Hugs, not drugs.

Ha, so today was a day. So much good, so much bad.

At 5:30am Thursday morning, so today, we mixed some kitty Xanax up into some wet food for the girls and went back to sleep once they finished eating. We got up and left our hotel in Salt Lake City this morning around 9am. We saw the Great Salt Lake from afar on on our way out. Crazy how much salt was collected at the beach before the water.

We expected that the girls would be whining like they usually do for at least the first hour or two, but hoped that the drugs would knock them on their little behinds and they would just sleep.

This was not accurate.

We had really strong game with ignoring them and letting them cry the first hour and a half. We both felt really confident and well rested and reassured knowing that we had an aid in keeping them comfortable today. This was all a great plan. But they did not stop crying. They slowly but surely became worse. We were like okay, this will be tough. And then we smelled some poop. :)

I immediately checked Olive's carrier and sure enough, she pooped in Utah. I cleaned it up, went back to my seat. Then about 15 minutes later she pooped again. It was clear that she wasn't feeling well, and the medicine and the wet food that she doesn't typically have were upsetting her stomach. I pulled her out of the carrier to clean it up and put in a new training pad. I also flipped her over to assess the damage and used a wet paper towel to assist her in her struggle. This is something I have done before and she hasn't loved it but she has let me. Well, she was slowly getting a little aggressive. I'm comfortable with restraining them and was feeling okay, I just knew I had to get her in the carrier. And when I tried to put her back in, she resisted big time. I had to get a little more aggressive with grabbing her scruff to get her back in there and zip the carrier closed and well, she attacked me. She kicked, bit and scratched the ever loving sh*t out of my hands. The one holding the scruff got it the worst. I actually at some point had said to Dan, who was still driving and very alarmed, that I was losing control of her. I could not believe how strong she was. I somehow got her in there, zipped the carrier closed, and proceeded to sob for about twenty minutes. My hands were trembling and my cuts were stinging and Dan at this point had pulled off the road. He had no idea what the damage was up until this point and was horrified when he saw my hands.

He helped me rinse my cuts with water and blot them dry, and cracked a cold compress out of the first aid kit we brought with us. (We would later stop at a rest stop and get peroxide to really clean my cuts out. They stung like a $%&@!) We continued on, and the girls proceeded to continue crying, writhing in their carriers, and trying to escape for the next few hours. Oh, and Emu did such a good job of trying to escape that she scratched a hole in the netting on her carrier. We don't think she knows of her progress, so please don't tell her.

Let me just say that anyone who knows our cats knows that Emu is the anxious and slightly aggressive one, and Olive is a little sweetie pie who wants love all the time and gives love all the time. Olive's adverse reaction to that medicine was clear to us. She was so stressed out and feeling very confused and out of it and very threatened by me putting her back in her little box of poopy hell. And we both don't blame her. I mean yeah, I hated her for about two hours after that. It took me a while to stop crying and I kept yelling at her to shut up when she was at her loudest. But we both know that they were tired, they had had enough of being in the car, and we totally get it. Truthfully, we were SHOCKED that they were so good for the first 4 or 5 days of the trip. We thought they would be awful and they weren't and we were so relieved and impressed. And I guess if we had to choose a time for them to react really badly, we're glad it's now. If the trip had started like this, we would not have enjoyed ourselves as much as we have. So cat haters, don't use this as ammo to back up your dumb points about dogs being better than cats, or cats being untrustworthy. We love our cats, we know they're sweetie pies, and I've NEVER gotten attacked before and I'm sure I won't again. If we knew that they could just spread out on blankets across the back seat like many dogs probably can, we would do it and they'd probably be much more chill having that freedom. We know we can't trust that they will stay put and not jump under the pedals on the drivers side, so carriers it is. So all that being said, we will not be giving them drugs tomorrow.

We talked for a while when we were almost halfway through the trip about our options. We could go straight to Vegas today and skip the Grand Canyon and it would actually chop off an hour and a half of driving today. Then we would just stay two nights instead of one in Vegas, it would take us 4.5 hours to get to LA on Saturday and we'd be done. We also called our vet and they recommended definitely not giving them the drugs again, and DEFINITELY not doubling the dose. Driving less seemed like the smart and right choice. But then not only do we miss the Grand Canyon, which is a BIG one on our list of places to visit, but then we also have to leave the gorgeous adventure we've been on to go to sweaty, vomit-stained Vegas and find stuff to do for two days. And don't get me/us wrong - we are psyched to go to Vegas and I'm a big fan! We have fun plans for when we are there. We just saw an extra night in Vegas as more of a loss than a win. We took a longer route to finish making this decision before we had to make the turn that would change our plans and decided to keep going. We don't know when we would have a free weekend coming up to come back and see the GC, and the whole point of this new chapter in our lives is to take chances and not settle for regrets anymore. So we went. And because we went, we saw this:

And this.

And this.

This was by far our favorite leg of the entire trip thus far, equipped with the most breathtaking views, forests, mountains and skies. We drove through the Kaibab National Forest, which brought us up into crazy winding hills that brought us to about 8000 feet elevation. The girls weren't loving that at all. But even with two mostly whiney cats in the back seat, this was 150% worth all of the pain. Every bit of it. We feel so lucky to have witnessed all of that together. The girls did end up falling asleep for at least an hour and a half, maybe two, during some of the really incredible parts. So thanks, girls. And I guess thanks kitty Xanax - for kind of but not really working at all. Thumbs up.

Our hotel is a Quality Inn on a Navajo reservation in Tuba City, Arizona. It was another crazy part of the drive to get there. Every couple of miles there would be a little hut selling jewelry and other crafts in the middle of these gigantic deserts. Most of them were empty and falling apart. There was nothing else around except for breathtaking landscapes. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, we're in Tuba City and there's a McDonald's and a Subway and a trading post and this pretty little inn with super high ceilings. We were hoping to go to the Grand Canyon tonight, but we knew it was an hour away from us and we weren't sure it would be worth it and would just wait until the morning. Then we found out that Tuba City is apparently an hour ahead of Arizona state time, so when we pulled in thinking it was 5:45pm, it was actually 4:45pm. We quickly got the girls in the room and settled and we peaced out with flannels and the binoculars my parents got us to see the new love of my life, the "GC" as I lovingly refer to it.

We could have done more research on the Grand Canyon and we didn't. The one article we did read was this one, which advised you to stop by the historic Cameron Trading Post on the way in for some yummy tacos. It was about 30 minutes into our hour trip to the GC, so we stopped in. We grabbed Navajo frybread taco things and jumped back in the truck. I wish I could share a picture of these magnificent meals, but they didn't last very long for me to think of doing that. I fed Dan bites of his while he was driving and I inhaled about half of mine. SO good. We also grabbed a little touristy treat at the Trading Post. That thing is made of SAND. We were impressed.

So guys, I'd get really into detail here, but the pictures speak for themselves, though they fall short of showing you just how massive and incredible it is. We made it to the Grand Canyon. We saw the sun set at the Desert View part of it. It was magnificent and spiritual and overwhelming and we both feel incredibly lucky and grateful that we made it there today. We almost missed it, and that would have been awful.

We are back at our hotel. The girls are fine and VERY needy and lovey. We are taking showers and baths and snuggling up for hopefully a great night of sleep. I think all four of us need it.

We are going to take our time getting out of here on Friday morning, which is probably when I will post this, for the 5 hour drive to Vegas. We will not be drugging the cats. We will need your thoughts and high fives to get through it. It will be tough, but only 2 more driving days until we're home. Not "home", but home.

We're still pinching ourselves that we are actually doing this. And everyone wanting to read about it and sending messages of support means mucho to me and my guy.
-A

Olive Poop in the Car Tally:

Massachusetts (7/14/16)

New York (7/14/16)

Illinois (7/17/16)
Utah (7/21/16) (2x)