[madmmac]

The way I go:

Have the car packed and ready to go, including full of gas the night before.

Have your food, drinks..etc in an ice chest in your fridge.

Have the coffee machine set to brew 10 minutes before you get up.

Go to bed early. Do the math for your drive so that you can shut it down when it gets dark. Your trip about 900 miles, 13 or so hours. Dark o'clock is around 7pm now. 7pm - 13 hours = 0600 is the latest you want to start. Personally, I would be up at 0400 and rolling by 0415.

Get up, shower, fill up your gigantic coffee thermos, grab your ice chest and roll.

I have found it is much easier/safer to drive in the dark after you wake up from sleeping than it is late into your drive the next evening.

Be safe.