TEXAS

Austin, Texas, November 7, 2018

AS SOON AS MY IPHONE ALARM went off at the ungodly hour of 5am, I went from being sound asleep to instantly being WIDE-AWAKE. Mr. Coffee, set on a timer the night before, had already started puffing and gurgling in the kitchen by the time I planted my bare feet on the floor and lurched for the nearest coffee cup.

El Paso, Texas, November 7, 2018

WHEN I ARRIVED IN EL PASO, my Garmin GPS accurately directed me to my brother Robert's high rise condo on Stanton Street. I docked the car and trailer along a convenient curb, relaxed inside the trailer, snacked and texted my brother that the eagle had landed. Robert arrived shortly thereafter.

Fort Davis, Texas, November 26-29th, 2018

FOR ABOUT 20 YEARS I HAD THE DISTINCT DISPLEASURE of working in the movie business It more or less went like this: I worked on movies with terrible, average, and very occasionally OK scripts, with outrageously over-paid people who recited memorized lines while playing pretend

NEW MEXICO

Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 9th

PULLED INTO SANTA FE around 9p after spending all morning and a big chunk of the afternoon at the aforementioned El Paso Starbucks. It was way later into the evening than I had planned (Robert departed for Santa Fe earlier with no self-imposed speed limit like me and arrived a lot sooner).

Albuquerque, New Mexico, November 21st to the 26th

It was around noon, the day before Thanksgiving, that I finally got to Albuquerque. I was there to visit an old Austin friend, Chiquita, who knew I was traveling and had invited me to spend that singular American (made-up) holiday with her.

ARIZONA

Tempe/Phoenix/Burnt Well Rest Area, Arizona, November 13th, 2018

MY PLAN WAS TO DRIVE from Santa Fe to Phoenix, find a rest area, and put the ATXBreeze tiny camper to work (finally) as a place to actually camp/sleep in (every night that I've been traveling has been spent in a common domestic setting.

CALIFORNIA

Indio California, November 14th,

IT WAS A SHORT, pleasant (seemingly all downhill) drive from the best rest stop in all of Arizona to Indio, California. First stop, of course, was a Starbucks (I'd been to this exact Starbucks last time I passed thru about 2 years ago).

Joshua Tree, California, November 16th

When I left for Joshua Tree this morning, I decided I was gonna take my sweet time leaving my fav desert town and #1 SoCal hangout, Indio-CA. Another reason not to skedaddle early? Joshua Tree is but a short 30 minutes/miles away!

Fallbrook, California, November 23rd-25th

With the ample assistance of Samantha, the voice inside my GPS, I got from Indio to Fallbrook by heading toward LA, then getting aimed sharply down toward San Diego (Highways 10, 93, 215). But before you arrive in the SD you drive thru Fallbrook, and that's how I got to Fallbrook!

Los Angeles, California, November 19th

Any time I travel to California, and quite possibly the primary reason I go there, is for an opportunity to visit with Hannah, my daughter. She has lived in and around Los Angeles since she enrolled at Loyola Marymount University as an undergrad, and later, as a law student, also at LMU.

Fallbrook, Ludlow, Kingman, Winslow, Flagstaff, Gallup, November 20th to the 21st

When I left Fallbrook for Albuquerque for what was to be a two day traveling trip, I once again let the Garmin GPS determine the best and fastest route on how to get to my next destination.