cats

Also Bo has decided he will have none of this nonsense about the crate, and has been desperately trying to claw his way out. He much preferred yesterday, when he got to have the run of the cab's passenger side.






As for Sparky, he just likes to sleep. Here is his majesty passed out so extensively that he's about to fall on his head on the floor. :)

off to a flying start!

We got 30 miles down the road and discovered that Melissa hadn't brought her phone! We called it several times, rooted around in the various bags and junk piles, and it definitely wasn't there. So we turned around and went back to find it in the hotel.

When we turned off the truck at the hotel, we discovered that it was in the one bag we hadn't checked, but the roaring of the engine, sounds of cars driving by, road bump noises, and so on, had COMPLETELY muffled the ring. So we've turned around and are now driving the 30-mile stretch for the 3rd time. And let us tell you, it is a BORING 30 miles.

Argh.

almost forgot!

This is for Felix: (and yes, that teeny-weeny box is the carrier that holds both our cats!) :)

where are we, anyway?

As of about midnight tonight, we have checked in to a Super 8 motel. We were going to try to barrel on to Costa Mesa tonight, but around 11:00 we realized that we still had 3+ hours to go if we wanted to make it to Mardell's house. Much to both sets of parents' relief, we're sure, we decided sleeping was a good idea. :)

We really don't even know what town we're in right now, but we can say that we are 180 miles north of LA on I-5. Tomorrow we shall hold a contest to see who can guess what the name of the town is (if, in fact, it has one).


In closing, one picture sums up the accomplishment of our day:

internet on the road!

We have successfully set up internet on the road! Alex's phone is acting as a modem. The connection is way too slow to load pictures, so we’ll have to add them later.

When we started today, Melissa was pretty sure that we were in the mountains, but Alex assured her we were not.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive, Wifey.”

This happened about five times, until we hit Mt. McLaughlin and she saw what a real mountain looked like. Alex drove this route once before, so he was prepared for the real mountains.

We hit the Cali border around 1:00 PM today (didn't get driving until 11:30 or so) and after that were even able to take the kitties out of their crate. (Don’t worry, we made a barricade so they can’t get under the driver’s feet.) They were able to be out and about for at least an hour before Bo started getting rowdy and we had to put them back in the crate.

True to stereotypes, the day was rainy and gray until we reached California, when suddenly it became very warm and sunny…. Which also means that there were hardly any trees, and the ground has been a weird orange or white color where there aren’t shrubberies.

We are now about 140 miles away from Sacramento and closing in on already needing our second refill of gas!

Tonight we'll do an Oregon vs. California pictorial. It really changed RIGHT ACROSS THE BORDER.

Oh and Felix, you'll get your picture of our rig.

First day on the road--success!

Today was interesting in so many ways!

First, it took us about an extra hour to get our truck from the rental place because the lady helping us was not very competent.

THEN it took us about six hours to get the truck packed. We had been planning to leave around noon, but we didn't hit the road until 5:00. Yikes!

We did finally get rolling. Above is Alex driving us to Linn County, the (oh goodness) "Grass Seed Capital of the World".

The kitties settled in fairly well, only yowling three times today. Sparky was mostly crying because Bo was trying to take naps on top of him. :)

Toward the end of the day Melissa even tried driving and found that it wasn't as scary as she thought it would be, even in a 16-foot truck with a car stuck on the back of it! (Doesn't she look comfortable behind the wheel?)

We made it all the way to Canyonville, OR. before calling it quits for the day. Unfortunately we're still a few hours away from the California border. As of right now we're in a Best Western. We were bringing our stuff into the hotel when Alex accidentally dropped the cats about four feet when the handle on the cat carrier broke! To help them recover, we gave them a bunch of catnip, and they're both really happy and snuggly now. Bo is helping to write this.

Tomorrow we'll be back in the car and heading for Costa Mesa, where we'll visit with Grandma Mardell for a day or so before heading to Arizona. For now, good night!

--A & M

Welcome!

The first post--ooh. :) We are leaving in two weeks and one day! We're very excited and busily packing and wrapping up our affairs here. More news when the trip actually starts.....