Moving Part 3: Connecticut, Here We Come!

After all the lead-up, the actual drive across country was the least eventful part (fortunately). I mentioned that I had caught Ts bug, and the farther we drove the worse I got, until my sister was doing all the driving while I passed out. In fact, the first night we stopped everyone else went out while I crashed in the room. I don’t feel like I missed much because, frankly, if you want to “see the country,” trying to do so from a highway is pretty underwhelming.

The cats did as well as can be expected. We each took one because they actually hate each other and we didn’t want to add that tension to their problems. We had water, food, and a litter box in both cars but they didn’t use any of them and mostly slept.

This bed from Amazon was a big hit. She could sit between us and still be safe

It wasn’t as challenging finding pet-friendly hotels as I feared, although now there are apps that claim to help, with varying success. We could have snuck them in, but I’m far too much of a goody-goody for that. The internet warns about totally pet-proofing your room before introducing the animal (especially cats, who are masters of hiding). The first place we stopped had beds with no opening underneath. The second took the opposite approach, boosting the beds up a little higher with a big open, easily accessible space underneath. Both worked well (although Logan managed to find a spot behind the TV in the first). The bad thing about cats sleeping in the car all day is they spend the night, when you’re absolutely exhausted, wandering around the room crying.

The bulk of the trip was just lots of driving (obviously), puctuated by gas stops. I shudder to think how much we spent on gas (this was the height of the gas inflation; couldn’t be helped). It certainly took a chunk of our house money. I’ll say it again – moving is freaking expensive. Anyone who thinks you can just pick up and change states if you aren’t happy has never tried it. (I will say another way nephew proved to be worth his weight in gold. Since the big truck obviously by far got the worst mileage, all stops were dictated by its needs. Nephew could actually do some magic math in his head and calculate how many miles he could get out of any given tank level. Absolutely priceless.)

The two most notable things that happened on the road were that at one point T, driving with Logan, realized she hadn’t seen him in a couple hundred miles and reached back to find him. He was sleeping in one of the back foot wells. When she realized she was touching his gums with zero reaction, she panicked, thinking something was wrong. It turned out he was just deeply asleep, probably thinking his life was now going to be spent in this damn car forever so he might as well relax.

The second was when my sister and I parked near a gas station to get snacks inside and, as I stretched my legs and shared a sandwich with Kitten, a van pulled up next to us. I turned around and smiled at the man who got out behind me (kneejerk response), only then realizing it was a prisoner transport and the man was in a jumpsuit and shackles. Of course I didn’t know what he was in for, but it was slightly unnerving anyway.

We didn’t get as far each day as I would have liked, but since I was mostly unconscious in the passenger seat I didn’t have much say. All told, it took us nearly 3 days to go 1900 miles. We pulled into town pretty late to find this lovely sign greeting us, courtesy of T’s brother and sister-in-law.

But we were all safe and in one piece, and that’s the best possible outcome. T’s family was out of town for a couple of days, giving us the house alone for that time to get adjusted. But that’s a whole new chapter of our lives and this blog.