Okay, to be perfectly honest, yes, it's a long drive home, but no longer than driving here. Anyway; this fine morning, the 23rd of March 2003, marked a beautiful sunrise. Of course, with the alarm sounded at 3:30am Mountain Time, and departing at 4:11am, we won't see the sunrise for hours. A bit over two hours and change, in fact.

We stopped briefly in Shiprock, NM for the acquisition of soda. Tubby bought himself the standard Pepsi for $1 each (he sprung for one for the Rachel), and supplied the Cassie with a water for $1.39. And then he mumbled something about why people not only pay for water, but pay more for the far less pure soda pop. Alas, I realized I didn't much care, and stopped listening.

Like the other two non-bald ones, I napped off and on until we arrived in Gallup, New Mexico, at 6:04am (MST). I was pleased to find the McDonalds chain is sensitive to the dietary limitations Catholics observe during the 40 days before Easter, which they call "lent." Once inside, we began with a trip to the potty to address some urgent matters. As we took care of manly business, the snoring was a bit disturbing, we found that as long as you didn't need to use the stall, we wouldn't disturb the snoozing transient... thus, the delicate balance of the cosmos was left uninterrupted.

After I enjoyed a blasphemous breakfast of eggs and bacon (Wilbur!), we were off again with the very drowsy Bald One at the wheel. We began the 527 mile trek along I-40 between Gallup, NM and Bakersfield, CA. But I'm getting ahead of myself, I suppose.

That lasted about 80 miles, until the reality that sleep is best engaged while not behind the wheel, and we rotated around, and I tucked Tubby under his wooby blankey. That only lasted about 90 minutes until he wanted to rotate back at 8:40am (MST). Given we were driving through Arizona, I'm afraid I can't claim there was much to see. And then, we reached California at 11:54am (MST; 10:54am PST), were waved through the agriculture station without being asked to lie about vegetables I had smuggled in my luggage, and we were home free.

Around 12:30pm (PST, of course), we stopped in Ludlow, California. and found that the one place to dine in town was the Dairy Queen. And as you'd expect, it was crowded as all get out. When we ordered, Lorraine darn near went into vapor lock when Rachel and Cassie ordered lunch. Not their order, of course... Tubby's. The "plain" order apparently doesn't mean you can't just punch in "plain" in the register... nope, you have to enter in a -item for each thing you didn't want to order. Which looked funny enough. But in the end, at least the chicken strips looked like strips, and not nuggets (sorry Hilary), a la Baker's Square, Anaheim, CA, on Friday, 7 February 2003. Worst service in recent memory, but I'm trying to get over it. It's not working.

And then we left. We lumbered into Tehachapi, California around 3:11pm, where we lingered for a few minutes to reload on fuel, Pepsi, and giggle at signs with a decimal place problem. And, it always makes me smile to see a church located in the basement who still is keen on letting people know about their locale.

Et cetera, and 1,015 miles later, we were home again around 7:30pm... a mere 16 hours after we hopped into the still-unnamed travel vessel. For now, but I'll be off to Vegas on Friday, just six short days from now.

Go back to Day 2