Road Trip

This marks my second drive from Boulder, CO to North Palm Beach, FL however it's the first (and perhaps last?) with Jim.
Some people are just not meant to sit in a car for three days. I happen to be married to one.
Though he'd never admit it, I know he hated those three days on the road. He considers it a waste of time, feels so very unproductive and I do understand.
And even though we were entertained by audio books (David Sidaris' Holidays On Ice, and John Grisham's The Confession) he's simply not accustomed to sitting idle for more than twenty minutes, much less three days. He squirms. He fidgets. He changes lanes for no reason other than to relieve his boredom. He adjusts every button, setting and knob that's within his reach from the front passenger seat. You name it, he'll fumble with it. The man simply cannot sit still. He's quietly praying I'll find someone else to accompany me on the return trip in the spring. Fortunately, there's plenty of time to figure this out.

The dogs, as expected, were fantastic! Jim dubbed them The Road Warriors. For the most part, they passed the time sleeping in the back seat, which was made as comfortable as possible for them with bedding, blankets and chew toys.

Boomer, not yet 5 months old, happily went along with absolutely everything and seemed to consider it all a terrific adventure. He loved his new found back seat freedom, having only traveled in his pet carrier in the past. We were worried he might get car sick but he did not. Whew!
As far as we know, Abby's only road trip experience was the transport from an animal shelter in Cowley County, Kansas where she sat unclaimed for over 30 days, to the Boulder County Humane Society where we rescued her two years ago. She was a trooper and clearly just happy to be with her people.
Our first stop was for gas in some Godforsaken town on the plains of eastern Colorado.
The dogs were excited to have a potty break and quickly relieved themselves in a dry, wintery brown grassy area adjacent to the gas station. Almost immediately, Boomer started hopping around like he was walking on a hot stove and Abby soon exhibited the same behavior. Upon checking, we discovered them both covered with prickly burrs and as the prairie winds howled, spent the next half hour carefully picking the burrs out of their paws and fur. Lesson learned!
Poor Boomer didn't want to go near grass for the remainder of our trip so one of us always scouted out the potty area to insure his safety. It took more than a little coaxing after his burr experience.

Our road trip routine is to have a healthy breakfast and then stop for a shake or a root beer float during the afternoon. It was more than enough to tide us over until dinner and of course it had absolutely no fat or calories! Ha!
Our first night was spent in Blue Springs, MO, "Home of American Idol's David Cook" (I've never seen the show) in a Hampton Inn that accepted dogs and offered a buffet breakfast in the morning. We were well east of Kansas City so as to avoid the morning rush hour.
Our second day was the longest as we wanted to get south of Atlanta for the same reason. We tried again for a Hampton Inn but the one we stopped at didn't accept dogs and the desk clerk didn't think any others in the area did either.
She recommended the nearby Drury Inn and since it was almost 10:30 pm and we were tired, we hustled over there and grabbed a room. There were so many people traveling with dogs we thought the Westminster Dog Show might be in town and they were all staying in the same hotel!
This place was more than sketchy and a dank odor that had nothing to do with pets wafted throughout the building.
The elevator was scary-noisy and I wondered if it had been inspected in the last three decades. Even the dogs freaked out.
The room was something right out of the late sixties-early seventies with tacky carpet, gaudy drapes and unmatched bedding with stains and holes. We quickly stripped the beds for the now routine bed bug inspection, closely examined the remainder of the room and deemed it safe despite the musty odor. The sheets were clean and the mattresses appeared new, but we had to wonder why the hotel would replace the mattresses and not the crappy bedding covering them. Jim's thought was it's a "designated pet room" and that's what one gets.
My thought was, "My dogs are neat, clean and they deserve better."
We slept about 6 hours and then hit the road again, arriving in North Palm in time for Happy Hour, now Yappy Hour!

Some observations from the road:
-Dogs make great traveling companions. They never complain, don't fight over the License Plate Game and not once did we hear, "When are we going to get there?"
-Most McDonald's rest rooms were a disaster but those at the rest stops were all clean and smelled as though they had been disinfected just prior to our arrival.
-Fast food is just fine when you're on the road. It's fast. It's food. And since we don't indulge any other time, it won't kill us. Besides, it tastes good!
-Long haul truckers using cell phones are just as distracted as anyone else. It's far scarier when a semi drifts into your lane than a Kia.
-Cops are everywhere. No, we did not get a ticket.
-Georgia, and especially Florida, are littered with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of monstrous roadside billboards, most of which have been rented by the religious right and the anti-abortion movement. Gone are the days of the roadside Burma Shave ads. Make no mistake, this is the Bible Belt.
-The further south you travel, the warmer it gets.
-There's nothing as welcoming as the warm embrace of a loved one after three long days on the road.
Oh! And the nice glass of Pinot Noir didn't hurt either.
Looking forward to my winter in Florida!