Day 3 of the Great Road Trip

Once again I set my alarm for 4:00 AM and woke up at 3:30 AM. And once again I took my shower (which was annoying cold), had a few swallows of the coffee that I made, packed my car, and hit the road by 4:45 AM.

This time my destination was the Blue Ribbon Inn in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. I planned to drive through the entire length of Arkansas before stopping for the day.

Sarah said that it would take her 8 hours to travel from Nashville, Tennessee to Little Rock, Arkansas, and then another 8 hours from Little Rock to Amarillo, Texas.

Well, I was happy to find out that it took me only 5 1/2 hours to get to Little Rock.

Driving was very easy that day. In fact, with each day that I traveled, the driving got easier.

For one thing, most of the highways in Tennessee and Kentucky had speed limits of 70 miles per hour. The same was true for Arkansas. It was rather surprising to see speed limits that fast on these roads, especially since they weren't very wide. You would have never found speed limits that high in Massachusetts, especially on roads of that size.

My first gas stop was in Mason, Tennessee at 7:24 AM, less than 3 hours on the road. I paid $24.01 to gas up. (How I hate it when my fingers aren't fast enough on the gas pump and I go 1 cent over an even dollar amount.)

Sarah said that the drive through Arkansas would be boring. On the contrary, I found it rather delightful. Arkansas likes to call itself "The Natural State." And it was filled with lots of natural beauty in the form of gorgeous rolling hills.

I thoroughly enjoyed my drive through Arkansas.

I made mine and Emi's pit stop at the second rest stop into Arkansas. I was traveling on I-40, which shoots across the southern part of the country right into Amarillo, Texas.

There was a sign for a park with a very curious name: "Toad Suck Park." I made a mental note to look that up once I had access to a computer and the internet.

The day was a bit cloudy, and I saw a very unusual cloud that looked like a raggedy funnel descending from the clouds above. Knowing that I was close to Tornado Alley, I grew concerned.

I had never seen a cloud like that before, or even pictures of one. But realizing that I was in a very different part of the country, seeing things that I had never seen before, I wondered if this cloud was another one of those weird things that's common to that part of the country.

The mystery was solved when I got off the road to go get gas. There was a gap in the terrain that enabled to me see that this odd cloud was not a cloud at all but smoke exhaust from a nuclear power plant, which I had never seen before.

Anyhow, my second gas stop was this backwater stop in Arkansas that was well off I-40. The gas pumps were primitive in that they did not have credit/debit card readers on them. I had to go inside the convenience store/restaurant named "Darrel's" to pay for my gas. I used cash this time, so I cannot remember how much it cost me to gas up.

I made it to the Blue Ribbon in Sallisaw at around 12:30 PM. I made such good time that I was considering in shooting for Shawnee, just outside of Oklahoma City, but I decided to stick with my original plan (and motel reservation) and just spend the rest of the day relaxing.

The previous 2 nights were committed to visiting with others, and the following night was going to be spent with my family. So it was going to be nice to have one night that I could have all to myself.

At this motel you parked your car right in front of your room. There were no luggage carts. Nor were there any elevators. So I was grateful that I got a room on the first floor. I was glad that I did not have too far to haul my stuff.

I got settled in my room and then made the obligatory phone calls.

Then I decided to get something to eat, and drove around Sallisaw looking for a place that appealed to my taste buds and wallet. I wanted to do take-out so that I could bring my food back with me to the motel and eat it at my own leisure.

Mexican food sounded like it would be nice. But the Mexican food place that was listed in the American Automobile Association travel guide looked like it had been closed for good. And the other Mexican food joints that I found looked too scary to go to.

So I decided to stop at the Arby's, a roast beef fast food restaurant, that was right near the motel. My entire meal, which consisted of a bacon cheddar roast beef sandwich, curly fries, and a tall container of sweet tea, cost me only $5 and change. And for its cheapness, it was very satisfying.

When I got back, I was too beat and too out of it to read. So I did something that I never do. I vegged out in front of the TV.

In flipping through the channels to see what was on the tube, I came across the CNN coverage of Ted Kennedy's burial. I watched the whole thing.

Well, nearly the whole thing. Barbara called just a minute or so before the burial ceremony had ended. And by then it was difficult to see what was going on because the sun had already set on the east coast.

Barbara and I talked for a little bit. And then I went to bed.

Rather than locking up Callee in her crate for the night, I had been locking her up in her cat carrier. She did much better in the cat carrier, both at night and while on the road. (She wound up sleeping the entire time I was driving.)

I fell asleep easily that night.

Day 2 of the Great Road Trip

I may have set my alarm for 4:00 AM, but I woke up at 3:30 AM instead.

Just as well.

So I took a shower, drank a few sips of the coffee that I made, packed the car, and was off. By 4:45 AM I was on the road and heading for my next stop ~ America's Best Value Inn and Suites in Lebanon, Tennessee, which was about 20 minutes east of Nashville.

I am glad that I left that early in the morning because driving through Pittsburgh would have been a nightmare with more cars on the road. One had to be very mindful of keeping to the proper lane. And my route took me through tunnels under the city.

From Pittsburgh I drove into "Wild and Wonderful" West Virginia, and from there into Ohio.

I went down I-70 past Columbus, Ohio and through Cincinnati. And once I got through Cincinnati, I crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky.

Like the day before, I made 2 gas stops and one pit stop.

My first gas stop was in Jefferson, Ohio at 8:28 AM. I already had been traveling for 3 3/4 hours. And I paid $24 to fill up my tank.

My second gas stop was somewhere in Kentucky, where gas was the cheapest I've seen, at $2.39 a gallon. I paid $23 to gas up.

At the gas station in Kentucky, it was very obvious that I was south of the Mason-Dixon line. The southern accent was so thick that you could cut with a butter knife.

There was an interesting thing that I noticed while driving through the south. It seemed as though the south was a study in contrasts when it came to bill boards.

At one end of the spectrum there were the religious bill boards that said: "Do you know where you'll be spending eternity?" and "Hell Is Real."

And on the other end of the spectrum where billboards advertising sex shops ~ and not just any old sex shop, but "Adult Super Stores."

Odd indeed.

Kentucky also seemed to have some interesting attractions.

If I didn't have the animals with me, I would have loved to have stopped at Mammoth Cave National Park. Even though it was occasionally sprinkling through Kentucky, a little bit of rain would not have mattered much while exploring the caves. However, the temperature was warm enough that it would have not been safe to leave the animals alone in my car for an extended period of time.

Somewhere towards the end of Kentucky, my GPS led me to a secondary road, Route 109.

Route 109 took me through all sorts of twists and turns through deep valleys and heavily wooded areas. I found myself saying to myself, "Gee, it looks as though I'm going through the Cumberland Gap." And while this was not the exact location of the Cumberland Gap, I did happen to cross the Cumberland River.

This particular highway took me right into Tennessee. And it was the scenic route of the redneck persuasion.

It was also interesting from the geological perspective in that the soil was bright red.

My GPS said that I was supposed to arrive in Lebanon, Tennessee at around 1:30 PM. That would have meant that my driving time was going to be just under 8 hours.

But when 1:30 PM came and went and I was nowhere near the exit I was supposed to take to get onto Route 109, I realized that I was going to have to drive for another hour because the 1:30 PM arrival time on my GPS took into consideration the change in time zones.

Damn! An extra hour of driving.

I made it to Lebanon pretty much on time.

My room at America's Best Value Inn and Suites was on the second floor. There was an elevator there. So I was able to easily get my stuff (which I had on a luggage cart) on to the second floor.

This room was much nicer than the one at the Super 8 Motel in Pittsburgh. It was amazing how much more an extra $10 could buy. For one thing, this room had MUCH better sound-proofing.

After I got settled in, I made my obligatory calls. Then I called Sarah, who was also a member of the Yahoo Renaissance Souls on-line group. We planned on meeting and getting together in Tennessee, where she lived, when I drove cross-country to Texas.

Sarah was going to get there at around 5:00 PM, which would have given me plenty of time to rest up from my traveling.

She then called again to mentioned that she was going to be delayed a bit more.

That was still OK with me because it would have given me some extra time to close my eyes for a bit.

However, while sitting in the chair with my eyes closed and my sandals off, the carpet felt wet beneath my feet. I immediately panicked and thought that either Emi or Callee had an "accident." So I got down on my hands and knees to sniff at the carpet.

Nothing.

It wasn't dog or cat pee. What it was instead was water leaking from the air conditioning unit. The carpet was saturated in that area. And it even soaked the bottom of my crocheted bag.

So I went downstairs to the lobby to let them know about the leak. I didn't want the motel to think that I vandalized the room.

While I was downstairs in the lobby, Sarah called. She and her son AJ were waiting for me outside in her big old Crown Victoria that was a police car in its former incarnation.

We drove to Ponderosa for dinner. In fact, it was kind of ridiculous for her to pick me up and drive to the restaurant because it was right next door to the motel and within very easy walking distance.

This Ponderosa was not like the Ponderosa Steakhouses that I was used to seeing in Massachusetts. And while this restaurant did sell steak dinners, it was mainly an all-you-can-eat buffet joint.

I was delighted to discover that the food offerings in this place included regional dishes that one would never see up north. And I had a wonderful time sampling the deep-fried okra, collard greens, and chicken-fried catfish.

We had a pleasant visit.

Sarah's son AJ, was a delightful boy who was in kindergarten. He was a sweet boy who definitely was affectionate towards his mother. And he was also a bit rambunctious, though in a very sweet manner. As Sarah put it, AJ was "all boy."

Earlier that day AJ's rambunctiousness got him into trouble at school, and he got paddled. That is, he got spanked. (And AJ had no idea why he did get paddled.)

I was horrified to find out that Tennessee schools allow teachers to paddle their students. I told Sarah that something like that would have been unthinkable in Massachusetts and that if any teacher did that to a student in Massachusetts that teacher would have lost his or her job.

While we were eating, I saw John Kerry on the TV screen in the restaurant. So I asked Sarah if something happened in the news that I may not have been aware of. After all, I was traveling and, as such, have been out of touch with current affairs.

Well come to find out, the major current affair that I was ignorant about was the death of Ted Kennedy. That was why I saw the flags at half-staff that Wednesday when I went out to run errands while the movers were loading up my house.

I was in a state of shock over Teddy Kennedy's death, even though his death was not unexpected. After all, he did have a malignant brain tumor. But still, I had trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that Ted Kennedy was dead.

Also, while sitting at the table, we were paid a visit by Smitty the clown, who offered to make AJ a balloon animal.

We had a pleasant chat with Smitty. And I was charmed by his very pronounced southern accent and how he said "Y'All."

After dinner, the 3 of us went up to my motel room so that AJ could meet Emi and Callee. We had to remind him to be quiet and gentle with the animals.

He really did try very hard, and it was sad and heart-breaking to hear AJ say several times "I'm sorry" when he failed to remember to be calm. He's a sweet little boy with a wonderfully big heart. I wish him well, and I hope that the backwards and unenlightened Tennessee teachers don't paddle his sparkling spirit out of him.

Just like with Gypsy and Gomez, and Joe and Barb, it would have been nice if I could have visited longer with Sarah and AJ. But I was tired, and I did need to go to bed early so that I could get up early the next morning.

After Sarah and AJ left, I took Emi out for her bathroom duty. And when she was done, I went to sleep in my blessedly quiet room.

Wrapping Up Day 1

After visiting Gypsy and Gomez at S.P.A.R.R.O., I returned to the motel and waited for Joe and Barb to pick me up and take me out to dinner.

We went to this family restaurant that served good ribs. (I'm a sucker for ribs.)

While the food was good, the place was noisy. The air was shrill with the screeching and screaming of little kids. One in particular was extremely loud and persistent, and the 3 of us were very grateful when that family finally finished and left.

I was so dead on my feet that I felt that I could have passed out right in my food.

I wish that I could have stayed longer to chat with Joe and Barb, especially since they seemed like such nice people. And I wish that I could have been better company. But all I could think of was getting back to the motel room and going to bed.

Because I could not finish my food, I had Joe and Barb take my left overs back so that they could use them to entice Gypsy and Gomez to eat.

When they dropped me off, I decided to pull put the cat carrier from the back of my car. No way was I going to endure another day of travel with Callee Kitten yowling up a storm in the crate. Plus, I wanted to have better visibility out of my passenger window. (And taking out the cat carrier gave me better visibility in the back as well.)

I was going to collapse the animal crate and place it on the passenger seat. And I was going to place the cat carrier on top of that. There was going to be plenty of room left to place a blanket on it and have Emi ride on top of the blanket.

Because I was so tired, I thought that I would fall asleep right away. But that wasn't so. I set my alarm for 4:00 AM and waited to fall asleep. But sleep did not come to me. I was SO over-tired that I could not fall asleep. As I lay in my motel bed, trying to sleep, I could feel the sensation of the road in my body.

It also did not help that Callee was very vocal in showing her dissatisfaction of being in the animal crate. Plus the walls of the motel room were so paper thin that Emi would get startled whenever she heard the beep of all the other motel room room doors being unlocked. That would make her jump in my bed, as would hearing the doors slam.

I was feeling really wretched and very concerned that I could not fall asleep. And because I was feeling so terrible, I was greatly concerned ~ actually afraid ~ that I would still feel that awful the next day and that my feeling that horribly would cause me to get into an accident while I drove.

I must have dropped off to sleep sometime during the night because I found myself waking up the sound of very loud yowling in the crate.

At first I put the bed quilt over the crate. But I removed it because I was concerned that Callee would get too hot under the all those heavy covers.

Then I wound up putting her in the bathroom and closing the door. It helped a little in keeping the noise down, but not by much.

Finally I was able to fall asleep.

Visiting Gypsy & Gomez at Southwest Pennsylvania Retriever Rescue Organization

The Southwest Pennsylvania Retriever Rescue Organization was just a short drive from the motel.

Stark Drive, the road that the dog rescue organization was on, was a very narrow one-car-at-a-time road.

S.P.A.R.R.O. was right at the end of the road before it turned around in a loop.

I parked my car, grabbed my camera and Emi, and went to meet Joe. He introduced me to his wife Barb.

One of the first dogs that I saw was Xena. She was 19 years old ~ a very long age for a dog, especially a big dog. Xena was blind and deaf. Like many of the dogs at S.P.A.R.R.O., hers was a sad tale. She spent almost her entire life tied to a chain. But here at S.P.A.R.R.O. Xena can spend the last part of her life in an environment where she is loved and cared for, where she will never be subjected to a chain.

Another dog was a cute 12-week male Lab puppy. He was the last of his litter, and Joe said that nobody wanted him because he had "black dog syndrome." Apparently people aren't interested in black dogs because there are just too many of them.

How can anybody not want that adorable and friendly pup? If I didn't already have 2 animals coming with me to Texas, and if the apartment where I was moving moving to allowed more than 2 pets, I would have taken him in a heartbeat.

After having been introduced to Barb, Xena, and the pup, Joe and I made our way down the rickety stairs, that had gates at either end, to meet Gypsy and Gomez.

Joe had kept them in a separate part of the house, in the cool basement area with 3 other dogs. They were not yet integrated with the rest of the shelter dogs because they still needed to finish making their adjustments. They had their own dog yard where they and the other dogs at the rescue could see, smell, and hear each other so that they could get familiar with each other.

Gypsy and Gomez were in the house, and Joe went to get them.

Gomez came out right away while Gypsy stayed in the house. He had to go in and get her. The reason for her not wanting to come out probably had to do with the fact that Gypsy is apparently blind and was probably confused as to where to go.

Now I knew that Gypsy was losing her sight because she would make her way slowly across the dog yard and occasionally bump into things. But because she lived at one place just about all of her life, she was familiar with the placement of things in her surroundings. It was only after Joe brought her to S.P.A.R.R.O. that it became obvious that she was pretty much totally blind. It also explained why she stopped going up the stairs in our old house.

Gomez was very happy to see me. He kept jumping up and down all over me. And he even bopped me on the face with his wet nose, getting his doggie snots all over my face and eyeglasses. Normally I would have reprimanded him for this bad-mannered behavior. But because I was seeing under very bittersweet circumstances, I let him have his own way with me.

Once Gypsy was out of the house, she too was very happy to see me. She stuck her head between my legs and had me give her a "doggie hug" by squeezing her body with my legs.

Emi and the 2 old dogs pretty much ignored each other.

But after visiting for awhile Emi started hanging out with Gypsy, the way she used to do years ago when I worked at the animal shelter and would bring both Emi and Gypsy to work with me.

Barb and Joe commented that they noticed that Gypsy was a digger, and they cheerfully pointed out the holes that Gypsy dug in the dog yard. And in the picture above, the one with her and Emi, Gypsy is resting in her favorite spot, which is in a hole that she dug in the corner of the dog yard.

The dogs still have not completed their adjustments at S.P.A.R.R.O., though they have made strides.

When they first got there, Joe said that they would not go anywhere in the dog yard. But now they are more comfortable with exploring it.

They still aren't eating as much, maybe eating only half of what they would normally eat. Gomez's waist did look a little thinner.

Gomez had a "boo-boo" on his nose, probably from banging into something. And Gypsy had scabs on the backs of her hind legs that were healing over. These injuries were not present when she left the house. And it was my suspicion that she could have sustained them through stress chewing on the backs of her hind legs. But fortunately there are no new sores, and the sores that she had appeared to have been well on their way to healing.

Gypsy and Gomez are in good hands with Joe and Barb at S.P.A.R.R.O. And their tale is one of the happier ones there.

Joe said that every dog has a tale. And many of the dogs at S.P.A.R.R.O. have a sad tale.

Dante, a large unkempt black Lab, is a dog that had been so abused that he is probably permanently emotionally damaged. He cannot be put with other dogs. And it took a long time before he allowed Joe to come near him.

Sandy is a yellow Lab who is such an escape artist that he puts Gomez's escape feats to shame. Joe said that he would put Sandy in a crate that was inside another crate, which was again inside a third crate. He would then lash the outer crate with leashes and ties. And yet the next morning, Sandy would be running around loose.

Once, while Joe and Barb were on a very rare vacation (while their son was still there to help take care of the dogs), Joe said that he got a call from his son asking, "Should Sandy be in the same kennel as Dante?"

Apparently Sandy had chewed through the fencing in the kennel and made his way into Dante's kennel.

Because he and Barb were due back the next day, Joe instructed his son not to put any food inside the kennel, otherwise there would be blood.

Now Sandy has double and triple fencing on his kennel.

In addition to unwanted, abused, and neglected dogs, S.P.A.R.R.O. also has dogs with special needs, like Bobble who has cerebellar hypoplasia.

Bobble, along with Morgan, and another special needs dog named Alce are the 3 dogs who are friends with Gypsy and Gomez and who hang out together in Joe's basement.

S.P.A.R.R.O. is on 3 1/2 acres of farm land in Plum, Pennsylvania, which is just outside of Pittsburgh. (Joe used to own 500 acres when he was a cattle farmer. But he had sold off most of the land and just retained a small portion for his dog rescue organization.)

It's very obvious that Joe is deeply committed to rescuing dogs, especially unwanted, abused, and neglected dogs, and that this is his calling and life mission. (Barb said that Joe was a "dog whisperer" who has a special way with dogs.)

And he has a special spot in his heart for the old dogs. He has rescued many an old dog and allowed them to live out their natural lives in comfort and in an environment where they were deeply loved and cared for.

I visited with Gypsy and Gomez for about an hour. I would have loved to have stayed longer, to visited with Gypsy and Gomez until it was their time to cast off the shell of their old bodies and cross over the rainbow bridge.

But that wasn't possible. I had my own journey to complete, and that journey had to be completed without my 2 beloved old dogs.

But those two old dogs, Gypsy and Gomez, were in good hands with Joe and Barb at S.P.A.R.R.O.

Day 1 of the Great Road Trip

The day started at 4:00 AM when I first woke up. I took my shower and packed up the car.

Callee the kitten was to be traveling in the animal crate that I had on the passenger seat. And Emi was going to be traveling on the makeshift doggie bed on top of the crate.

When I first made my measurements, it seemed like I was going to have plenty of room for the crate and Emi. But the configuration of the car seat made it such that Emi only had inches of room between the top of the crate and the roof of the car. Fortunately it was enough room for her. And Emi always traveled well.

However, with the crate and Emi taking up all that space, I had very limited visibility out of the passenger window. I could only see the side view mirror when I ducked my head low. And I had very limited visibility through my rear windshield ~ just this one tiny little gap.

My first stop was going to be the Super 8 Motel on the edge of Pittsburgh. I was going there because I had planned to visit Gypsy and Gomez at S.P.A.R.R.O. in Plum, which was just under a 10-minute drive from the Super 8.

My GPS said that the trip would take about 9 1/2 hours. But with all the traffic and construction I was behind the wheel for 11 1/2 hours.

The first day of travel was by far the most grueling part of the journey.

By 4:45 AM, I was all packed up and on the road, making my last drive through Mattapoisett and down I-195.

I had sort of expected a gradually shedding of weight, a lightening of spirit, and an increasing sense of relief the further I drove away from my old home in Mattapoisett, the place where I lived during the past 25 years.

But those sensations did not enter the picture in any way, shape, or form.

The first and foremost thing on my mind was concern about the very poor and limited visibility that I had, especially my inability to see cars on my right. I had to be particularly mindful of the placement of cars as I passed them and then tried to get back into the right hand lane. And while it was still dark, I kept my rear view mirror in the day time position because it was easier to see the head lights of the cars behind me through that tiny little gap of visibility in the back.

The second thing on my mind was to get myself through and away from all the places that held any sort of connection to the area.

There was a slight slip of the grip when I got through Warwick and the outer edge of Rhode Island. But I was still close enough to my old home to turn around and go back. And the magnetic pull from Mattapoisett was still strong enough.

Even after 2 hours of driving, after I had well gotten into Connecticut, there were still familiar names of places that kept me connected to the area.

Trumbull, Connecticut was the town where the ladies that Ariana and I met at the diner were from.

Clinton was where our friends Vic and Denny lived.

Madison was where Neil worked when he was with Aramark.

Guilford was where Vic worked as a cop. It was also the town where a college dorm mate, and a very brief lover, was from.

New Haven was where the Amtrak train would stop when Rebecca, my best friend from college, and I would take the train to Washington, D.C., when we would go there to stay with her father.

It wasn't until I was well out of Connecticut that the connections slowly started shedding.

Gas prices in Massachusetts were $2.64 a gallon. They were $2.74 in Connecticut. In New York they jumped to $2.84.

New York and New Jersey were awful. They were the 2 worst states to drive through. Not only was it the start of morning rush hour, the energy vibrations of those states felt frantic, frazzled, and dirty. They felt tense and toxic. And I could not get out of there fast enough. I was having an anxiety attack driving through New York and regretted that my anti-anxiety meds were not where I could easily reach them.

My GPS was going to take me through New York City. No way was I going to go through NYC, especially during rush hour. So I got off at the exit that would take me to the Tappen-Zee Bridge that would take me into New Jersey.

Once in New Jersey, I started feeling a bit better, but not by much.

The beginning part of New Jersey still had the nasty New York vibes. And while I was on I-78, the area's hostility manifested by this large black "asteroid" of some 2 1/2 to 3 inches, flying from out of nowhere and striking my front windshield.

Thank God the object was a large chunk of rubber. Had it been a rock, it would have shattered my windshield instead of just bouncing off and leaving a mark on the glass.

I have no idea where that "asteroid" came from. There were no trucks nearby or any other obvious places where it could have come from.

Oddly enough, as startling as having this large black object come at me and bounce off my windshield, it was also the junction where the toxic tension of the area started slipping away.

By now I was driving through the nicer forested parts of New Jersey.

New Jersey still had some slight and subtle connections to my past.

When I was in college, a lot of the students came from New Jersey. A favorite conversational exchange between them was:

"Where are you from?"

"New Jersey."

"Oh! Which exit?"

You see, cars and driving are a big part of the New Jersey culture. Bruce Springsteen sings about the New Jersey obsession for cars and driving in his song "Born to Run."

New Jersey was also where my college boyfriend Vernon came from. I couldn't remember which part of New Jersey ~ which exit ~ he came from, and I wondered if I was anywhere near his childhood home.

And that was the very last and tenuous connection to my past. From that point on, I was on a trajectory path to my future.

I-78 took me into Pennsylvania, where I had to pay a 75 cent toll to remain on the highway.

When I got into Pennsylvania, I noticed that the exit numbers started with 308. (Exit numbers go lower as you travel west.) I had never seen exit numbers that high before. God! It was going to be a LONG drive across to Pittsburgh, which was on the other side of the state.

I made my first stop for gas in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. I paid $25 to fill up my tank.

I was already 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours into my journey. And little did I know that with all the construction that it was going to take me at least another 4 hours to cross the state.

While pumping gas, I noticed that I bladder could use some voiding. So I decided that once I was back on the road that I would stop at the next available rest stop.

(I cannot remember the name of the town where I stopped.)

While using the facilities at the rest stop there was a woman there who asked if I was the one who was traveling with the little dog. From her high perch above the animal crate, Emi was in plain sight.

While Emi traveled well, it was a totally different story with the kitten. Callee hated being in the crate. Almost as soon as we started, she splashed the water from her water bowl so vigorously that it hit the windshield at the opposite end. And she maintained a constant ruckus until we were well out of New York.

After I took care of my bathroom needs, it was time to let Emi out to take care of hers. I also tried to give Emi some water, but she was not interested in it.

The drive through Pennsylvania was nice for the most part ~ green forests, rolling hills, and farm land. Traffic was light. You really have no idea of how much congested the New England, New York, and New Jersey areas are until you leave them and drive through other parts of the country.

But there was still plenty of construction ~ a lot of it was of the stop-and-go variety. And there were some areas where I had to suddenly step on the brakes, which would occasionally dislodge the animals from their positions of rest.

In fact, Ariana called at the most awkward time ~ just when the lane that I was on was about to disappear. Fortunately there weren't all that many cars on the road, and I was able avert disaster by safely getting into the next lane.

I pretty much traveled across the whole state of Pennsylvania on I-78, watching the exit numbers drop as I was heading further west.

As I got closer to Pittsburgh, the GPS put me onto Route 22. I had to travel 54 miles on Rt. 22. And it was not a pleasant road to travel on (though I found out later that it was a much better alternative than traveling on the turnpike and paying nearly $50 in tolls).

Rt. 22 wound its way through the middle of the towns in western Pennsylvania. That meant slow speeds and lots of traffic lights. To add insult to injury, most of that road was turn up due to construction.

God! I was going to have to endure 54 miles of this?

I was already watching my expected arrival time constantly getting oushed back on my GPS. My shoulder and neck were killing me, with my muscles occasionally going into spasm. I was having a killer of a headache. And I was already quite exhausted ~ so exhausted that I was praying for this leg of the journey to end.

I stopped for gas a second time at a town called Export. It cost me $24 to fill up my tank.

In less than an hour or so, I arrived at the Super 8 Motel at the far outskirts of Pittsburg.

What a blessed relief!

I was checked into my room by a young Indian girl wearing a name tag that said "Vijay Patel." Seeing that reminded me of the joke about why Indian women have red dots on their foreheads. That's so that when they marry, their new husbands scratch away at the dots to see what they get for a dowry, to see if they "won" a gas station, convenience store, or a motel.

It was 4:20 PM when I checked into my room. Since I started traveling at 4:45 Am, I was on the road for about 11 1/2 hours.

I was grateful for the luggage cart at the motel. It made it much easier to cart the kitten's crate and all my stuff into my room.

I let Callee out of the crate when we settled in. But she had to go right back in after her first act upon release was to scratch on the motel chair.

As dead tired and exhausted as I was, I called Joe at S.P.A.R.R.O. No one answered, so I left a message. Then I made my "obligatory" calls to Neil, Ariana, Roma, Carol, and Barbara ~ to let everyone know that I arrived safe and sound.

At 5:00 I tried calling Joe again. Still no answer. So I left another message and decided to drive out to the dog rescue place, figuring that Joe was probably outside taking care of the dogs.

As I was getting ready to stap into my car, Joe called. He was on his way back from picking up his wife. He would get there just before I arrived.

The Day Before the Great Road Trip

That was a week ago today ~ Wednesday, the 26th of August.

The movers showed up at the house in the morning. And they worked hard for 5 hours loading up the moving van.

During the time they were there, I had to run a couple of errands.

And while out, I noticed that the flags were at half-staff. I wondered why. There was nothing in that morning's paper. And because I had disconnected and packed away my computer the night before, I was not able to catch up w/current news. I had meant to ask about the flags being at half-staff, but I forgot.

Also, while the movers were there, my real estate agent showed up, followed by one of her co-workers, followed by a couple who had wanted to see the house. That was the same couple who pulled up into my driveway 2 weeks earlier, thinking that the house was abandoned.

It would be nice if they would be interested in buying the house. But I would not be surprised it they weren't. We had already accepted the fact that we would have to "walk away" from the house.

After the movers cleared everything out, I made sure that all the windows were closed. The rooms were bare, loud, and resounding with echoes.

Because the cable guy showed up early in the morning to take the modem, I had no phone service to the house. I had to use my cell phone. And because our house was in a cell phone dead zone, I had to go upstairs into Neil's old room to make my calls from there. It was hot and sweltering in that room.

With the house all bare and empty except for the stuff that we were leaving behind, it felt weird knowing that within 24 hours I would be well on my way to Texas.

Barbara came over that evening to say goodbye and give me a sweet farewell gift. She didn't stay as long as she normally would have because she knew that I was going to be getting up at 4 in the morning.

I slept on the couch that night.

Big Changes Have Come Our Way.

It's been over a month since I last blogged, and since the last time I blogged I was on the east coast. Now I am a bit over 2000 miles away from my original blogging location.

To catch up with things, Neil has been recovering from his triple coronary by-pass. (It was a triple, not the quadruple that we originally thought.)

There were some complications shortly after Neil's release from the hospital. He had a fall in his apartment which resulted in his fracturing his upper back. Because the fracture was so high up on his back, he could not have the procedure where a cement-like material was injected into the fracture. Instead he had to rest and let the fracture heal on its own.

On top of all that, Neil had to be readmitted to the hospital because he contracted pneumonia. He stayed there for awhile. And while in the hospital Neil signed his Baha'i declaration card.

Yes! Neil is now a Baha'i.

I had been praying for years that Neil find a spiritual path, one where he would feel at home at. And I made a promise to God that if Neil finds a spiritual path that I would join him on that path, even if it meant leaving the path that I was on.

Well, now it's time for me to keep that promise to God.

Also, during that time, I had been very busy packing up the rest of the house.

And I had been very busy trying to rehome 9 of our 11 pets.

Gypsy and Gomez went to the Southwest Pennsylvania Retriever Rescue Organization in Plum, Pennsylvania, which was just outside of Pittsburgh. Joe Maringo, the founder and owner of S.P.A.R.R.O., made the trip up to Massachusetts to collect the 2 old dogs. It was really sad to see them go.

My friend Sue has been a Godsend in rehoming the 6 "death row" kitties ~ the cats that would have been euthanized if I was not able to find them new homes before I left.

One day we drove around for over 2 hours through Dartmouth and Westport looking for farms who would take in 4 of the cats as barn cats.

We had no luck. But we hit the jack pot with the very last place that we stopped ~ Dartmouth Orchards. Brian, the owner, was not only happy to have some barn cats, he asked, "How many you got?"

So Attila, Hannibal, Pixel, and Arnica went to their new lives as barn cats at Dartmouth Orchards.

(Upon checking up, Sue discovered that Arnica immediately ran away and took up residence w/Brian's next door neighbors, who were happy to adopt her. And while he has not seen the other cats, he could smell them in the hay barn and occasionally hear the bell on Attila's collar.)

Hyssop went to live with Sue's friend in Abington, Massachusetts. Her friend's brother is a vet, so Hyssop (who has been renamed "Heidi") will be in good hands.

Logos, AKA Logie, went to Sue's friend in Hyannis. Logie has been hiding there, though her friend did once see him in the cupboard with the pots and pans. And Logie has allowed Sue's friend's daughter to pick him up.

Big Fat Stevie, who I'll really miss, has gone to live with Barbara. (I heard that he's settled in well with Barbara, Jeremiah, and their 6 dogs.)

So, all that was left was my little dog Emi and Callee the kitten. They were going to come with me to Texas.

We found an apartment in Lubbock. We had a moving date. And I had to make sure that everything was done to prepare for moving.

There is a lot to write about my road trip. And I'll be doing that in blogs to come.