I was pretty out of it in Tahoe, still weaning off the meds and a shell of myself. Our daughter (A) was traveling nearby, but lost, so we had her stop for the night with us as well with her cat, so she and her cat slept in the van with me.
She was on her way to Provo, UT and we were headed to Illinois for my high school reunion, so we left together and caravanned to Walmart in Carson City to pick up some things we realized we needed for the van like a cell phone holder. We figured we’d continue with her to Provo to make sure she made it to her new apartment with a high school friend. We left the cat and dog in the van with the front windows half open while we shopped (it wasn’t hot out). When we returned, we couldn’t find the cat. Could she, would she hop out such a high window? We had so much stuff on the back of the van, that we couldn’t open the rear doors. There is a cubby behind the wardrobe where we store the power cord and hose and I stuck my hand between the rear door and wardrobe to feel around in there in case the cat got in there, but didn’t feel anything out of order. There really weren’t any other places inside the van a cat could hide.
We searched the parking lot. A was distraught and absolutely beside herself with fear and grief. That cat meant the world to her. We searched the parking lot again, and again, and again. KT had already left in A’s van, so we kept in touch with him with our lack of progress and ideas for flyers or who to call. Hours went by. I went inside Walmart to use the bathroom and was about to ask at the customer service desk if they could make an announcement about a missing cat possibly in the parking lot. First I went back to the van. A was no longer sobbing. In fact, she seemed giddy. She found the cat. Well, the cat found her – she finally crawled out of that nook she took a nap in between the wardrobe and the back door!
It was very late by the time we arrived in Provo after our lost napping cat adventure. It was my first time driving the van at night and I realized it was very difficult to see cars next to us in the dark via the side mirrors. We got A settled at her apartment and then KT and I left in our van and tried to find a place nearby to crash. We found a parking lot for a mountain biking area not too far away. After coffee in the morning, we continued on…
Our next stop that I took photos of was Hancock, Iowa (I do seem to be missing some days). The description of the park said it had bison, and boy did it. This big boy tried charging the fence at us! We backed away while contemplating the sturdiness of the enclosure.
We were familiarizing ourselves with the van and plotting our route to Illinois for my 30th HS reunion (a year delayed due to Covid).
I’m sure we stayed in other places between Tahoe and Hancock, but apparently I didn’t take any pictures? Yeah, I must have been out of it. It’s like there had been a squelch knob turned all the way up on my emotions, so only the strong ones came through previously. But as I watched my world unraveling, the knob turned all the way left, and every bit of static buzzed through. I felt everything.
When I took the job in California, we sold the only home our kids had really known (17 years in it!) in the Washington, DC area and relocated. When our son left college sooner than expected, there was no home to return to. So we had him move into a river cottage we owned in Florida (where we met).
I was in a panic that the sale, move and relocation might have all been for nothing and my big beautiful bold career move might come crashing down on the whole family. KT retired when we moved, making me the sole earner in the family. I needed to find my mojo again.
