Alaska to New Mexico

I finally found a place to sleep. In Smithers. My phone dinged back to life, from SOS only mode, and I was able to find a hotel about an hour and a half from where I’d been.

I arrived at one of the 2 available hotels I could find sometime around 5 pm. By that point I had been awake for 21 hours and had driven over 1168 miles, with another 30, roughly, for backtracking and attempting to find a gas station that would let me pump gas.

I didn’t go looking around, or seeking food. I promptly went to my room and crashed. And it was lovely, blissful sleep. Until Bean woke me up to let me know that she was ready to go sleep in the car. At like 3am

I did try to pill her, but she’s building up a tolerance to it at this point, and just sat by the door howling.

For whatever reason, this has become our ritual. She’s always been super independent, and had her own room to sleep in at the house. Since it’s not hot here, and the car temperature stays manageable, I don’t argue with her anymore. If she wants to sleep in the car, she’s absolutely welcome to!

I still worry though, so I went out about a half hour later to see if she’d calmed down enough to want to sleep in the room again. She had not.

Also, during her check in, The Tiny Tornado, AKA Hubert, shot out of the room like a rocket.

When he gets outside like this, ie when he knows he’s not supposed to, he immediately thinks he’s started the most epic game of keep away! He doesn’t full on run off. Rather, he comes up just enough for me to attempt to catch him, then immediately runs off in some random direction. Smiling like a mad man. In the most blissfully ignorant manner possible.

I tossed Bean back into the room, with enough time to see his little axolotl friend, and had the genius idea to attempt to use that to get him back inside.

I stepped back out the door, which led to the outside (as opposed to a motel hallway) and called to him while showing him his axy. He sees it, his eyes immediately light up because Axy is OUTSIDE too, and comes tearing over to us. I toss Axy into the room, he dive-bombs through the open door, and I quickly shut off the outside world.

The second he notices, he starts crying like a banshee. And he realizes that he has now discovered Bean’s tactic. And he gets louder.

It’s like 3am, I still haven’t had enough sleep, and my neighbors probably hate me, seeing as how everyone’s vehicles are covered in education banners. They will definitely be waking up in only a few hours.

So, he gets the gabapentin too. And the gift of sleeping in the car with Bean. I set my alarm for 5 am, to make sure the sun hasn’t had time to make the car hot, and I blissfully fall back asleep. Without the siren of howling cats.Read more