The weather was shockingly bad when we woke up, rainy and very cold. We had been watching the weather reports and it looked like the front of snow would just miss us but we still had a few miles north to go. We left Abilene and followed the road until it was time to go east at Haskell, abandoning my original route. It was grey and dull, and we stopped in Newcastle to have a coffee and a sit down. Bad mistake. The coffee was awful, the people eating the ‘food’ looked like they had escaped from a mental institute but we amused ourselves by reading the local paper which was 4 pages of drivel and trying to make the tiny amount of milk the waitress gave us fit into 4 coffees. ‘Y’all come back now’ she mumbled as we left. I think I would rather die.

Now I had the horribly boring job of driving the 50 miles back to Haskell and onto finish the T in trousers which I set to with a dull resignation. Graceland would have to wait.

100 miles later we were in Jayton and at least the weather picked up somewhat, but I was now traveling with someone who is possibly worse than me at getting out of bed and it was already late afternoon. Its times like these (and many times before and after) that I wonder what the hell I’m doing, but I could hardly stop now. Making a note of the time so we could make the route that wasn’t part of the letter disappear somewhat we turned south towards sweetwater and the road back to Abilene. It didn’t feel like we were doing anything by going back there, it all seemed so stupid. The sun set in the middle of the E and we drove through Abilene and carried on. At least the place was so empty we could watch the milkyway sparkling overhead. The waxing moon made a brief appearance near the horizon before sinking back like a glowing orange peel and we drove into the night.

I did suggest at one point that we drive all night and just get it out of the way but when we came closer to San Angelo and the lure of a night sleep in a Walmart carpark was just too great. We’d had to drive around between the fields, back and forth with nothing to see but what my headlights would hint at in the darkness. If this was to make any sense we should at least be seeing something instead of just performing some weird endurance challenge. We found a walmart and got some sleep.



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