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Day 8

Well, I couldn't sleep very well because of the heat. But I did wake up about 8:00 (7:00 according to my body clock, still on California time). I pulled out of the rest stop and set off. I had two incidences today to make it interesting, at least to me. First was this: Around early afternoon, I stopped the bus on the side of the road to get a drink. I didn't see Misty, so I called her name, just in case (remember, I've gotten paranoid). She didn't answer. I called again, she still didn't answer. I continued to call her name over and over for a good five minutes. By this time, I had gotten really worried. Misty usually answered within a couple of calls. I even climbed on the pile of boxes in the back to see if she was stuck or something. Still no answer. I had officially freaked. I kept seeing visions of my little Misty splattered all over the highway several miles back, just like all those desert foxes I've seen for the last several days. Rationally, I knew she had to be in the bus somewhere, because I've made sure she can't get out. But she had never taken this long to answer me before. I also know that whenever I overreact to a problem, the solution soon presents itself, usually to make my emotional outburst seem like an act of idiocy. So I called Scott, crying hysterically that I couldn't find Misty. As soon as I got off the cell phone, I jumped on the pile of boxes again, calling her name. This time, she answered.

Meow

A little, tiny, muffled meow. At first I thought it was coming from below me, somewhere in the pile of boxes. My overactive imagination pictured Misty falling through the pile during some bump in the road, only to become crushed by another box during the next bump. Another small "Meow" told me she was behind me, not smashed by boxes at all! Before I could turn around, Misty jumped up on my rear end as I lay sprawled across the box pile on my stomach.

MEOW!!

She gave her very loud, "What do you want now?" meow, right in my ear. I turned around and hugged her, telling her how worried I was that she was hiding. I called Scott to say that I found her. Misty just looked at me as if to say "And you disturbed my nap for this?" I got off the phone just in time to discover where she was hiding. Misty crawled back into her spot behind the cooler! I have two coolers on the floor under the desk serving as a kitchen counter. One has ice in it for drinks, the other just has food (it's not a very good cooler anyway). Misty squeezed herself into the miniscule crack between the two. I reached between her and the ice chest and found that it was, indeed, cold. A few minutes later, she turned around from her position of lying, facing me as if to say "Here I was", and she shimmied to the far back, between the ice chest and the wall. Then she mewed once more, a little one, to tell me that this is where she was the whole time. Boy, was I relieved. I got back on the road once more.

Some time later, I stopped at a little gas station/souvenier shop for gas. I wandered around inside while waiting for my gas to pump. "Hello, you remember me?" a voice said. I turned, and there was a man whom I had seen the day before at the rest area where I slept. "Yeah, from the rest area," I replied. We chatted a bit. He asked after Misty and I asked after his pomeranians. We talked of ways to keep the pets cool on the trip. He told me he had 3-day old puppies in the van and asked if I'd like to see. We headed outside. I was introduced to his cousin, who is also making the trip. She was in the U-Haul keeping an eye on the dogs. She picked up a little, tiny, adorable, puppy who's eyes were still closed. They were so cute!

We chatted a bit and I found out that they had started in California and were traveling to Florida also! What are the odds? Misty, whom I had with me this whole time, was getting very restless being so close to a bunch of dogs, so I went back inside the shop. I met up with the man again, Mark. When he found out I was also traveling to Florida, he offered to give me his cell phone number and his Florida address, just in case.

It was neat to meet someone taking the same route as myself. Before I started the trip, I thought it would be fun to travel along, eventually running into a few of the same people over and over again. But then I realized that I would be driving much slower than everyone else, so I probably would not be running into anybody more than once. So this meeting was a pleasant, unexpected, surprise.

After two days on the road, with no air conditioning, I had to have a motel room again. I stopped at a Motel 6 right at dark. I had to make 3 trips upstairs to get all of my overnight stuff and Misty's stuff inside. I took a long, cold shower and made my nightly phone calls. Misty discovered ice. I was kept in stitches at her antics! I had filled a bucket of ice and left it on the table. I was planning to just eat ice chips all night, and when it melted, I would pour the water into a glass. I was a little dehydrated. But Misty noticed that it was much more fun to bat the ice chips around with her paws. I couldn't keep her out of my ice bucket! I grabbed a handful of ice and put it in her water bowl to play with. That way she could play with the ice and I could still chew on my ice chips without picking cat hair out of my mouth. So she spent the rest of the night scooping out one piece of ice after another onto the floor until they all melted and I had to give her another handful. With Misty as entertainment, it was a pretty pleasant evening. Unfortunately, my traveler's cold kept me awake most of the night, but I did get a few hours' sleep.

Day 7 - - Table of Contents - - Day 9

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