Uneventful except for having to hear the packers take one walk around our house and start immediately saying "It won't fit. Nah, this is not all going in" I was hoping I misunderstood and that they were saying, "Excellent fit," or something like that. When they started telling me to pick out the things I just had to have, it was panic time. I have to have it all. If I didn't, I would have donated or sold it earlier.
They did a good job though. They're professional movers and did their best to work a miracle, but we have bunches of things we'll have to get somehow. It was just a little sad to leave some of the things, but I'm over it.
I packed my car so tightly that nothing else would fit. I was stuffing things in every nook and cranny and left just enough room for the cat litter box and food bowls on the back floor and a nice fluffy rug on the front floor flavored with a sprinkle of catnip.
She never touched any of those things, and I could have used the space. She did touch them when we got to the motel room (pet friendly Day's Inn).
The drive was nice from Montgomery to Holly Springs. I started the first of my 6 audio books.
My view.
We were both beat from days of packing and a morning of cleaning behind the movers when we finally got to the motel. It was a good night's sleep though and even a nice thunderstorm early in the morning.
Mike checking all his vital statistics and mileage and whatever and chugging down some coffee. In the motel parking lot. In the rain.
And the rain continued and got harder and harder and driving through Memphis was a nightmare for me. It was so scary to see Mike signal right or left and look in my mirrors and see the lights of cars in all lanes beside me and behind me. I did a lot of muttering and fussing and worse.
This was not fun.
Once we got past Little Rock, the weather got a little better, and I could enjoy my book again.
We stopped once for gas in Oklahoma where I got to meet Taylor the goat. She belonged to a cute little girl, and she and her dad reassured me she wouldn't bite. I think they expected me to pet her, but I wasn't sure about those teeth. She was very vocal though.
After leaving Taylor and getting back in the car, I didn't see Stella and figured she had gotten scared and found a place to hide and sleep awhile. I started worrying about her not appearing in the front seat. The first day and early this morning, she slept on the console with her chin on my arm (ignoring her catnip bed on the floor). I called her, and she answered, so I knew she was still there but just hiding.
We got to another pet friendly place - Best Western this time - near Oklahoma City with 32 degree temperatures and wind strong enough to shake the vehicles. I wanted only to grab my stuff and Stella and her stuff and be warm. Unfortunately, I couldn't find her. After looking in all the back doors and hatch, I finally saw her little face peeking out from under the middle seat. I tried to coax her out numerous times, going back to the room and coming back with food and treats. She would stick her head out just enough to take a bite, and a couple of times when I tried to pull her out, she bit and scratched at me, not enough to break the skin but enough for me to know she wasn't happy.
We thought surely that if she got into the place, she could get her self out, but I was more and more convinced she couldn't. We couldn't leave her there all night, and I couldn't stand in the wind and cold trying to get her to come out.
Finally, I worried Mike into going out with me - in one shoe (long story) and me in my pajamas and a coat. We tried numerous times to pull or push her out. One try resulted in 3 pretty bad bites on Mike's hand. Our only solution. we thought, was to take out the back seat. It's a single bucket seat that we've had out before but couldn't remember how to do it. To raise it, we had to move the TV that was in the back and ALL THAT STUFF piled on top of it - all my painstaking packing and fitting. With my boxes of embroidery thread and cleaning supplies and ice chests and vacuum cleaners cluttering the parking lot - and us about as miserable as we could be, Mike dripping blood - we then tried to get the seat out and couldn't figure it out. I think in retrospect there is a release in the middle of the car that would have involved removing even more stuff.
I poked a few more times with a water bottle to keep her from biting me, and she managed to squeeze the front half of her body out but would hiss and scream when we tried to pull the rest of her out. What a nightmare. I wanted to call the fire department. Mike decided she WAS coming out, so we tried working together. We maneuvered her to her side, he pushed from under the seat, and I pulled her front end. It did hurt her, poor thing, but finally she popped out - terrified and mad. I rushed her into the room where she ran under the bed but has been out eating and drinking.
She looks ok now.
Tomorrow is Amarillo and Albuquerque with hopefully good weather and car seats that are stuffed underneath to prevent cat hiding
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