The Hunts Head West – Day 1

Moving from coast to coast is no joke, my friends. Especially when you add in five dogs and a moving truck. Fortunately, my mom volunteered to drive with us and help us keep our sanity.

Our trip itinerary looked like this:

Day 1: NC to Indiana

Day 2: Indy to Minnesota

Day 3: Minnesota to Wyoming

Day 4: Wyoming to Montana

Day 5: Montana to Washington

Day 6: Washington to Oregon

After checking for the umpteenth time that we had everything packed, we set out bright and early on our first day. Andrew and Sawyer manned the moving truck, while my mom and I chauffeured the rest of the dogs in the Jetta.

Our first day, we drove through North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and on into Indiana. As we crossed the North Carolina border, a wave of mixed emotion washed over me. We were truly leaving which was crazy/scary/awesome all at the same time.

We made it through the fair state of Virginia without incident and entered its north-westerly cousin. Driving through West Virginia was decidedly not fun – my knuckles grew whiter with every crazy trucker that barreled down the road past us and it seemed as if we were constantly going up/down/around – anything but straight. I think my mom sensed my state of tension (my short, terse responses and general ranting at truckers probably clued her in) and she kindly offered to drive.

I breathed a giant sigh of relief as we entered into the flatter land of Ohio but my goodness! Ohio is the state that never ends!

The dogs didn’t seem to mind – they were fantastic passengers, napping like it was their job.

I had made reservations for us in Indianapolis and we finally rolled into our motel around 8 pm or so. After walking, feeding & re-walking the dogs, we settled in for our gourmet microwave dinners and man, did they hit the spot!

 

And Reeses cure all ills, don’t they? That wonderful peanut-butter-&-chocolatey goodness can turn a cranky, tired zombie into a semi-functioning human … or maybe that’s just me.

We really lucked out with our room – we stayed at a Motel 6 which gave us a pet-friendly room (without a limit on the number of dogs).  While not the prettiest place, the room was huge, which allowed room for the dogs to spread out  – although they of course all wanted to be on the bed. Such pampered little hounds they are.

This was the first time staying in a hotel for the girls. Sasha, the diva, made herself right at home and acted like she’d been traveling all her life – no big deal. Annie & Ella didn’t know what to make of it. Annie went into guard-dog mode, sitting straight up on the bed and watching the door like a hawk … or like a guard dog. We had the good fortune to be located right up front where foot traffic was plentiful, and given the semi-shady nature of the motel, quite a few people walked past late, late into the night. Annie felt it her duty to inform us of each and every one with a deep growly bark. After the first nine times this happened, we finally convinced her to lay down and go to sleep, which she did until about 3 am when she felt obligated to let us know that another dangerous criminal had walked past our room – that or the faintest wisp of a leaf had blown by. Ella’s solution to all of this was to crawl up under the covers and hide in the deepest, darkest spot.

After a rather terrible night’s sleep, we were up bright and early again but getting back on the road took awhile: we had to walk/feed/re-walk the dogs, repack our stuff (and the oodles of dog-stuff), eat breakfast, and walk the dogs one more time because there’s always one who refuses to go, and then of course track down some decent coffee because Heather does not function without that wonderful liquid heaven.

We finally set out with heavy traffic, pouring rain and no reserved accommodations …. what could go wrong?

Check back tomorrow to find out how our second day traveling across the country with five hounds and a moving truck panned out!