Antarctica Starts Here.

While Jason and I were driving cross-country late last year, we tried to clear two states a day to make sure that we'd get to the west coast on time. This usually meant setting out at 1000 hours local time, loading our luggage into the TARDIS, and putting the pedal to the metal. This usually wan't too big a deal because we usually started a day's travel from a half to a third of the way across a given state to begin with. Near the end of our journey, however, the only viable route meant clearing the state of Arizona all in one shot because the highway cut through every unpopulated area of the state. Research and investigation showed that there were no hotels, no motels, and no petrol stations where we could hole up for the night or refuel if we needed to.

Roger Zelazny wrote about this. He called it the hellride.

We drove for well over twelve hours straight that day, probably closer to eighteen. I really don't remember. We traded off driving duties a couple of times and finally slept in a hotel just inside the California border some time after midnight.

Know what? I'd do it all over again. I fell in love with the desert the first time I was out there and hellriding through Arizona felt like homecoming. Of course, I couldn't resist the urge to take some photographs as the opportunity presented itself. Enjoy.