Travelblog: Day 4

Day 4 of our trek saw us arrive (finally) in San Diego. Hooray! We passed through four Border Patrol checkpoints, which were kind of foreign and weird to us Northeastern types. New Mexico was much like western Texas — flat and brown. Arizona was much of the same, only with cacti and more mountains. California varied from sand dunes to farmland to mountains — and finally, San Diego. The cat, we are pleased to report, pretty much gave up her struggles and napped through most of the day.

We loved these spiky little plant things.

This double-peaked Arizona mountain was pretty.

Our first exit claiming San Diego as a destination!

Real Desert ™, now with Cacti ™

He who controls the spice controls the universe.

Gorgeous rock-studded mountainsides of US I-8.

Spoke too soon!

Today was not a good day for Tess. She’s officially over this whole moving and being stuck in the car thing. I gave her pill to her a little too late in the morning so it didn’t kick in until well after we were on our way. She was nearly inconsolable all day. I tried playing her Cat Sitter DVD for her. (Yes, my cat has her own movie of mice, birds and butterflies), I tried following the advice of a cat behaviorist and playing a CD of harp music. When that didn’t take we went the other way and tried Presidents of the United States. MEOW! MEOW! MEOW! She trashed her crate and now we’re in the hotel room. She’s happier to not be moving or seeing huge trucks pass, but I think she’d rather be in Georgia right now.

We’re at the LaQuinta Inn and Tess is finding all sorts of places to hide.

Travelblog: Day 3

Today saw us travel through… Texas. Yep, Texas was a whole day of its own. The weather started out icky and misty, so we couldn’t even see the nothing of note that we were driving past. A long, uneventful day brought us to our destination in Las Cruces, NM. Tomorrow is the longest — but final — day!

The world’s saddest GPS. Yep, we’re still on the one straight road.

A lot of the drive through Texas was quite barren.

There were a few scenic vistas.

Travelblog: Day 2

Another mostly uneventful day saw us from Baton Rouge to San Antonio, where we again were able to stay with a guildmate. Sure, there was a homicidal truck driver who kept trying to force us off the road when we got boxed-in by traffic. But then, we also discovered original Dr. Pepper, in all of its real cane sugar glory. And someone had a birthday while on the road, but we won’t say who…

HALP! I IS INNOCENT! LET ME OWT PLZ KTHXBAI

What is this, Blade Runner?

Crossing the Mississippi River — we’re now officially in the West!

Alas, we saw no gators in the mighty Atchafalaya Swamp

Riding in the car with a cat

We are bringing Tess with us on our adventure to California. If you know Tess, you know how much of a brat she is. She hates being in her kennel and she hates being in the car. Unfortunately we can’t fly her this time so here we go: cross country with a cat. Ugh.

I have a mild sedative for her but it’s more of an anti-anxiety drug than a tranquilizer and I was told NOT to use benadryl. It helps a bit, I guess, but she ends up looking REALLY funny in the eyes.

Overall I have to admit that she’s been pretty good. She does cry, but she also sleeps. Every once in awhile she wakes up and realizes what’s going on and freaks out. Today she actually went all rock star and tried to trash her little kitty hotel room. It made a fine mess to have to clean up!

Hopefully soon we’ll have her in one place for more than a night. I don’t think she’s digging our current set up – staying with friends along the way. It may have something to do with her dislike of other pets and the fact that the wonderful, nice people we are staying with are also animal lovers and have their own.

Travelblog: Day 1

For day 1, we finally managed to get out of Atlanta! Things were mostly uneventful as we escaped the Urban Wasteland of the Southeast. We had a little bit of trouble with local law enforcement in Alabama… They accused us of transporting books! Fortunately, we escaped on a technicality — they couldn’t PROVE they were books. Seriously, though, Alabama was surprisingly pretty. After a pretty uneventful day, we landed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to spend the night at a guildmate’s place. Dang, these MMORPG social connections rock.

Pretty Alabama trees

Swampland in Mississippi