Things are better. We ended up stopping in Albuquerque; originally we'd planned to keep going until Amarillo, but that was going to be another four hours of driving. We probably could have managed it if we were fresh, but given that none of us slept well last night and the first part of the day was a frenzy of last-minute packing/cleaning/loading, and therefore everyone was starting to nod over the steering wheel outside Albuquerque, we decided not to push things.
I need to take this moment to extend a very public and hearty thank-you to our friend Robin, her boyfriend Bob, and our friend Michelle for all of their help packing and loading the truck. (Additionally, Michelle was able to take a bunch of our extra furniture, which both saved us the hassle of Craigslisting it and gave her a somewhat nicer household. Win-win!) Also on the roster of thanks is Ian, who not only came to help with packing and loading but is driving the moving truck. And, of course, my husband Brian. All of these folks have been incredibly mature and self-motivated, but with Brian especially, during stressful times like this, it means so much to know that I can trust him to get shit done and not feel like I have to look over his shoulder all the time. (Perhaps the fact that I marvel at this says bad things about my expectations of folks' maturity; I prefer to think of it merely as my impeccable taste in friends.)
All in all, so far this hasn't been anywhere near the disaster it could've been. The biggest curveball has been with the cats; we'd originally intended to fly them up ahead of time and either board them or have them stay with me at a hotel. However, no airline will take pets if the forecasted temperature for the day is over 85 degrees F, since they often sit out on the tarmac a while; given that it's still 90+ in Tucson this time of year, that meant flying them was out and we'd be driving the car with three carriers in the back. I was admittedly panicky about this point; one of our cats goes nuts when you lock him in the carrier, and another goes nuts if you even try to put him in the carrier, so we knew there were going to have to be drugs (and the associated hassles/nervousness) involved. But my mother (bless her soul) said something that put it all into perspective: "Well, it can't be much worse than driving with your two-year-old daughter in the car seat who's just puked all over herself thanks to the windy mountain roads." This startled a laugh from me, as I actually vaguely remember that trip (and definitely remember subsequent trips where my parents were careful to have soda on hand and drive slowly). So today, when I started to freak out about the cats in the back, I just reminded myself that people have to do this kind of thing every day with their own kids - I've got it easy by comparison.
Driving through New Mexico was surprisingly scenic - lots of mountains and fields. Driving through Hatch was especially entertaining, as they're a small town known for exactly one thing (Hatch chile peppers) and are riding that one thing all the way into the sunset. I think we must've passed twelve different chile stands, four different restaurants advertising Hatch chile salsa, and a "Picante Plaza" strip mall.
The cats were somewhat noisier and more active during the first half of the trip than the second; I'm not sure if the sedative effects took a while to kick in, or they decided it wasn't worth the bother to keep protesting, or both. Still, they got through the day with no major casualties; Leo bloodied his nose during one of his more active bouts, and tugged part of the blanket we had up against the back of their carriers inside and shredded the duvet covering. (Fortunately, duvets aren't hard to replace.) They were definitely getting noisier as we hit Albuquerque, which helped with the decision to stop here; they were definitely curious about the room when we let them out but settled in surprisingly quickly. (The familiar-smelling duvet/blanket seems to have helped with that.) And for all the hassles of driving with them, it's awfully nice to stay in a hotel room that *does* have our cats here to walk on us as we sleep. Odd, how you miss that...
Also odd, I don't think it's quite sunk in that we've left Bisbee permanently. My thoughts keep wandering back to our house there when I think of "home" - even though, when we left it, it was completely cleaned out. I guess being in that in-transition period doesn't help, since we're technically homeless until the 30th or the 1st. :)
Feeling much more sanguine about my prospects for sleep tonight - we've proven we can do this! Just two more days (and a short three-hour drive once the current tenant vacates) and we'll be in our new home! I was actually realizing that I've never done a cross-country road trip before, and while "with cats and a household packed into a moving truck" isn't necessarily the way I would have picked, it's interesting seeing the differences between it and flying. Everyone cross your fingers for an uneventful trip!
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