Crossing the Louisiana-Texas Border and Other Scenes From Inside the Minivan

Yee-haw, y'all! The drive from New Orleans to Austin was long! We left early this morning, and after three nights of sleeping in sub-human humid conditions we were a little groggy to say the least. Mackenzie and I did a fine job pushing the entire trip and we made it in just about eight hours, including a McDonald's stop-off (only our second one y'all should be happy to know). Surprisingly Binh spent more hours awake today than any day previously and it was great to have his energy throughout the day, especially on the long, straight, and flat Texas roads.

We've, in my opinion, done a good job mixing it up with the music so far. Here's how it usually goes: Mackenzie is a big fan of Sirius Station 61 (Prime Country). Somehow she knows all the words to all the songs. Now, in my younger days I think that might have driven me crazy, but I've taken to be okay with it and even enjoy some of the stories those folks tell and the sing-along aspect of most of them. When I am not driving I spend a good twenty or thirty minutes creating a themed playlist on my "iPod" (it's a Zen). The idea of the playlist is that many of the songs directly mention or reference the state or city we are traveling to, others just have the right sound for the geographic region we're in, and then there's just some random stuff to mix it up. I don't get to listen to Phish much (my favorite driving music) because I know it can be hard to listen to for the initiated, but I have to say when I've put some chunks of shows on or mixed some songs into the mix, Binh and Mackenzie have gone with it (I'm not sure they even know what it is, but I'll take it). Other than that we flip around on the Sirius stations and in the morning we get us some news from NPR.

And finally, there's cruise control... To those who haven't used it on a long trip you are missing out. I especially think it will be helpful down here in Texas so we don't get caught by the law. We hear they don't always like us Yankees much...