Last weekend in Chicago was really hectic. I thought I had things under control, but no. I thought I had everything essential packed and ready to go, but no.
We picked the camper up in Island Lake on Monday morning. It took more than 90 minutes to check out. I had optimistically thought we would be on the road west by noon. Wrong! Rich drove it back to the city. We were able to pull it up behind the house to load, and then the fun began.
I had my cats wearing harnesses for a few days to prepare for wearing them all the time on the road. They were finally used to them by the time I put them in the camper. Before that they were walking as if they were drunk, or skulking spies. Got them in the RV so they could watch me pack. There was a fair amount of howling happening, despite the cat pheromones I had sprayed within the RV. There was a sizeable (I thought) compartment on the underside of the RV, sort of like a luggage compartment on a bus - but loading it took longer and was more difficult than I thought. I had to crawl inside to get the boxes snugly togeher (and I have the thigh bruises to prove it!) I had a large portable kennel set up on the queen sized bed in the back of the van, and that's where I stationed Franki and Rusty for the first part of the drive. We did not get on the road until after 3 PM, and had to meet Rich's sister in Davenport for dinner by 7, so we decided to skip the stop in Galesburg that day. It was cold and rainy as we left - but the RV had a generator and heater so we were quite comfortable. Who knew that on the following days, driving through Nebraska, Colorado and Utah it would be so warm that we would not need it again?
