Alabama to Colorado. 30 sleepless hours.

The first day of our trip was the longest. When you are driving for thirty hours without a break you will:

-Stop as you enter every state to take a photo with the sign, until after 3 States, you give up. You just do.

-Find that energy drinks are a concept you will entertain. often.

-Listen to all of your favourite songs until they are your least favourite ever.

-Sing Bohemian Rhapsody with your husband, and realise nothing has ever been funnier.

-Threaten ugly murder upon the GPS and flick it really hard. You learn a lesson about the toughness of the GPS and the weakness of your finger.

-Become enchanted by small-town America, though disappointed with it's bathrooms.

-Wonder if you can get sunburnt through a window (the answer to which you will discover some hours later is 'apparently so').

-After 20 hours, wonder why driving across the country seemed like a good idea, then you reach Colorado and smile and breathe; at which point your lungs ask you where the oxygen went.

-Finally drive with fast-dissolving sanity into Durango, CO. Without any later memory of it; you find your room, fall into bed and sleep like a log. The laziest, sleepiest log you ever knew.

Forrest and I woke up on Sunday morning at the beautiful Strater Hotel with a renewed zest for life. At breakfast we were educated about the local enthusiasm for 'posole', and I was reminded how good a cream cheese bagel is. With this, the journey had commenced!