This is a
favorite line of mine, from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. It is the last line of the book.
________________________________________
I find I am excited, so excited I can
hardly hold the pencil in my trembling hand. I think it is the excitement that
only a free man can feel, a free man starting a long journey whose conclusion
in uncertain.
I hope Andy is down there.
I hope I can make it across the border.
I hope to I see my friend and shake his
hand.
I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has
been in my dreams.
I hope.
___________________________________________
I am leaving
Louisiana forever and starting a new life in Idaho Falls.
January 31,
2019
My plan was to
leave before 9:00 a.m. The first leg of
my trip is Plaquemine, Louisiana to Wichita Falls, Texas. Everything was packed and ready to be loaded
into my Outback. One variable, though,
and that was my cat, Cinder. Cinder,
although sweet on his own terms, couldn’t be picked up and handled. So, the plan was to lure him into a large dog
carrier with catnip and a laser pointer.
That failed
miserably, as the one time he went in the carrier, he shot out the door right
before I closed it. The problem there
was he would now never voluntarily go into the carrier, probably not ever. Solution: the nuclear option. I put the dog carrier on its end, with the
door up. Cinder, being ever the sweet
cat, obligingly got in my lap when I sat down.
Now it was time to betray every ounce of trust he has in me. I grabbed him by the scruff, and in one swift
movement dropped him in the carrier and closed the door. He reacted as
expected, throwing himself against the carrier and crying. Surprisingly enough, he settled down quicker
than I expected.
I loaded up the
car, placing Cinder’s carrier directly behind my seat, so he could see, hear
and smell me. Perhaps that would make
the trip easier.
The drive to
Wichita Falls was uneventful. I thought
wistfully about the hundreds of times I made the drive from Baton
Rouge/Plaquemine to Bossier City and how this would be the last one. So many memories. I stayed pretty much on schedule, reaching
Dallas just as the evening rush hour traffic began. It wasn’t so bad. One perk about the Outback was the navigation
system which was quite effective. I
reached Wichita Falls around 7 p.m. and checked in.
Cinder was the
best cat! He meowed only a few times,
and for the most part just chilled out.
I made sure the hotels I stayed at were pet-friendly, which worked out
well. I brought his carrier up to my
room, and gave him food, water and a litter box.
February 1,
2019
The next leg
was from Wichita Falls, Texas to Castle Rock, Colorado. On my first trip to see my brother in Idaho,
my parents and I drove almost the same route.
The only other time I went that way was for a band trip in high
school. The west Texas and New Mexico
desert was as beautiful as I remembered.
Once I crossed from New Mexico to Colorado, the mountains started. I had forgotten how magnificent they
were. It was difficult to keep my eyes
on the road. Cinder, once again, was a
wonderful cat – just enjoying the ride.
The towns are far enough apart here that even though I might be at half
a tank of gas, I fill up if I’m passing through a town. The last thing I need is to run out of gas.
Once I arrived
in Castle Rock, I thought it best to get Cinder a smaller litter box. He didn’t
use it yesterday, and I thought the reason was the litter box was too bulky for
his carrier. PetSmart in Castle Rock had
a disposable litter box, which was a little bit smaller. That did the trick, as he used it to pee. I was mildly concerned that he didn’t poop,
though. I entertained the thought of
going to a vet in Utah if he didn’t poop by the next day.
February 2,
2019
From Castle
Rock, the next part was north to Wyoming, then West to Ogden, Utah. Again, the
scenery was magnificent. I encountered
snow, but not much. When planning my
trip, I made a contingency plan for alternate routes in case of winter
weather. Fortunately, that was not
necessary. The weather, other than a
little snow, cooperated beautifully.
After arriving
in Ogden, I located the PetSmart there and bought another disposable litter
box. My concerns about visiting the vet
were unfounded, as he pooped during the night.
February 3,
2019
The last leg of
my trip was a short trip from Ogden, Utah to Idaho Falls, Idaho – my new
home. There was a little bit of
precipitation, but it was warm enough it didn’t ice up the roads. I left later than usual to allow for it to
warm up and made it to Idaho Falls in the early afternoon. My house was just as
I remembered it. The cot I brought
inside was still there, so at least I’d have a place to sleep. I brought
everything inside, and put Cinder in the main bathroom with food, water and a
litter box. That worked out well, as I
could use the basement bathroom. So nice to be home! One final trip, though, is to fly back to
Baton Rouge next week to get Will.
February 6, 2019
Will, my other
cat, is a special-needs cat, which is why I couldn’t bring him with
Cinder. He had a trauma, perhaps being
hit by a car, which injured his nerves on his back side such that he can’t go to
the bathroom by himself. This means that
I have to express his bowels and bladder twice a day for the rest of his life. It would be somewhat difficult to do this in a
hotel, so I decided to fly Will up.
I had an early
flight to Baton Rouge to pick up Will. The
flight was uneventful. I arrived in Baton Rouge around 7 p.m., picked up my
rental car and went to the hotel.
February 7,
2019
Will was boarded
at Jefferson Animal Hospital, who have been angels as far as keeping Will when
I had to go out of town. It was sad,
saying goodbye to the folks at Jefferson.
The brought Will out in his new carrier, which was a soft-sided carrier
that would fit under the seat. Will is
such a chill cat, he didn’t care about what carrier he was in.
Will has made
the drive from Jefferson back to Plaquemine many times. He was probably confused when I didn’t take
the exit across the Mississippi River bridge.
Sorry, Will, we’re going to the airport.
At the airport,
I was quite nervous about taking Will through security. When I read up on procedures
for traveling with a pet as a carry-on, I discovered that you had to take the pet
out of the carrier so the carrier could pass through the x-ray. Well, I was mildly alarmed at the prospect of
holding Will for however long it took to check the carrier. Fortunately, I watched
some YouTube videos that mentioned the Transportation Security Administrative
folks would let you take your pet out in a private screening room, if you
requested it. About a week before I left
Louisiana, I made a trip to the Baton Rouge airport and spoke with the TSA
folks there. They confirmed to me that
they would allow me to take Will out of the carrier in a private screening
room. Well, that allayed my concerns one
hundred percent.
Because I was
venturing into uncharted territory as far as travling with a cat, I wanted to
be sure and be at the airport at least two hours before my flight in case something
went wrong. My flight was at 12:30 and I
think I arrived about 9:30, which wasn’t a problem. I checked Will in at the ticket counter and
received a special tag to put on his carrier.
The TSA checkpoint went just as I researched. I took the carrier into a small room and took
him out of the carrier. He let me hold
him, relaxed, while he just looked around.
He didn’t struggle get nervous.
They brought the carrier back, and I put him back in.
We waited at
the gate for a few hours, and Will was just as cool as could be. He didn’t fuss or cry at all. My good luck continued on the plane for the
flight to Atlanta. In fact, for the
whole trip, Will meowed maybe once or twice, but not on the flight. He might have been concerned about the strange
sounds and smells in the Atlanta airport, which caused him to meow. I joked to myself that he smelled the food in
the airport and was hungry.
Unfortunately,
the flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City was delayed, but not so long that I
was going to miss my flight. If I did
miss my flight and was not able to take another, I already decided to rent a
car and drive the three hours to Idaho Falls.
That didn’t happen, as the flight arrived in SLC in time for me to catch
my final leg to Idaho Falls. The final
leg was a short flight, and I arrived in Idaho Falls about 10 p.m.
As before, Will
was an absolute angel. He handled the
whole trip wonderfully. My theory is
that he could see me, hear me and smell me so he knew that he wasn’t alone.
Since he knew I
was with him the whole way, there was no reason to be concerned. He has been such a wonderful part of my life,
I’m glad that I am such a comforting part of his.
The Idaho Falls
weather greeted us with snow and temperatures about zero degrees. I can only imagine what Will was thinking. The coldest he’s seen was probably about the
mid-twenties, so I’m sure this was a shock.
I put him in the car and turned the heater on full blast. Since I was parked outside, there was a layer
of ice I had to scrape off. The one
thing I forgot to bring was gloves, but I managed to scrape enough of the ice off
before my hands froze. The car defroster
did the rest.
I had bought a
cat tree and a bed to put in Will’s room, so hopefully it wasn’t so
strange. He loved his cat tree in
Plaquemine and sitting in it watching the outside through the screen. It was the same here, only Will is inside, and
he can watch through the window. I put
him in his room and shortly later, expressed him. It was a quiet, uneventful and
wonderful trip. Everyone was home.
