Virginia Adventures: The Road Trip I January 5-7

 It's been a few weeks, but I thought I'd give a recap of our trip from Oregon to Virginia.  It's been an adventure to be sure, and it's taken a while to all sink in.  In a lot of ways, the journey and the culture shock give it all a veil of unreality.

January 5th

I left off our story on the Afternoon of January 5th.  We left our home in Amity at about 2 pm, and after our sheep/llama rodeo in the rain, we had everyone loaded and we took off for points south.  Our goal on the first night was Reno, Nevada, the Boomtown Casino Hotel. 

In retrospect, that was ambitious (or foolhardy).

If we'd left at some early morning hour, like we were intending, then it would have been doable. Leaving at 2 pm, it was nearly impossible.  Reno is 514 miles from Amity, or about 10 hours according to google.  Realistically, it's more like 12 hours, with stops for fuel and bathroom and etc.  That would put us in at 2 am, if it weren't for the weather. It was raining and sort of snowing, so driving conditions were not ideal.  Add to that we were wet, dirty, and exhausted, and 12 hours on the road was not in the cards.

So we drove over mostly familiar ground, and ended up in Medford, Oregon right around 7 pm at the Olive Garden for dinner. And we took stock: we were all tired, all exhausted, and none of us were safe to drive on unfamiliar ground.  After Medford, we'd be driving mountain roads which we'd never navigated before.  We made the command decision to spend the night in Medford, and get an early start the next day. 

Putting four dogs and five cats in a hotel room was more entertaining that I'd assumed it would be.  Bridget, Paddy, and I shared the room with Thaddeus (a yellow lab), Cenna (A cairn terrier), and the 5 cats: The barn cats Puss and Boots, and the House cats Mama Kitty, Scarlet, and Pumpkin (aka the Murderhobo). Danger Noodle the snake also came along, in a small plastic box.

Puss and Boots don't like the other cats, and so there was a great deal of drama among the cats. Eventually, everyone was fed, and we all tried to settle down to sleep. That didn't work, because they cats all antagonized each other. Eventually, it was decided the barn cats would sleep in their crates in the truck, and the house cats would spend the night in the hotel. 

The dogs were much more accommodating.  They slept fairly well.

Seamus and Olivia were traveling in his souped up Ford Escape, along with their dogs Bruno and Harley, and their gecko, Chalupa. Everyone seemed to be riding well in their vehicle, and they got their own room due to the dogs not being familiar with each other, or the cats.

January 6th

We awoke, let the barn cats use the litter box and have some food, got some breakfast ourselves, and got on the road. The herd animals in their carrier did well, drank some water, and were mostly unhappy with the situation, but resigned.  The cats protested being returned to their carriers. Cenna was happy to ride in the truck, but Thaddeus in the Dodge Grand Caravan was not as happy with his set up.  As we started, he whined at Bridget, driving the Caravan.  A lot.

We caravaned along together, leaving Medford for Klamath Falls, from there to Reno, with the eventual destination being Seligman, AZ.

Medford to Seligman is 15 hours, and we thought we might be able to do that. Again, we were driving through Ice, but no new precipitation.  We drove, and drove, and drove. However, by the end of the day, we were only to Tonopah, Nevada, and we were all unsafe to continue driving.  I was game to go, but by 7 pm, we had another 6+ hours of driving to go, and no one was game to go on.

So, we revised the plan. We called Seligman, moved our stay until the next night, and stopped in Tonopah, Nevada. Again, we did the dance with cats, letting the barn cats have an hour of freedom, and then back in the crates so we can have the house cats out all night. 

We had intended to be in Amarillo, TX on January 7th, but there was no way.  So what we did is call the horse people, and revise our route.  We would meet the horse haulers in Amarillo, and they would take a day off their drive, and stay until January 9th.  We would stop in Seligman on January 7th, and be in Amarillo on January 8th. We rearranged all our hotels along the way, and got a good nights sleep in Tonopah, and scheduled a later start the next day.

January 7th

A stock photo of the Clown Motel

Tonopah is an interesting town, seeming to be an old mining town with a lot of tailings forming a bunch of strange small hills. It is also home to the Clown motel and museum. We made sure to go back and take care of some pictures of this. It's apparently haunted, as one would expect.  It's also next to an old turn of the century cemetery. Very bizarre.

The drive through Nevada and Arizona was beautiful, desert-y, and short. Driving through Las Vegas was the most stressful, as most of the drivers were not experienced with city rush hour driving, and we were pulling a horse trailer on a 6 lane interstate that was packed.  We stopped for fuel at a suburban gas station, that was not really built for pull in/pull out.  We managed, however.

We knocked off when we reached Williams, AZ, which was supposed to be our day 2 stop. We had dinner at El Corral, where I had them make Carne en su hugo, a delicious beef dish. Unfortunately, I wasn't too hungry, because it was delicious.  It was snowy and cold, and after a short drive, we were happy for a quiet night.