Thursday, April 26

on driving across the country, part three

When I initially started posting on this topic, I wanted to do a series of posts about some of my travel adventures; but as luck would have it, between preparing for the big move, work, and computer issues, I never got around to it. And I am not going to cover it all now. Suffice it to say that after the Dead summer tour of 1991, I did not travel cross country (by car) again until 1995 when I moved to Pittsburgh.

Which isn't to say I didn't travel. When I was in my 20's, I took a lot of good road trips, some by myself, some with other folks. Two of my favorite road trips were taken with my friend Birdy. On summer I drove her up to Montana where she was going to working for a few months, and then headed back south via Spokane, Portland and California. I drove down the coast from Portland to San Francisco and I remember it as one of the most beautiful drives ever. I really would love to do that again. Then it was San Francisco to San Diego where another friend, Christine, met me and we made our way back to Albuquerque. The second trip with Birdy was my first and only trip to Austin for SXSW. That was an adventure.

There were also smaller trips to Colorado, Arizona, and California, mostly for shows, and well, not love but crushes. I drove to Seattle by myself once and man, I loved that trip. I wanted to move to Seattle so badly and then ended up in Pittsburgh. Go figure. Rains a lot in both places. And I did travel cross country by train once, another awesome experience. Oh yes, those were the days. I may not have been fearless, but I definitely didn't have some of the travel anxiety issues that I have today.

So all this babbling is just leading up to telling you that we are taking the middle route to New Mexico. We could take I-70 West just about the whole way to Colorado and then head south to Santa Fe on I-25. Or we could take a more southern route through Tennessee where we could hit I-40 West and take that all the way to Albuquerque. That's basically the reverse of what I did when I moved out here. We wanted to see Graceland so we drove to Memphis from Albuquerque and then headed north from there. But we're going down the middle. I-70 West to Missouri (I think) and then down into Oklahoma where we'll eventually hit I-40 which was take us through Texas and into New Mexico. This route is the shortest, with a route distance of 1627 miles and driving time of 24:31. If we weren't going to have the cats with us, I would love to meander our way to the southwest, but since we will have the cats with us, I want to get to Santa Fe as quickly as possible.

The cats have both moved before, but neither have been on a car trip that lasts more than a day. I have no idea what to expect, but fingers crossed, all is going to be fine. My guess is that they'll cry for awhile and then settled down for the car ride. I think they'll be way more freaked out by funny smelling motel rooms than the car. Cats don't like change and being in some random room without any of their normal furnishings is not going to be fun. I can't blame them. On the other hand, cats are pretty adaptable and I think they'll make it without being too traumatized. At least they will be with us. Anyone have any cat travel trips?

When I moved out here with my cat Jed, he flew by himself. And that did traumatize him. As well as me. When I got to the airport he wasn't here. No one told me that I had to go to the cargo airport which was an entirely different place. It was awful. And he had taken a mild sedative so he was freaked out and groggy and it broke my heart. He was a bit changed after that. So I have no desire to put Simon and Rocky through that experience.

As for the stress from watching the Today show, they were showing tornado and flood footage from Texas and the Plains area and while it was nowhere that we are driving through, it got me thinking about bad weather. Being that I am prone to high stress, my head whirled right into a near panic attack. I can just see myself in water up to my windows on the interstate with two cats and all my cameras. "Don't save me, take the cats and the cameras!" Oy. I am joking, but man, I have been super anxiety-ridden and unfortunately for me, it all comes out via my stomach. Which makes me more stressed which makes my stomach worse and so on. I stocked up on Tums, Pepto and Maalox so hopefully I don't spend the trip stopping at bathrooms.

That said, I am feeling mostly positive about the trip. I am trying not to focus on my fears but rather on the good stuff. The open road, the wind blowing in my hair, me and the cats rocking out to all the cool music people are burning for us. It'll be good. It'll be fun. It'll be an adventure. For sure.

Okay, well, sorry to ramble on for so long. I'll be online for awhile tomorrow and then that'll be it for awhile. Oh, I did put Twitter back up in the sidebar so I may send a few words from the road. And I may post some pics tomorrow. If not, see you on the flip side. Much love, madorange.

1 comment:

  1. I've got FIVE CDs for you!!!!
    I've still got to make covers, but I should be able to do that in a jiffy this afternoon after work.
    Are you going to either of the DF shows this weekend? I want to go to one or the other or maybe both (I want to see the Smut Project on Friday and Ludlow on Sat)
    Let me know--if nothing else hopefully I'll see you on Sunday for brunch!
    xoxo

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