I drove from Austin, Texas to Bellaire, Ohio and back over holiday break. Here are some observations from the drive:

• Most gas station coffee is unnecessarily bad, especially from the weird cappuccinobots
• Starbucks (or anyone, really) needs to open up some decent Interstate-side coffee shops.
• Maybelline has a huge building in Little Rock
• I-40 around Memphis is completely torn up and confusing
• The touchless car wash outside of Cross Plains, Tennessee did an amazing job
• Kentucky had 965 highway fatalities in 2004 and 964 in 2005 according to a large lighted sign above I-71
• A large sign along I-65 proclaimed “HELL IS REAL”. I felt that was kind of redundant as a “Welcome to Kentucky” was clearly marked upon entering the state.
• The speed limit on I-40 within Nashville is inexplicably 45 mph despite no visible construction and a massive eight lane byway
• Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee rightly have 70 mph speed limits while Ohio and Kentucky both incorrectly enforce 65 mph
• Nearly all road signs in Arkansas and Tennessee need to be replaced as they’re fairly worn and illegible
• I saw a paraglider for the first time ever outside of Cincinatti on Ohio SR-32
• Elderly Austin drivers are way faster than elderly Ohio and West Virginia drivers on average (calculated using Bayesian Analysis and beer)
• On the way back, my iPod stopped working this decreased my car-accessible tunage from 6040 tracks to 40 tracks. This sucked big time.
• Matt gave me a few CDs from his various band, and I was blown away by Eclipsed which I listened to about 10 times all the way through.
• I drove back without using any navigation other than the stars and road signs
• I can only drive about 20 hours straight before I have to sleep
• Concluded that it would royally suck to be trucker
• Concluded that it is nearly impossible to eat healthy food from a gas station unless they carry fruit
• Total travel time from Austin to Bellaire, Ohio: 21 hours, driving time 20 hours.
• Total travel time from Athens, Ohio to Austin: 23 hours, driving time 19 hours.

Thanks to Matt for letting me crash at his place on NYE, and for making the best damn tofu spaghetti noodle stir fry in the Deep North. Also a big thanks to the many law enforcement agencies for not ticketing me during my massive journey, and to the Germans for making fine automobiles.