Eventually we got bored of the Dallas area and decided it was time to move on. Atlanta was our noble goal. According to Dann's experience it would take us about 12 hours non-stop driving to get there. We decided to set out at 3am to avoid the daytime heat for as long as possible (no AC). He'd drop me off in Atlanta, at Patrick's, meet a few of our friends and then return the following day to Dallas and work and such. At least - that was the plan...

In the beginning at least most things go according to plan. We somehow fall out of bed around 3.30am, shower and find our car. Outside it's dark, and cold, still. At around 4am we are on the road east trying to leave the Dallas - Ft. Worth area behind us so we can see some stars before day-rise. Yet, before leaving the area we have some site-seeing to do. We have to visit the C2-servers.

The C2 servers are located in a collocation facility at the internet backbone node number so-und-so. To get there we pass impressively lit sky-scrapers. It is 4something in the morning and the watchman who's outside smoking a cigarette looks at us only slightly suspicious. He looks up Dann's name on the list of allowed people, and we are admitted.

For all those who are dealing with such things daily, bear with me. I was just so excited about the whole thing. The building looks so inconspicuous from the outside. Inside there is high security, white walls, a constant temperature of 18ish degrees centigrade so the servers don't overheat, and a dozen or so seperate cages, and - the internet backbone. (So that's why C2 is so fast...)

Dann unlocks one of the cages and here we are. I get to say hello to Jonsi, Kjartan and Georg.

As you can see clearly from the pictures, at that time we are still feeling fresh and adventurous. After a while we leave the facility (after all, you can only do that much in a room filled with humming servers, and routers, and modems and stuff...), and we return to the road.

At Grandy's we have make a first stop to eat some breakfast, watch the sunrise and open up the car. The heat of the day is about to begin and our car has no AC - wind is our friend.

We drive on, across state boundaries - Texas to Louisiana. It's midday by now. The heat is intense, and we realise that three hours sleep before a road trip of 12 hours was maybe not the best of ideas. At least I can sleep, but Dann has to drive, drive, drive...

We rest where we can. But it's hot and there is nowhere to really lie down. Eventually we have to put the roof back up again lest we both get sunburnt.

We try and wake up at rest areas - walks through the grass. We encounter funky bugs and weird spikey things, but alas no amount of walking makes us feel any more awake...

Eventually we resort to our last hope - food and caffeine.

Sleep deprivation leeds us to philosophize about the meaning of grits, sugared or unsugared ice tea and Waffle House songs...