Day One: And So We Begin Our Move

10/23 As we watched the weather to find the perfect weather for our drive, it seemed the weather stalled, and we had our perfect window to head to Oklahoma. Our goal for the day, was to head out early afternoon, our first part of the day as I was packing, Will worked half day, and was ready to leave by one o'clock. Our first night stop was going to be Tehachapi CA, but as we traveled through Sacramento, were put behind by heavy traffic. I usually make a hotel reservation by 3:00 PM anticipating our travels to shut down about 6-7 o'clock. We inched our was, mile by mile, and continually hit slow downs due to congestion and road construction. We decided we were not going to make it to Tehachapi, and instead rerouted to Tulare, still a 7 hour drive, but not as far as we had hoped.

In the bed of our truck are the first four cats that we are locating to Oklahoma. Two brothers, and two cats who began their lives with us as mousers, but turned sweet and loving. Before we began this trip, all our cats were vaccinated and healthy. They are sheltered by a camper shell, and we obtained three large dog kennels, the kind that are approved for airline travel, which gave the cats enough room to have a pillow, and a cat litter pan. As we travelled, we stopped several times to check on the cats. They were very scared and confused, and hid as far back into the kennels as possible. Our voices of reassurance did little to comfort them, as they had not been transported in a vehicle for many many years. As we pulled into our hotel for the night, my first attention was to insure all the cats had water and food for the night. Initially they didn't use the litter pan, as I'm sure they were too scared to move. Once the cats were settled, we settled ourselves in for the night. Not quite excited, but not exhausted either. More mental needing a break from the focused and safe driving, while being aware we had four additional lives that were completely dependent on us. I'm glad we didn't push it to Tehachapi.