The saga of a planned two-day move, in two cars, with two cats, from L.A. to Denver.
Day one (Sunday). The cars are loaded and ready to go by 1 PM. But one of the cats is missing. Tiger is tranqued and in her cage, but Kid took one look at his cage and went off for parts unknown. So we make the rounds - the yard, up and down the street - calling kitty-kitty, and after six hours Kid emerges from under the house, looking around for food.
He gets a tranquilizer instead, and we finally pull out at 7 PM, I driving the Honda, Robin following behind in the Saturn. We make it 200 miles to Baker, where the World's Largest Thermometer reads 98 degrees (at 10 PM), and have a meal at the Mad Greek Cafe. Meanwhile, Tiger's dope has worn off, and we decide to stay there in the town hotel - Bun Boy, a dive next door to Bob's Big Boy.
At the Bun Boy, there are three large barn owls sitting on a billboard above our room, screeching. Inside, a roach scuttles behind the bed, and a sign on the door warns of snakes. It's stifling. The window air conditioner does little more than blow hot air. Thank God for Ambien.
Day Two (Monday). Hoping to make up for lost time, we still have a chance to make Denver by late evening. But on a desolate stretch of I-15 seven miles north of Jean, Nevada, the Saturn's left front tire quite literally explodes, blowing away the wheel well and front side panel, littering the road with debris as Robin struggles to maintain control. Fortunately, no one was on the right, and she managed to steer the car over to the shoulder. Whew! Neither she nor the cats are hurt, but it's sobering to consider how it could easily have turned out worse. As it is, she's stuck on the shoulder in 109 degree heat with two cats in the car, and the blow-out has also killed the air-conditioning.
She reaches me by cell phone, and it takes me a good twenty mintues to loop back to join her (there aren't many exits out there). We transfer the cat carriers into the air-conditioned Honda, and spend the next hour waiting for a AAA tow-truck to arrive. He tows us (for $185) to Dave's Body Shop in Las Vegas. Dave thinks the body work will come to $1200-1500, not counting the tire and whatever happened to the air conditioning. We'll get an estimate Tuesday or Wednesday, and with any luck, the work will be done by Friday or next Monday. Interestingly the tires are relatively new - the three others look just as good as the one that blew.
The problem, of course, is that I'm due at work in Denver on Tuesday (tomorrow!), and we've got all our stuff - enough to last us through a three-to-four month move - packed into the two cars. So I rent a Jeep from Enterprise, and (still in 109 degree heat) we transfer all the cargo from the heavily-stuffed Saturn into the Jeep. Enterprise insists that we have to drive the Jeep back to Las Vegas when we return to pick up the repaired Saturn. By this time it's six pm, and all that time in the withering heat has us (and the poor cats) completely frazzled. I regard heart palpitatons as a time to ease off a bit - so decide to get a good night's rest here in Vegas, ending up at the Wild West Hotel (Days Inn) on Tropicana Blvd.
Tomorrow is another day, and we'll take it as it comes.
