ST. LOUIS, Missouri to AUSTIN, Texas, July 21, 2005 — We have almost nine hundred miles to drive. We get up very early. Around 4:45 we are facing a big round moon and the sun has barely glimmered behind us. We are ready for what the road holds.

Turnpikes, casinos, McD's, coffee, coffee, coke, juice, water, jerky, little donuts, cereal bars, banana, Driving. Not driving and reading. Singing along to the Austin Lounge Lizards doing Paint Me On Velvet.

I am getting very weary and then we are in Texas! That energizes me. I'm fired up to get home.

How hard can it be from here? I'm driving. The northern part of IH35 has this weird deja vu feel. Haven't driven it since college. We split off on 35W for the most direct route through the Metroplex. I have high hopes of getting through before rush hour overwhelmes. Unfortunately an accident stops us cold in Ft. Worth but we finally get by it. I stop a bit later and FFP takes over driving.

A little before seven, we are home. We drag stuff out of the car, unpack, deliriously tired. We restart things that went down in a power failure (like our computers). We survey a pile of mail and papers. Finally we decide to just go to Fonda San Miguel and eat and drink a bit. The owner sits down with us a while. We are very tired. The margaritas are making me comatose. Time for home and bed. And this time it is really home, not a hotel or inn.