Driving to Chicagoland
So there we were, about 5:30 in the morning, heading off to move away from Maryland *sniffle*
The cats were each in their own separate carrier with a towel and a little bed and of course both of them were so restless and pissed off that they promptly squirbled up their bedding so that they were kind of crammed into the carriers with only the hard plastic to lie on. Whimsy managed to eventually arrange things so that she was lying in the kitty bed most of the time, but TSoD was determined not to be comfortable.
We had arranged it so that Whimsy was the cat who could see forward, since she is usually the more curious of the two cats, and she meowed pitiably all the way to the first rest stop. Then we switched the cats and TSoD took over the meowing. In fact, aside from about a 2 hour stretch where they fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, both cats spent most of the trip complaining.
In the mountains in Pennsylvania, we hit a big rainstorm (exactly when we were stopping for the first time to let the kitties out of their cages to drink a bit and use their litter box - luckily they weren't that interested.) The rain stuck with us all the way into Ohio, which is good since we were listening to the Hard Rain soundtrack and *properly* that should be listened to in Ohio! Once we got past the rain, it started to get steamier. Rick had warned me that they were calling for 100 plus degrees in Chicago that day and we were definitely heading towards that weather.
We did minimal stopping along the way, because of the kitties, grabbed lunch in shifts with one person sitting in the car with the air conditioner running, and then FINALLY made it to the "Welcome to Chicago" sign.
There's only one problem with that sign. It's south of the city and we needed to be north... and we'd arrived JUST at rush hour. Suddenly our "about 12 hour" trip turned into a "more than 13 hour" trip, but when we got to the other end of the city things finally cleared out a bit and we headed on to Park Ridge.
I'm sure that at some point in my life, I"ll figure out the way AROUND Chicago, but so far, the only route I know to get to and from Indiana/Ohio is straight through. Gotta spend some time studying maps, cause Chicago is REALLLY good at rush hour. And by really good, I mean REALLY sucky!!
Anyway, we finally made it to the new home. We brought everything into the house from the car and then carried the kitty carriers up to the laundry room where we were gonna put catbox and food so that they could start out in a smallish place and not be overwhelmed by the new place. Of course Whimsy is Whimsy and (just like when she was a new kitten in our old house) insisted that she get out to explore RIGHT AWAY. Both cats were somewhat put off by the slightly steeper stairs with no carpeting, but within minutes they were exploring away having a grand old time. We've started the socialization process, "no, you can't walk on the granite countertops where we cook food, yes you can walk on the granite countertop over by the window where we probably won't cook food." It'll take a while but they're sure to come around eventually!
I wandered around and followed the kids as they also explored the house and we also frantically spent some time trying to figure out how to reprogram the thermostats, being as how it was a million frikkin' degrees outside (and in.) Eventually figured out the temporary program override, which is good since a couple of days later, there was an amazing thunderstorm followed by a drop down to about 50 degrees. We've settled out here at a reasonable 60-70 degree series. Weatherwise, I'm totally loving Chicagoland.
Not much more for the week before the moving van showed up except to note that Alys had her college orientation scheduled for the same day that the van was *originally* supposed to show up (note that originally) and so Kat ended up driving her to Ohio while I remained behind. Of course, about an hour and a half after they headed out, I got a call from the trucker to say that he'd had a flat tire and wouldn't be here until Saturday. Ah well, at least I had a quiet day... went to bed way early and started to make up for the lack of sleep caused by the drive out.
Next entry: Stuff Arrival Day!
The cats were each in their own separate carrier with a towel and a little bed and of course both of them were so restless and pissed off that they promptly squirbled up their bedding so that they were kind of crammed into the carriers with only the hard plastic to lie on. Whimsy managed to eventually arrange things so that she was lying in the kitty bed most of the time, but TSoD was determined not to be comfortable.
We had arranged it so that Whimsy was the cat who could see forward, since she is usually the more curious of the two cats, and she meowed pitiably all the way to the first rest stop. Then we switched the cats and TSoD took over the meowing. In fact, aside from about a 2 hour stretch where they fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, both cats spent most of the trip complaining.
In the mountains in Pennsylvania, we hit a big rainstorm (exactly when we were stopping for the first time to let the kitties out of their cages to drink a bit and use their litter box - luckily they weren't that interested.) The rain stuck with us all the way into Ohio, which is good since we were listening to the Hard Rain soundtrack and *properly* that should be listened to in Ohio! Once we got past the rain, it started to get steamier. Rick had warned me that they were calling for 100 plus degrees in Chicago that day and we were definitely heading towards that weather.
We did minimal stopping along the way, because of the kitties, grabbed lunch in shifts with one person sitting in the car with the air conditioner running, and then FINALLY made it to the "Welcome to Chicago" sign.
There's only one problem with that sign. It's south of the city and we needed to be north... and we'd arrived JUST at rush hour. Suddenly our "about 12 hour" trip turned into a "more than 13 hour" trip, but when we got to the other end of the city things finally cleared out a bit and we headed on to Park Ridge.
I'm sure that at some point in my life, I"ll figure out the way AROUND Chicago, but so far, the only route I know to get to and from Indiana/Ohio is straight through. Gotta spend some time studying maps, cause Chicago is REALLLY good at rush hour. And by really good, I mean REALLY sucky!!
Anyway, we finally made it to the new home. We brought everything into the house from the car and then carried the kitty carriers up to the laundry room where we were gonna put catbox and food so that they could start out in a smallish place and not be overwhelmed by the new place. Of course Whimsy is Whimsy and (just like when she was a new kitten in our old house) insisted that she get out to explore RIGHT AWAY. Both cats were somewhat put off by the slightly steeper stairs with no carpeting, but within minutes they were exploring away having a grand old time. We've started the socialization process, "no, you can't walk on the granite countertops where we cook food, yes you can walk on the granite countertop over by the window where we probably won't cook food." It'll take a while but they're sure to come around eventually!
I wandered around and followed the kids as they also explored the house and we also frantically spent some time trying to figure out how to reprogram the thermostats, being as how it was a million frikkin' degrees outside (and in.) Eventually figured out the temporary program override, which is good since a couple of days later, there was an amazing thunderstorm followed by a drop down to about 50 degrees. We've settled out here at a reasonable 60-70 degree series. Weatherwise, I'm totally loving Chicagoland.
Not much more for the week before the moving van showed up except to note that Alys had her college orientation scheduled for the same day that the van was *originally* supposed to show up (note that originally) and so Kat ended up driving her to Ohio while I remained behind. Of course, about an hour and a half after they headed out, I got a call from the trucker to say that he'd had a flat tire and wouldn't be here until Saturday. Ah well, at least I had a quiet day... went to bed way early and started to make up for the lack of sleep caused by the drive out.
Next entry: Stuff Arrival Day!