Road Trip....

   So, to start this tale, I need to provide you with a little background. We'll call that "the week before we moved." It was pretty much just like any other week... working, coming home, cooking dinner, doing a few things around the house, then heading to bed. Well, it was pretty much like any other week except for two things. First, we had to have a whole house packed for movers who were going to arrive Saturday morning at 8am, and second, my stressed-out butt had shingles. (Not literally my butt; they were on my back.) Needless to say, not much packing was accomplished. 
    Thursday was the last day of work for both Brian and me. We expected to spend all of Friday packing. Note I said expected? Okay, around 8am the phone started ringing with recruiters and hiring managers calling to talk to Brian. Praise the Lord, right? Well, yeah... but 80% of our house was not going to pack itself. And, oh yeah, remember about a month and a half ago, Brian had a vasectomy. So, Brian's taking all these important phone calls, and here I am schlepping his "sample" up to the doctor's office for a test. Seriously. This is my life. Finally, finnnnnallllly, we started packing around 3:30 pm. At 1:30 am, we could no longer speak in coherent sentences. We had a kitchen, Hayley's closet and our storage room left to pack. But we were done... finished... kaput.
   After falling into bed around 2 am, we were up again around 6:30 frantically trying to get everything done before the movers showed up at 8 am. Eight rolls around, we're still packing, but there's no sign of the movers. Nine rolls around... holy crap. We really, really wanted to be on the road by 10 am. You know what, I could drone on and on for hours about this, but honestly, it's pretty tedious. So, how's about we fast forward a bit?
    Let's discuss the horror of placing three delightful kitties into a crate for a 16 hour drive. We decided the best way to do this was put the big crate for all three cats into the back of my car and then utilize the smaller, individual crates to transport them from the upstairs apartment to the car. Solid plan, right? Yeah, 'bout that.... Forcas goes first. He does pretty well. Next comes Loki. Who can imagine where this is going? (I'm imagining a sea of hands raised among my readers.) Loki refuses to come out of the smaller crate. By now, you guys should be well-aware that Loki is a lardass. And stubborn. And has anger management issues. Y'all remember that story about the family whose cat cornered them in the bedroom/bathroom/whatever-other-pansy-ass-room-they-hid-in-to-get-away-from-a-CAT? Yeah, I kinda understand them a little better now. Finally, I pretty much turn the crate on its end and shake. Now it's time for Elijah. Poor, sweet, innocent Elijah with the big innocent-looking eyes and skittish temperament. Ha. Hahaha. Excuse me while I laugh. There's a saying about doing something difficult. They say it's like "herding cats." Herding one innocent, sweet, psychotic, Munchaussen-suffering, I'll-rip-my-own-ear-til-blood-drips-down-my-head-to-avoid-that-crate cat was more than enough, thanks. So, yeah, not sure who was more traumatized, them or us.
    We finally pulled out of Prattville around 12:30 that afternoon, Brian is a 16-foot Penske truck pulling his VW behind, and me in my Rogue loaded down with screaming cats. (I made a recording for you, but, luckily for you, I can't figure out how to embed it here.) 
    Less than two hours into our trip we were exhausted. Seriously. EX-HAUSTED. But we kept plugging away, screaming cats and all. Our plan had been to make it a little north of Cincinnati, and then stop for the night. Uh uh... 'fraid not. We made it to Bowling Green, Kentucky before we absolutely had to stop. We really were exhausted. And honestly, it didn't really matter to either of us where we slept, but we had the kitties to consider. What I mean is we had to find a hotel that accepted pets. The first hotel I saw with a billboard was Holiday Inn Express. I called, and yes, they accepted pets. AND they were $140. Ugh. That was so not in our budget, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Fortunately, as we pulled off the interstate, I saw a Motel 6 and decided to call. Woot! Less than $50 and they accept pets! Okay, I've stayed in some sketch places before, and naturally, with pricing like that, I was concerned about the quality of the accommodations, but hey... it was cheap, and, like I said before, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. So we checked in. I convinced the front desk chick to give me an AARP discount ('bout time I got some mileage out of those damn cards they keep sending me!). Less than $46 (double woot!) dollars later, we were checked in. Imagine my surprise when we walked into our room....

Not our actual room, but looks just like it,

    Yeah, so Motel 6, kudos for stepping up your game while maintaining your affordable rates! The front desk clerk was incredible, and went out of her way to help us make the kitties comfy. While Brian napped, I went and picked up dinner, then we slept. There's really not too much to say about our overnight stay except that it was pleasant.

   The next morning dawned nice and early. Unfortunately, we didn't. Remember that exhaustion? Yeah, we got a late start. And it was made later by Elijah's impromptu game of hide and seek. That's right. When it was time to leave, Forcas sauntered right into the crate as though to say, "Let's get this show on the road!" Loki was ambivalent, much like he always is. But now, sweet little Elijah... well, he engaged us in an hour-long game of hide and seek. It was not fun. So, after sleeping late and then the unexpected "fun" and games, we were finally back on the road for the last leg of our journey... our 11-hour journey.

    Honestly, things were moving along great. We were cruising somewhere between 70 and 80 mph, which was quite a feat for Brian driving the big truck and towing his car. For me, the day was going much smoother. Apparently the cats had resigned themselves to their fate, and were only voicing feeble protests every hour or so. We'd been receiving updates all day from Brian's ex-wife who was travelling back from Indianapolis. They were driving in snow, nothing too bad, just snow. We were cruising along, seeing nothing. About three hours in, we saw the snow. At first, it was really nothing. Slowly, softly falling... it was the kind of snow you just want to walk around in. And then it wasn't. It got a little heavier. We were both really focusing on the road, and on driving. We were heading into Toledo, Ohio... which has some kinda weird and funky roads and overpasses. So, here we are, driving along in the snow - now, mind you, it's been 15 years since I drove in snow with any regularity - and suddenly, we're on an overpass and visibility is nil... zero... zip... OMG-what-the-hell. So I slam my brakes, a definite no-no in snow, and Brian slams his brakes. And just as soon as it happened, it was over. The only aftereffects were my phone lying in the floorboard and the cats in their crate were suddenly right behind me. Guess what.... they were also screaming again. So, whew, we survived that unscathed and continued our journey.

    Honestly, the rest of the journey was pretty uneventful. It stopped snowing around Detroit and I was able to see some pretty neat things. I have to admit, these are not my photos... cause, you know, I was driving and all.

Ambassador Bridge in Detroit... also known as the bridge to Canada -- It was pretty amazing lit up at night,

    As we drove out of Detroit into what Michiganders call The Thumb, we arrived in farm country. The drive was filled with wide open fields, huge, hulking barns topped with weather vanes and lightning rods, and snow. Yes, it had indeed started snowing again. In the snow, the beautiful, softly falling snow, life was going on around us. In the fields as we passed, farmers drove combines in the dark. 

Not my photo,... busy driving, remember?

Even at the end of an 11-hour drive, as mentally exhausted as we were, seeing those farmers gave me hope. Hope that we had made the right decision, hope that things would grow for us, and hope that we would be happy here.