Third Day Rolling Along

Day 3, 25th. Morning shines, and the road is still long, and the news isn’t that good. GT still hasn’t eaten, and that is really starting to worry me. She did urinate, but she needed to eat. I cleaned the cat's litter pans, as the other 3 were doing great, eating and pxxping. If she doesn't eat by tomorrow, we may lose a cat. We packed up and headed out. We had more of an urgency to get to our destination, and get GT into her new home. We were really going to push our time and our truck. You see, our truck, in addition to all the weight of the cats, kennels and their food, was towing a 6 X 10 ft trailer. And now we were headed up the hill to Flagstaff AZ, and through Albuquerque, New Mexico. The truck, an amazing Toyota Tundra with 200,000+ miles, was strong, but we knew this was the first time we were actually putting her on the long haul. Most of the time, it didn’t go further than local establishments to pick up lumber, or other large items that didn’t fit in our car. During every stop, we not only filled up with gasoline, cleaned its windshield thoroughly, but we also checked the oil. So far, it was running well, and we were adding about a half a quart of oil a day. We know it has a slight leak from the engine gaskets, but this time it is working hard, and going through oil much more than ever before. The engine definitely worked a lot harder than ever before getting us up to the 7000 Foot elevation. Fortunately, the weather is treating us REALLY well, and we have no rain, no snow, and no excessive heat. The weather is perfect.

The goal we set was ambitious compared to the first few days of our trip. Concerned that GT wasn’t eating, we pushed our time and miles to our limit, and set our sights on Elk City Oklahoma. We will drive right through the rest of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas! After all, once past Albuquerque, New Mexico, there was no elevation we had to climb, and it was level travel from there on. Traveling on Hwy 40, our only concern now was making distance. And we were successful. Elk City couldn’t have come soon enough, as we were tired from the third day, and the longest leg of the trip. The good news was we were within ½ day’s drive to our destination, and we could get the cats out of the truck and into their new home. We set up the cats for the evening, cleaned their litter pans, and like a weight off our back, GT began eating. What a relief! We could go to bed knowing she was going to be okay. The other 3 cats, two brothers who shared a kennel and for the first time since we adopted them, didn’t fight at all, and Sweet Potato. Why is she called Sweet Potato? Well, she is definitely Sweet, but she is a potato. Better known as a Couch Potato, but nevertheless, a potato. Rotund and happy. Why are my cats so fat? And fast forward to a moment, she had taken up residence on my sister’s couch…surprise! Down for the night, we were feeling better.