So, at 6pm on Monday, after reloading the cats and our stuff into the RV, our caravan headed out. The goal was to make it to southern Virginia or northern North Carolina for the night. First up, Virginia!
At this point, the RV was humming along smoothly - we were even able to do the speed limit without the beast overheating! I drove for an hour or so, but since there was traffic and construction, and it had been days since I last drove the RV, it was pretty stressful and tiring for me (the biggest problem with the RV is the width - its nerve-wracking to feel that close to someone in another lane. Otherwise, it handles great). Even though I didn't drive for long at least it gave JD a little break.
We were all doing well as we got further into Virginia, so we decided to go ahead and push for the North Carolina border. Unfortunately, no picture, since it was at night. In North Carolina, we found a nice Walmart where JD and I settled in for the night, and Dad took the Subie to a budget motel for the night. At that point, we only had the 2 bikes, kayak, and cargo box on top of the car (we took the 4 bikes on the trailer hitch and put those on the RV), but Dad woke up about every hour to check and make sure that everything was still there. At one point, he didn't put on his glasses, and got really concerned until he realized that he was looking at the wrong car.
We started the morning early, and were on our way. I was a bit concerned at our first gas stop that I couldn't find Nieve (our 7lb white cat), even though I saw her in the morning. I couldn't find Little Cat, either, but that was fairly normal. Onyx was in her usual hiding spot - under the comforter, so at least all was well there. We continued on, but at some point, we stopped at another rest area, and basically tore the RV apart looking for Nieve - with no luck - although we did find the other two cats. We really didn't think that she could have gotten out of the RV, but we were concerned that maybe she was stuck somewhere. As we continued looking, Dad offered to drive back north to see if she was at the gas station, previous rest stop, or Walmart. We knew that if she had gotten out, there was almost no way that we would find her again unless someone took her to the vet and she got her microchip scanned, so we had Dad stay with us. With heavy hearts we took off again with me driving.
To say that there were some tears shed would be an understatement. We've had Onyx and Nieve for almost 11 years now, and Nieve is truly JD's cat. He picked her out, when she was a tiny 3 lb ball of energy, and she holds a very special place in his heart. At one point he saw a tuft of her fur on his shirt and pretty much lost it. JD and I decided that this had been the worst road trip EVER.
Sometime during all of this, we crossed into South Carolina. I missed the sign because it was a beautiful, ornate monument, but I did at least get the Welcome Area sign.
At our next rest stop, I decided to try looking for her one more time. I went back to the "bedroom" and called her name and thought that I heard something. How that was possible since we had gone through almost everything (including taking a panel off the wall to access under the shower), I don't know. I had JD turn off the generator, and started calling for her in earnest and heard her unhappy meow back - She was in the RV!! YAY! In just a short amount of time, we narrowed it down - she was behind a set of drawers where we had kept the cat food - she had snuck in while we were feeding her. She was quite adamant by this time that we get her out of there NOW! In just a minute more, she was free, and boy were we ALL relieved! This was literally the only set of drawers that we didn't pull out, and we think that for the first part of the morning, she was happy to be hiding while the RV was moving. It was probably once she realized that she *couldn't get out* that she started panicking.
On the road once more, we crossed out of South Carolina (I did at least get this sign!)
and into Georgia
Almost there. Finally, we crossed into Florida, and drove the remaining hour or so to JD's Mom's house where she made us a delicious dinner and we relaxed by the ocean.
The neighbors let us use their large parking area for the RV, and after dinner I dropped Dad off at an airport motel for his early morning flight back to MD. THANK YOU DAD for your help! It made the drive a LOT easier than it would have otherwise been!!
The next morning, we had breakfast, went for a swim in the ocean, and unloaded the Subie since we'd need it to be useable for driving around Gainesville. After lunch with JD's Mom, we started the last leg of our drive. We had decided to go to an RV park a bit south of Gainesville while we got our bearings, and showed up there in the early afternoon. Since its the off-season for RV'ing in FL, there was no problem getting a spot.
The park had a pool, showers, and nice amenities, although we were up in Gainesville trying to figure our way around most of the time. After just a few days, we ended up getting an apartment in Gainesville (another post to come), pulled up our stakes, and after unloading the RV, took it to a storage area to sit until we're able to sell it.
Happily, the RV behaved perfectly for the entire drive south. While I'm sure that it helped that there weren't hills, it was still doing better than it had done through the flat midwest. Quite a relief and we were both very happy to be done with the driving and to be starting to get settled!
Liz, that was scary you couldn't find Nieve for awhile. Those little curious things. It is fun catching up on your blog. Hope to read more of it soon.
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