itinerary, and asked for a second call at 6am... falling asleep wasn't a successful project last night (still awake at 3:30am+). And, it's Central time. |
| 6:01am | The call came, and we arose with a shutter. |
| 6:26am | The travel party, and a load of bags (four containing leftover or newly acquired beads) and various items all loaded into the travel vessel. |
| 6:34am | We're off... sort of. We head over to Cafe du Monde for beignets (a French doughnut sort of thing, drenched in powdered sugar). |
| 7:04am | The Goodyear tires hit the I-10, westbound for home. A moderate rain began to fall as Tubby navigated the vehicle, either home or to our untimely demise; time will tell which is true. |
| state capitol | |
| 9:58am | Time-wise, we're not doing so hot. But it doesn't matter much at this very moment, as we were stopped about 0.4 miles east of mile marker 80 on Interstate 10 to capture the rollover of the car to the 100,000 mile mark. (The last 57,700 miles were racked up since we bought the thing just over a year ago, on 1 February of last year.) |
| 10:47am | Answering the call, we stopped and found that not all rest stops were created equal, but this one wasn't half bad, although the stall doors were a bit short for our tastes. |
| 11:13am | We crossed over from Louisiana to Texas. |
| 12:10pm | Stopping for fuel for us and the car, we managed to nibble at Jack-in-the-Box, top off, and swap drivers, putting Robin at the helm. |
| 1:15pm (ish) | The rest of us apparently fell asleep for a while, drifting in and out of reality and interest in our surroundings. It also meant we didn't have to really recognize the rather strong southeastern-blowing winds pushing against the car. (But we're driving mostly westbound, so there was some contention |
| 3:48pm | We stop in San Antonio to fuel up and acquire tasty Pepsi products. Rachel takes charge of the travel vessel. Current estimates put us in Kent, Texas around 10pm (400 miles later). At present, we're running at a rate of about 70 MPH. |
| 4:39pm | The update from the home front was a girl fell from a balcony and died on Bourbon Street. But we didn't hear anything about it, didn't see it, so it's the first we've heard of it, but... that's no good. (CNN does a better job covering the story, though.) |
| 4:59pm | In a weird, cosmic event, Tubby, Rachel and Robin all took a drink of Pepsi at the same time. But only Robin's slashed back and got her in the nose. |
| 5:31pm | We stop for a potty break for the girl people; us guy types are hangin' tough, as it were. |
| 6:32pm | The sun is setting over the western horizon, but we've still got 371 miles to get out of Texas and into New Mexico. Yessirree, we're still a long way from the nest. |
| 6:45pm | Trooper Taylor, Texas State Police, decided to pull us over and suggested Rachel slow down a bit, and that was that (no ticket). The consensus was that he was cute. Robin insists he was "hot." (But, she indicated it may have been the hat, a cute Stetson sort of thing.) |
| 7:05pm | Based on Trooper Taylor's helpful hint that speed limits drop from 75 MPH to 65 MPH at night, and night is 30 minutes after sunset, this would be the time to slow down. |
| 7:41pm | I feel like I'm a bystander in Oprah's book club, as Robin and Rachel discuss the book, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale", on the topics of morality, being just, and the zen of Buffy. I amused myself with a somewhat less cerebral activity -- Solitaire. |
| 8:25pm | We stop in Fort Stockton, Texas. (This is where Rachel stopped when she went to Mardi Gras last year, and got Joshua, the manager of the Burger King there, to become a FrankPal when she passed through.) No Burger King visit, though, although we did stop at the Shell station with the BK in it, but the only thing fed was the car and our Pepsi addictions. |
| 8:34pm | Based on the reduced speed and our current bearings (mile 262 in Texas), we'll be hitting New Mexico right around 11:30pm, even with the time change from Central to Mountain time. |
| 9:40pm 8:40pm (MST) |
That pretty green sign just revealed that we're now in Mountain Time Zone. That's one step closer to home... yea! |
| 10:57pm | We paused in El Paso for gas, snacks, and a bio break. With some funky construction, it seems as though we had to loop around 375 three times before all was said and done. Rachel is relieved of the conn, and Tubby takes the wheel (eek). |
| 11:17pm | Passing through the far side of El Paso, we found a helpful reminder for travelers bound for Mexico, and Wells Fargo's way of keeping the electricity bill nice and high -- USA, USA... |
| 11:36pm | The Lone Star state is now behind us as we enter into New Mexico. Good math on that calculation, eh? |
| 11:59pm | The 60 second countdown to... going to the next day's page. |