June 18, 2010: Bye Bye Texas, Hello Road

After getting to bed much later than I had anticipated last night I then got woken up at five this morning by John Nicklin calling to make plans for the weekend!  So my intended nine hours of sleep fell to just five.  That’s a large cut.

I tried to go back to sleep but to no avail.  I laid in bed for a bit but eventually gave up.

It has been a very hot week in Texas with daily temperature hitting quite a bit over one hundred.  I am going to feel downright cold when I finally get to New York!  I’ve gotten used to some pretty extreme weather.  From what I have been seeing, New York is almost twenty degrees cooler than we are here in Irving.

I ran home at lunch and spent the limited time that I had attempting to get as much ready for my trip as possible.  We decided, rather last second, that Jen was going to make it to Irving so early that she could turn right around and be back to Houston early enough to make it worth it and that meant that I would be free to make an attempt at getting on to the road tonight rather than waiting until tomorrow morning.  That should give me a lot more buffer in the schedule to make it an easier drive to Arnold, Maryland.

I have my iPod loaded up with podcasts and music that hopefully will keep me entertained while on the road.  I also have Sue Grafton’s U is for Undertow which Dominica and I never managed to finish six months ago when we drove down to Texas so I am anxious to finish now.  I can listen to a ton more audio books on a drive than Dominica can so I will certainly manage to wrap it up on this trip.

Jen arrived in Irving at a quarter till six.  Unfortunately I was stuck on a conference call and was unable to leave as early as would have been ideal.  I still have all of my clothes packing to do yet as well.  So I am quite some ways from being ready to actually get onto the road.  I had originally hoped to have been able to have left right around six or so.

Still, getting on the road tonight is better than not.  There are a lot of miles to be driven and I need to get as many out of the way tonight as possible.  Most likely I will grab a hotel room in Tennessee or something like that.  If I push on past that point I will be stuck without much access to hotels until I get to the Nicklin’s place.

I managed to go all day today without any coffee or caffeine which was perfect so that I can have some during the drive and it will do that much more to keep me awake.  I skipped most food today so I will be hungry on the drive as well.

I am taking very, very little with me on this drive so I am hopeful that I do not forget anything.  The conference call running later and later was the worst possible thing for tonight.  I lost at least forty-five minutes because of it and that will make me that much more rushed to get on the road.

My call ended at a quarter after six.  That’s it, I’m done.  I am leaving now.  No more SGL until I get to a hotel or get to Maryland!  Peace out!

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