Slouching Towards Angeles, Day 1

Cataloging the trip from Austin to LA:

• 3:00 p.m.: Despite having a shockingly (for me) organized packing that involved going through the New Year countdown on a particularly miserable New Years Eve, I still departed later than expected.
  
• 4:15 p.m.: Ignored/forgot the constant protestations to stop in Fredricksburg and get gas. This in lieu of being warned that West Texas is sparse on gas stations, that there's a time portal somewhere along I-10 that takes you back to the 1800s, and that there's Injuns in them thar' hills.
  
• 4:35 p.m.: Freak out, get off phone, turn around.
  
• 4:55 p.m.: Get gas in Fredricksburg.
  
• 5:15 p.m.: Pass the location of the original freak out.
  
• 5:17 p.m.: See gas station.
  
• 6:00 p.m.: Beheld my last Texas sunset for a long time. Which was nice that Mother Nature granted me such a watercolor masterpiece. The light very literally faded around the source, then brightened in a half-circle flare, a patina of unnaturalness that I took as being specifically just for me and my moment.
  
• 8:13 p.m.: See my first mountain.
  
• 8:43 p.m.: See brilliant moon behind me.
  
• 9:01 p.m.: See mountain illuminated by moon and distinctly find myself thinking of No Country for Old Men. Text people to ask if Anton Chigurh is going to shoot compressed air into my temple.
  
• 11:15 p.m.: See first hints of Juarez in the distance.
  
• 11:35 p.m.: Can't see anything but Juarez.
  
• 11:41 p.m.: See these glowing lights in the sky. Never figure out if they're a crane, a distant downtown, a UFO, or hallucinations. Almost halfway!
  
• 11:52 p.m.: Mentally note to change the shoot locale of my future post-apocalyptic dystopia movie from Gary, IN, to Juarez.
  
• 12:07 a.m.: Hit downtown El Paso. Avoid eye contact with other drivers. My White Liberal membership card gives me a frown from inside my wallet.
  
• 12:17 a.m.: New Mexico!
  
• 1:08 a.m.: Decide that I don't want to pay Friday night rates for a motel, even though in the middle of nowhere it's the same as a normal night anywhere else.
  
• 1:17 a.m.: Go to sleep in a car that's about 69 degrees inside.
  
• 6:56 a.m.: Wake up in a car that's about 20 degrees inside. Cocoon myself further in the sleeping bag.
  
• 7:37 a.m.: Can't breathe anymore of cocooned sleeping bag air. Star Day 2!