It’s a long stretch of road that runs between the Rockies and the Appalachians. A full day’s drive no matter which way you take. If you exceed the speed limit, minimize your time at gas stations and have a fondness for sleep deprivation, you can get it done in around twenty-one hours.

Somewhere around Tennessee, if you take Interstate 40 (a sizable portion of which is the old route 66), things get interesting. Tennessee is a nice long state from West to East. You’re good and tired when you hit the border and you have have plenty of driving to do from that point.

It behooves you to have a CD collection or iPod to put on shuffle. Many hours on corporate radio will make you violently opposed to anything that’s popular at the moment once you’ve heard it seven or eight times during the trip.

Your eyes want to close. Your brain wants to rest. Eventually, they will betray you. A blink turns into a brief dream of the highway with cruise control at 80 mph on a crowded interstate.

Things go downhill from there.