Day 4 Road Trip with a Cat: Moving to California

Preparing for Day 4 of traveling to California from Massachusets

 Preparing to drive for a day started with cleaning and packing the car. This meant that by

day four the preparation had become a morning ritual. The prep process began with, sweeping out the car interior and throwing away any trash from the day before. I would then pack the top roof rack compartment with things we would not need until we stopped at a hotel for the night. I added a ratchet tie down over the top of the Thule roof container which helped keep the container sealed tight. The tie down also prevented water or insects from being driven into the container.

The Mini Clubman has a boot compartment under the rear storage area. It is small but useful for packing the stuff that was going to be inaccessible such as surplus travel supplies, emergency supplies of food and water, and emergency tools. That compartment was checked and packed before the interior could be loaded. The next step was packing the interior of the car with our daily gear, including our gadgets, food and a pillow fortress for sleeping. One of the last steps was setting up the litter box and cat accessories, while also being sure to have cat food and water easily accessible. After all our items were on-board, Mayari (the 4 year old) was next to get in the car. Then Chowder (the cat) , Rise and Myself. Note to travelers: Pack your cat last, then hit the road. We relied on using a leash most of the time in case Chowder tried to escape while going from hotel to the car, and on pit stops. The cat carrier was cumbersome and I would keep it un-assembled in the back of the car most of the time.The plastic cat carrier was useful for containing water bottles.

The next leg of our trip would be from the outskirts of Kansas City to Colorado. Deep in the Midwest we were about to cross over Dorothy's take off spot to OZ. The weather radio informed us it would be hot and there were advisories to watch for wildfires. That made it a normal early Summer day in Kansas which we will have a chance of being swept away by a tornado to a mythical land or burned by wild fire. As uneventful as it was,this day was pretty exhausting. The distance we traveled, the uniformity of the landscape and the heat were the contributing factors. Also there were very few places to get amenities. At one interesting stopping point we found a gas station, convenience store and gun shop all within the same building. I think this may have been as close to the modern day wild west general store. A place where you could gas up, reload, get a snack and move on.

We passed through the flint hills Saw long ranges of prairie which were in the same state as a the great plains were before cultivation by Europeans.

Thankfully there are stretches of highway in the United States where you will not run across a Starbucks for eight hours of driving. Kansas is one of those places. There were so few places to stop for coffee or gas along the way. The road was four lanes rather that six and the speed limit was 75.

Progress report for Day 4: we departed from Kansas City MO and arrived in Golden Colarado at the end of the day. Happy Summer Solstice 2012!