Go!

We were up and out 15 minutes before the time we discussed last night... I guess we're anxious.  The wind isn't blowing much (not even a headwind), the bridge was perfectly level.  Traffic was unusually light... I can't tell you when we've seen so few vehicles on the Expressway out of the Valley (77).  Pulling into the Sarita Checkpoint (Border Patrol), there was one vehicle in front of us, and he was waved through before we got to the agent with the sniffin' dog.

"Good morning, folks.  Just you two?  Both American citizens?"

"Good morning.  Yes.  Yes."

"Enjoy your day."

There isn't much along this stretch of highway, but we generally stop at the rest area just north of the checkpoint... there was one truck and two cars in the rest area.  Seriously - where is everyone?

We chugged along, enjoying the drive.  We tried the iPad Mini as a nav unit in a couple different places...

That's a lot of square inches, even on the Mini screen, for use in the truck.  By comparison, that is a typical size Garmin to the right.  We have driven this route MANY times, so I'm pretty sure we can find our way, even without GPS help.  I like the mileage and time to destination features, though.

Little Izzy spent the first hour or so in her carrier, then came out to sit with us.  Might be hard to tell from this photo, but she is sitting beside me in the driver's seat...

She is looking straight up; the red Hawaii print quilt is her "blankie" on top of the center console.  Today, she wanted to sit beside it (and snuggle up).  Later, she decided to nap on top of the console...

I am driving, Joan is navigating, Izzy gets to nap when she wants.  Looking at that image - that is one furry cat!

Heading into the San Antonio area, the traffic didn't thicken up much.  We decided to roll through town to pick up I-10, instead of taking one of the loops.  Again, not much traffic... well, a bunch more than we saw before San Antonio, but not what we typically run into there.  Easy.

Next up: running across the 560 miles of west Texas.  And that's why it takes us two to three days just to get out of Texas.