Trek part 2

Day two of driving was not much fun, but then, I don't suppose any day where you spend 12 hours in a vehicle is. We drove from Benton to Blue Ash, Ohio (just north of Cincinnati), crossing through 4 states and changing time zones along the way. Arkansas, at least the western part, is quite pretty - lush and natural. Tennessee was my least favorite of the states that day, for a completely arbitrary set of reasons: too few rest stops, a nasty bathroom at one filling station, and the fact that I dropped my sunglasses into a toilet (unused, thank goodness). Seriously, there was about one rest stop per 100 miles, and not a lot of places to stop otherwise. Kentucky was physically pretty similar to Tennessee, at least the first half of it, but I liked it a whole lot better because they had a rest stop as soon as you crossed the border! They must know that Tennessee is lacking...

Somewhere along the way I decided that traveling with cats is a lot like traveling with small children. First there is the gear: You have the special seat (cat carrier), the special food, the diaper bag (litter box). Then there is the attitude: Cats, like small children, do not like being in the carrier, the car, the motel room. They whine and complain. They may throw a tantrum. If you are lucky, they sleep most of the way. If you are unlucky, they get carsick. Then, when released from the vehicle, they wake up and jump all over the bed while you are desperately trying to get some sleep.

Cleo is a seasoned traveler, having moved with us to Seattle and back to Texas a couple of summers ago. This does not mean that she likes traveling, just that she seems to know what to expect. Oliver, on the other hand, has never traveled and never lived anywhere but in our one apartment. He quickly discovered that traveling is not fun. Cleo knew that if she protested enough, we would let her out of the carrier to sit on our laps and explore the truck. Last time we moved, she spent most of the time watching semis go by from the back window of the car. In a truck, there are far fewer places for her to go. Day one she spent a bunch of time under the passenger seat. But by day two this was already boring, and she mostly wanted to sit with Benjamin, while he was trying to drive, or on the dashboard. This was not allowed, which made her cranky. She would eventually give up and fall asleep in the carrier, only to reawaken if we went over bumpy roads. Sigh. Oliver spent most of his time looking shocked at his temporary incarceration, although he did relax enough to take a bath on the last day. He wasn't allowed out to explore, partially because it was difficult to open his cage in the truck, and partially because we weren't sure we'd be able to get him back in again. They both had to be dragged from under the bed each morning to be reinserted into their carriers. Sigh.