Alameda to Raleigh: Day Two

Fam. This has not been our best travel day. I pray it’s our worst.

6:00 a.m. Time to give the Boys their pills. Neither one will eat a Pill Pocket, even an empty one. So I spent 15 minutes wrestling with each of them, trying to pill them the old-fashioned way (open mouth, shove pill in). I got one down Charlie, and I thought I got one down Clancy, but it looks like he managed to reject both as I later found the first one that I thought I had successfully administered.

9:00 a.m. I planned to meet up with a friend for coffee in Flagstaff around 11:00, and this was just pushing the time a bit (it’s about 2 hours between Kingman and Flagstaff). I stopped to top off the gas and, as we pulled away from the gas station I could smell it. Yep. Despite the fact that the litter box had been available up until the moment I put them in their carriers (AND Clancy had pooped already), Clancy managed to take a big, sploodgy, crap in the carrier, necessitating me pulling into the nearest strip mall lot to clean up the carrier.

11:00 a.m. I had plugged the address of the place I was to meet my friend into Google Maps and hit Go for directions. Slight issue: The address I was given was to a gas station, NOT Starbucks. And my phone was just about dead. I called my friend and, after several minutes, we figured out that I was given 1688 WEST Route 66 instead of 1688 EAST Route 66.

11:30 a.m. Had a cup of tea and a nice chat with my friend. Given my stress level already, it was a balm for my spirit.

12:30 p.m. Topped off the tank again and we were underway for Albuquerque.

The Boys were more quiet today. In fact, Clancy was so quiet I was worried about him, so I checked him when we got to Gallup, NM.

12:45 – 1:30 p.m. DO. NOT. FUCKIN’. RAIN. Ran into sprinkles here and there. I have a tarp to put over the bed, but it was dry out this morning, and it was one more thing to have to do this morning, so I skipped it. (It looks like my luck may be running out with dry weather, though. )

3:00-ish p.m. WTF is it with old white dude drivers? They are universally assholes on this trip.

5:45 p.m. Got to the hotel and unloaded the car (I have a LOT of stuff to unload, so this is no small deal). Started to settle into the room and I was so happy to see BOTH boys eating the can food!

6:00-ish p.m. Heard odd noise from under the bed. It didn’t take me long to figure out that Charlie had found a hole in the fabric under the box springs and had worked his way inside (Simon did that with our old bed years ago. It was his favorite hidey-hole.). I went back to the front desk and explained the problem and they offered to try a different room. The first alternate room also had holes in the box springs AND smelled strongly of urine. Found holes in the box springs of the second room. Third room, no holes in the box springs. HOWEVER, there are plenty of other ways that the Boys have found to get in/behind the beds. I have spent the better part of the past hour stuffing towels and pillows into these holes.

It is now past 8:00 p.m. and I am just now sitting down to my “dinner” of Wheat Thins and an avocado. But I can see both cats, so that’s good.

I’m hoping that opening the door to the closet will be enough to keep the Boys from wanting to find more hidey-holes so I can get a decent night’s sleep.

Other stuff of note from the last couple of days:

• I was thinking about the mountains between Barstow and Needles and my memories of them. Both from my childhood, riding in the back seat of Grandpa’s Lincoln, and these are mountains that I frequently see in my dreams.
• Driving through Arizona also brought back a lot of childhood memories. In my mind, I was replaying Grandpa’s Mark Lindsay 8-Track tape (with the song “Arizona”, of course). There is a lot of beautiful scenery, and there is also a big billboard with a picture of Obama with a “Hitler” mustache, just to remind me of where I am.
• Luna is finally living her life purpose (Subarus are made for the road, not short grocery store trips).
• I got to the Continental Divide for the first time in my life. Elevation ~7,000 feet. That explains the ear popping (and possibly why Clancy was so quiet, perhaps he was affected by the elevation).
• I’m grateful for friends, the kindness of strangers, and cruise control.

8:45 p.m. Charlie seems to have found his way into another hole. GOD DAMMIT!