Cross Country Road Trip

I try to write a blog post every 3-4 months and it’s been a while since my last one.  As a side note, I am feeling great and am working out at least 3 times a week.   I don’t even think about my back surgery… except when someone asks me how I’m feeling.  But the last 2 blog posts were about my health, and I needed a new topic.  In thinking back since my last post, I did have an interesting winter, so here goes…

As the back story, I HATE cold weather in general and specifically wintertime.  “Why don’t I just move?” one might ask.  Chester County is my home and my whole family lives here so moving is out of the question.  We’ve been going to Aruba for a week in February for years now - and I love it there.  If your idea of an ideal day is to sit on a beautiful beach and read all day; then have a relaxing dinner in a fine restaurant… Aruba is for you.  Carol likes it there too, but after 7 days she’s had enough.  And it’s true that there really isn’t a whole lot else to do in Aruba other the above.  It’s rinse and repeat every day.

One day on a walk by myself (I rarely walk without Carol), I had a brainstorm: “If I hate the cold so much, why do I only take one week a year and head to a warm climate?”  When I got home from the walk prepared to be “blown out of the water” with my idea of leaving home for more than one week, I was shocked to find some open-mindedness to my idea.  After negotiating down my from my “4-month-trip-opening-position” to a one month trial period, the next question was where to go.  

I was expecting to have to “settle” for Florida (I hate Florida - no offense to my FL friends) when my wife shocked me with: “How about Palm Springs?”  I jumped before she changed her mind.  I had been there once a few years back, but that was for business; I was in a conference center most of the time, and it was August and 110 degrees every day.  But I loved the vibe there and was all in.  The problem with Palm Springs is how far away it is.  At this point, normal families would just check for airline flights… but we are not a normal family.  We are a family of 3 - Carol, Myself, and our dog Chloe.  Chloe is an 11 year old rescue who can’t fly, can’t stay with our kids because she doesn’t get along with most other dogs, and there is no way either of us  would leave Chloe home for 6 weeks with a dog sitter - who only comes by 3 times a day for a few minutes to feed her and let her out.  We planned on renting a house in Palm Springs for a month, so the only option was to drive.

Now I do drive for a living but I’ve never driven this type of distance before (about 2600 miles each way).  While the trip was on short notice (3 months away), I was able to find a suitable house in Palm Springs that allowed pets available for the month of February.  It met our criteria (private neighborhood, not too close to the airport, 3 bedrooms, close to downtown Palm Springs, and a nice backyard with a pool)… and I pulled the trigger.   I then plotted out an itinerary with stops in Columbus, OH; St. Louis; Oklahoma City; Albuquerque, NM; and Tucson, AZ.  After booking 10 nights (5 out and 5 back) in “pet friendly” hotels, we realized that Chloe hates the car and has never traveled anywhere in a car except to the vet.  I bought a backseat cover with a doggie seat belt, which doubled as a protective “cocoon” for the Clo-dog, and we took daily test drives for about 3 weeks before we left - in the hopes of acclimating her for the 5000 miles she would be spending in the car over the next 10 weeks.  Carol also spoke with the vet, and we secured some narcotics for her…just in case.  Spoiler Alert: Chloe did incredibly well!  She slept all day/every day during all 10 driving days (with NO drugs!), and was the hit of every hotel we stayed in as she pranced through the lobby during check-in each late afternoon.  We were able to avoid other dogs in the elevators and she settled into a different room each night like a trooper.  We found great takeout each evening and ate in the hotel room every night so as to not have to leave her in a strange place.  Like I said, she is part of the family.

I’m a seasoned traveler and am anal (in a good way), so packing for a trip like this is right up my alley.  I made my lists and we secured everything we needed for a month away from home.  Everything did fit in the car (but barely), and we set out on the morning of January 27th at 8AM on our journey.  We had agreed from the beginning that rather than complain about how much faster and less complicated things would have been if Chloe could fly - we would look at the trip as an exciting adventure.  And that’s exactly what is was.  We arrived at the house at 12 Noon on February 1st and the trip was awesome.  Carol and I spend most of our time together anyway, so both of us being in the car for 8 hours a day seemed quite normal.  We stopped a half-dozen  times a day… for lunch, bathroom breaks, and general stretching.  The weather was clear most of the trip (with the exception of a little snow through Indianapolis), and by the time we reached Oklahoma City…we were wearing shorts and tee shirts.  I highly recommend driving cross country at least once - it gives one a true feel of the vastness of the North American land mass; and once we got past Oklahoma, the scenery exploded all around us.  Here’s a few shots Carol took along the way: