Second Trip - Committing to Change

Our Second Trip to Oklahoma was a month later. We had more cats to take back, and we wanted to hit a good weather window; not too hot so cats are comfortable in the back of the truck, and not too cold, by hitting storms and wind.

This time, learning from the first trip we arranged the animals a little differently. For our dog, we had pulled out the back seats of the truck (crew cab) and this time, built a flat platform so she didn’t have to maneuver around the ”hump”. Another thing we changed was the placement of the cats. We decided instead of moving them (their kennels) each night back and forth from the pick up bed to the trailer, and back to the bed, we set up the bed of the truck with their supplies, adjusted the windows at night so they would get refreshing air without it being too cold. I also had extra blankets to put on top of the kennels in case it got especially cold.

Of course, the first day on the road, we got rained on. Since everything and everyone was loaded up, we decided to head out because it wasn’t raining hard, but enough to make the roads slick and with pulling a trailer, we had to be extra cautious. We slowed down on the slick roads, and made it to flat lands within the hour. Fortunately precipitation did us a favor and didn’t last for more than 2 hours, and the sun blessed us from the cracked clouds.

Because the roads were wet, we decided to head on a straighter road, not deal with traffic, and ease over one hour later down the road. About 3 hours later, we crossed to Hwy 99 south using Hwy 4, in Stockton. We stopped in Chowchilla, and their efforts to make a nicer rest stop created a not so nice restroom situation outside the main building, with temporary Port o Potties, we won’t be stopping there again, until they are finished with construction, as it created tight spaces with cars and trailers trying to fill their vehicles with gas, walking dogs for relief, children traveling needing a break and adults taking out their frustrations on every stranger around them. Time to move on….

Our next stop was Tehachapi’s Walmart parking lot. I know customers have a love/hate relationship with this company, but more so than not, they have supplies, a large building to walk and stretch your legs, and clean(-ish) bathrooms…the effort is there to keep them clean, the customers seem to be contrary to the idea. It was still pretty early, we were making good time, so we decided to press on.

At Kramer Junction, which used to be a four way stop with small businesses lining the road around two gas stations and a few food stands to an almost unrecognizable 4 lane highway right above the original intersection, allowing travelers the choice of stopping or continuing without much thought. We like to fill up our gas tank at half full, as we never know what the next turn will bring, so we pulled over. We have a rule that by 2 o’clock we need to plan where we will stay so to make reservations and shut down no later than 6PM. That time frame would put us in Hesperia. Not too familiar with this town. It had grown from a dusty dot in the desert that we never stopped at on our way to visit my grandparents who lived in Lucerne Valley in the 80’s to a conglomerate of Any Town, USA, but this one was surrounded by cactus. We picked a hotel with a solid reputation and headed for the hotel. Ignoring our gut feeling, we settled in for the night. The door had to be opened by the hotel manager, because the repair from the door getting kicked in on a previous night, prevented easy entry. Our truck had to be parked BEHIND the hotel (but we were assured they had security cameras!), the security gates in the hallways were propped open to allow free flow of visitors, and there were many temporary visitors. I had never been so happy to have my German Shepard with us. The sad thing about the hotel is the managers/owners were really trying to fix up the hotel, offer a free breakfast, and try to make your night as comfortable as they were able to. But next time, there will be no next time. We got up early, thankfully our truck was still there, not broken into, the cats were fed and cleaned and we were on the road again. Next time, we will stay at a truck stop, and just sleep in our truck.