Day Two - three - four - five

Gotta tell ya - I'm writing this the night before I leave for my Spain trip, so this blog reflecting my trip from east coast to west is gonna be a little abbreviated. But, you know the drive across skipped a few beats, so - like the drive across Nevada - there just ain't that much to tell.

I can barely remember the places that we stopped. I know we barrelled through the eastern states - whizbang - New Hampshire, Connecticut (Hi Kid!), New York (Hi Kathleen!), New Jersey, Pennsylvania and into Ohio (Hi Jen!).

We would stop for lunch and open up the coolers in the back of the U-Haul and get everyone fed.

Here's a pic of Luke and I enjoying some refreshment.




There was another Motel 6 in Toledo. I ate chili dogs at an AM/PM at about midnight and went back to the hotel and watched...boy, there is nothing on television is there? Not at midnight in Toledo on that night anyway.


Here's a photo of 3 of the four-legged making do in the motel room...(not shown, Inca - although you can kinda see her in the mirror, Luke and Freeway)




Oh, here's a couple of photos of Luke - he's so talented - check out the feather work!



Mike calls this Luke's "John Adams" impression...




We left Ohio and tripped through Indiana and Illinois before bedding down in Iowa.

And this is where things really sped up for me.

I was under a little bit of a time constraint; I needed to get out to Northern California by Saturday night so I could get to Corbs' 40th b-day party hopefully by Sunday.

We were in Iowa and it was Thursday. I wasn't going to make it at the rate we were going - it's just hard to travel with that many critters and make any sort of time; so we decided that I would take the pick-up and separate from the group - make the rest of the way on my own. I took my walkers with me in the new ride...of course.



So..I left Sonja and Mike with hugs and well wishes in Des Moines (I think - we had most excellent tacos there from some place that Mike and I found at 10:00 right before they closed - they weren't too happy about serving us...but they did).

Anyway, I took off and pretty much hauled my butt as fast as I was comfortable with (80-85 mph. I drove all day and well into the night and wound up, bleary at a Days Inn around midnight about 50 miles from the Utah border.

Woke up at 5am and crossed through Utah, Nevada (90mph) and hit Sacramento at about 4:00 that afternoon. I made the decision to go for it - all the way to Eureka - and pulled into town a little after midnight.



I had never driven like that before. Not for a very long time anyway (once drove up from Baja to Redding in two days I think - which was nuts).

But it all worked out - the truck did well and I dropped it off the next morning in Bayside, got my truck (Howdy truck!) and hit the road around 10am to drive up to the Smith River and one of the most gorgeous respite places I know...Camp Cushy.

I was home.