FRIDAY (CHRONICLE #1): Today is road trip DAY 1. It is the day that we’re heading out to Marfa. We are excited! And hopefully awake enough to drive.

Got up at 3:00am. Prepared breakfast tacos.

Very Important: Loaded the Black Iguana ice chests on the Avalanche. It’s not like we can reach Marfa, then find out that we forgot the Black Iguana Frozen Ritas — and then be able to say “Ooops, be back in just a sec — we forgot to load the Black Iguanas.”

Ready to go! On the road at exactly 4:15 am. Talk about staying on schedule!

Downside: Nothing’s open at this hour — all Starbucks are closed. Not to panick…we can stop at first coffeehouse that’s open.

Heading out on I35 and then getting on 290 West. Videoing the city. Austin skyline looks awesome!

Music: Carly Simon’s new CD (available at Starbucks)

We’ll go through Oak Hill, Dripping Springs, Johnson City, Fredricksburg. Hardly any traffic at this hour — sailing right on through — this is awesome! The breaksfast tacos smell really good. But we’re waiting to pick up some Java…we NEED our Java fix. The plan is to get our Java in either Johnson City or Fredricksburg.

OK. We’ve just passed Johson City — no luck, no coffeehouse open.

We’re driving s-l-o-w-l-y through Fredricksburg — pleeeze, let there be a coffeehouse OPEN. Feeling a little panicky. Last resort & VERY desperate option: pick up coffee at a gas station.

We’re now at Junction — we just spotted a cafe with an OPEN sign on.  YES! Finally, we can have our Java fix.

Folks are surprised to see us this early in the morning…it’s obvious, we’re not local. The girl at the register is looking at us closely, but is too polite to ask us any questions. We order our Java to-go, large size (this is not a place where you order tall, grande, or venti ). We climb back into the Avalanche, and we’re on the road again.

Making great time! We’ve just picked up I10 West — heading to Sonora, then Ozona, Sheffield, Bakersfield, and Fort Stockton.

Music: Dixie Chicks — The Long Way Around

Time to RIP OPEN the taco bag — mmmm good. Can’t type on the laptop, hold breakfast taco in one hand and Java with the other. So, time to log off for a while. 

[We'll post pictures and video later.]