Travel Day 12 — End of the Road
…and a return to living. Spoiler alert — we make it home!
A long but largely uneventful day. A slightly frantic morning of repacking the truck and sorting through what to bring with us and what to leave behind before coaxing the two cats to have a tasty Gabapentin pill. As a two person operation this goes pretty smoothly. I hope I’ll never have to do it by myself.
Forty-five minutes to the airport, shuttle to the terminal with eight bags (including cats, CPAPs, etc.) three of which we check. No delays at airport security, and everyone is masked up properly and keeping appropriate distances. A train shuttle to the terminal, and our gate is only a short walk. A two-and-half hour flight with Maya in a mostly enpty coach class, and me in a completely full first class. We had to do this because they only allow one cat in first-class.
At security I was given the option of going through the metal detector with the cat in my arms while they X-Rayed the carrier, or to take the cat to a private room while they did the X-ray. I was carrying the tortie at this point so I scruffed her and walked through. The alarm went off, so I had to remove my belt with one hand while holding Leia in the other. This went well, and my pants didn’t fall down. This may have been the worst moment in the airport.
I held the tabby on my lap for the entire trip except for take-off and landing during which I had to put him under the seat in front of me. I put my sweater over his carrier because he, like most cats, prefers feeling enclosed when he’s stressed. I stuck my hand in the carrier to pet him, which he clearly appreciated. Every few minutes I’d scratch his ears or forehead and I could feel him stretching out and relaxing when I did. This was much better than I’d expected, and a big relief. The GP definitely helped.
The tortie was restless for the first part of the flight but relaxed once we got airborne. Per Maya, Leia’s main issue was her desire to see what was going on!
Leia was less affected by the Gaba than Gulliver was.Whenever we were still she started squirming to get out of her carrier.
The flight was smooth and my only complaint is the guy in the picture here. There were a few other people who just didn’t feel masks were for them, and the steward interacted with all of them repeatedly without saying a word. I will be complaining to the airline later today.
The car we reserved had a teeny tiny dent in it, which I did not notice, but the agent insisted on giving us a free upgrade to a small SUV. I think he took pity on us with our eight bags and two cats. So a big thanks to that person, whose name I did not get…
As we pulled out of the airport it was raining hard, which I’m hoping is a rare event (heh, heh) here in the Pacific Northwest. An easy drive, but for the rain, dark and unfamiliar roads and Maya, thank goodness, was up to driving the last leg of about thirty miles.
The house is beautiful, and arriving here really felt like coming home. Our friends who stayed here for us left us with supplies, and our realtor bought us some basic groceries and left us a welcome basket. I will post more pictures when things are better organized.
The cats have settled right in and are playing and exploring.
They are definitely happy with all the windows. Last night they were a bit sumbly from the Gabapentin, but today they’re back to their normal levels of agility.
And folks, yours truly is out of steam! I am going to go stare out the windows until I either fall back to sleep, or the first container gets here. Both the containers and the Bolt (our car) will be here today. The truck will be here in less than a week. I don’t yet have an ETA on the trailer though…sigh.