Road Trip Recap

We still don't have internet set up, but the local coffee shop has free wi-fi, so I'll use this opportunity to sip my iced latte from my mug (strange) and post some pictures from our DC-->Oxford drive.

We set off early Thursday morning - 5:45AM. The car was packed to the gills, and I had even ordered this thing called a Roof Bag to pack all our clothes and camping gear in (I highly recommend it! roofbag.com).

(This photo was actually taken at the end of the trip. More on that later!)

The cats were packed together in a crate, with the litter box accessible through an opening in the side. They were not happy for the first 2 hours, and they let us know. I took a video, but I can't seem to upload it, so you'll just have to imagine two cats yowling in the background as you read this post.

Overall, they did well and the trip went smoothly. There were only a couple of "adventures" along the way. The first came around Hour 3, when Minnie managed to squeeze through a narrow opening between the litter box and the crate. After exploring the car and meowing her distress she eventually wandered up front where I grabbed her and held her until we were able to pull over at a Scenic Viewpoint and put her away, stuffing the escape route with a pillow to prevent further adventures. 

(Despite being unhappy about her re-capture, Minnie and Milo finally settled in together.)

Well, that held her for a little while, but around Hour 5 or 6 Minnie managed to flatten her body and squeeze through an opening that I couldn't even get my arm through! This time she seemed happy to settle in on top of the crate and her dog-like panting, which had been persistent up until this point, stopped. So we decided to let her ride on top of the crate from there on out. 

The drive, though 9 hours long, was pretty enjoyable. There was some pretty scenery while driving through Pennsylvania in the early morning hours. Fog had settled among the hills, and the sunlight filtering through gave everything a dream-like quality. Pictures taken with our little point-and-shoot camera couldn't really capture it, but here's what we got:

Most of our driving time was spent in Pennsylvania and Ohio, but we also passed through Maryland and West Virginia (briefly) along the way:

Finally, we found ourselves driving down a rural road surrounded by farms and sky before pulling in to our little neighborhood community at Applewood Circle.

Our arrival photo is blurry, but that probably better reflects our bleary-eyed state after driving 9 hours with a loaded car and two cats. You can see our unit (the brick facade on the left) with our POD in the driveway. More pictures of that in a later blog...