Month: September 2004

KY to WA – day two

In the morning, I awoke refreshed, although I would have enjoyed sleeping a few more hours.

In the morning, I awoke refreshed, although I would have enjoyed sleeping a few more hours. This past week’s work of packing, errands, and trip preparation has left me with little time for sleep, and the lack was starting to catch up with me. My body reminds me regularly that I am getting older and am not as resilient as I was in high school and college. Our friends had prepared a satisfying breakfast, which concluded with pictures of their trip to see their daughter and son-in-law in Germany earlier this month. Their daughter is my age, and we grew up together like sisters, only I always got along with her much better than my biological sister (who also liked Cara better than me, so we’re even). Reluctantly, we got back in the car and continued on west towards Cheyenne, our final destination for day two.

Around noon, we decided to stop for lunch, and pulled into an Applebee’s. As we were finishing our meal, Dad overheard the man in the next table say something about, “Would the Eastern Kentuckian stand up.” I thought he had mis-heard the man, since I hadn’t heard him say it. We listened to them a bit more, and I could hear the man saying something about a thing on a car and I realized he must have noticed my front plate which has Eastern Kentucky University written on it. I went over and asked him, and it turns out that he used to teach at Morehead University! He is retired now and was with his wife on a trip to Colorado. Who would have thought that we would be sitting in a western Kansas Applebee’s next to someone who used to live in Morehead?

The rest of western Kansas was uneventful. We stopped at the welcome area just inside of Colorado to stretch our legs, use the facilities, and I located the first geocache of the trip. We passed up three on day one because we were already running late for our twelve hour drive, so it was nice to finally be able to stop and hunt for one.

Kiya had recommended we stop in Ft. Collins for dinner, but we were so close to Cheyenne and our motel room for the night that we just kept on going. This proved to be a good thing. After we checked in and unloaded the car, we went out on the town to find dinner and discovered both the wonderful Chinese/Sushi restaurant where we dined that evening and the quaint caf

KY to WA – day one

I’m uploading the following entries several days after having written them, and they will be “published” on the dates they were written. Hope no one minds. It took me a couple of days to find a wi-fi hotspot in town and to get the pictures ready.

I’m uploading the following entries several days after having written them, and they will be “published” on the dates they were written. Hope no one minds. It took me a couple of days to find a wi-fi hotspot in town and to get the pictures ready.

We started off about a half and hour later than planned, which was indicative of our timing for the rest of the day. Shortly after we got on the interstate, Dad realized he’d forgotten his cell phone in Mom’s car, and she realized the same thing and called me to let me know. We pulled off at the next exit and she met us there. After another goodbye, we were on our way west.

Earlier, Alex had his first experience with being given a pill since he was too young to remember, and by then he was pretty well drugged out, although still conscious enough to complain when we had some sudden braking around high traffic metro areas. The poor thing was also so distraught that he had peed in his carrier. Thankfully, I had an old towel in there which absorbed it, and the smell was restricted to his corner of the back seat. I tried coaxing him out a couple of times when we’d stop, but he wasn’t having anything to do with budging from where he was.

Around noon (local time), we stopped for lunch in St. Louis at an Indian restaurant with a NASIG friend of mine who works at a library nearby. The food was yummy and it was a nice oasis in the middle of a long stretch of driving. On the way in and out of the city, Dad and I reminisced about our many family vacation trips to St. Louis. It’s been twelve years since the last one, I think. I wondered what it would be like to explore the city as an adult without my parents.

We had taken much longer for lunch than we planned, and it was nearly two in the afternoon (local) before we got on the road again. Many pit stops later, we arrived weary and road-worn in Newton, Kansas, around nine-thirty in the evening. Old family friends live there, and it was our only night of the trip not spent at a Motel 6. We stayed up for another hour or so catching up with each other, by which point I was about to collapse with exhaustion.

Alex had recovered from the car trip, and after exploring the house and making use of the litter box, he relaxed into his adorable self and made friends with everyone. I was surprised by how little he ate and drank, considering he hadn’t had anything all day, but it’s probably a good thing. He can survive for several days with a small diet, and not having food in his stomach will help with the motion sickness.

I took him upstairs with me so he’d know where I was sleeping and went to bed. I slept quite soundly and got up sometime in the middle of the night in a haze and stumbled to the bathroom. There is a down side to drinking over a gallon of water in one day.

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