En route to Tucson!

Dean and I left for Tucson on Tuesday, October 28th at 3:15pm. We are towing my Jeep, as planned. We were a little concerned that we had everything properly hitched, so we stopped by the Jeep dealership to have them check it out before we were truly "on the road". That put us officially on the road about 4:30pm. The driving is a little slower than when not towing. The dolly that the Jeep is on states "Do not exceed 45 mph". We are going faster than that, but staying below the normal speedlimit. The van is holding up well, though the hills are a little rough on it. We're keeping a close watch on it's status as it is our workhorse for this trip. So, off we headed! We stopped our first night west of St. Louis. We wanted to get as many miles behind us as we could the first day. We stopped around midnight, staying at a Motel 6. Motel 6 is the only motel chain that seriously welcomes pets. When traveling, like we do with our cats, it's not easy to call people and say, "Hey, can we come stay? We'll be there at midnight...and oh, by the way...we have four cats that aren't particularly happy to be traveling with us! See ya soon!" So, it's nice that Motel 6 not only 'leaves the light on' for us, but also for our kitties. Speaking of the kitties, they are doing fairly well with the trip so far! Annie has had to be pried out of her cage to explore the van while we were traveling. Marley found an area under the sink in the motel where the wall was open (for the pipes to go through) and he quickly climbed into there (requiring Dean to 'go fishin' for him to get him out). Atticus and Sugarpants are born travelers! They love it! After our over night somewhere in the western reaches past St. Louis, we hit the road around 11am, with the next stop planned to be at my Aunt Erna's house in Galena, Kansas. Aunt Erna doesn't care if we bring an elephant with us - as long as we come to visit - so she welcomes, and gets a kick out of, the cats. Cousin Rose is living with Aunt Erna, lately, to give her a hand with the house, etc. Rose raises Shitzu's, so there are little 'dust mop' dogs running around outside, and she is also rescuing a baby cat - who is currently living in the bathroom. It's like being in a domestic animal zoo! But, here we are at present, enjoying the quiet life of Galena, Kansas; enjoying visiting with Aunt Erna! We came through here in July, on our way to St. Charles from Tucson. It's always a treat to visit with Aunt Erna! We we stay here tonight, yet, and then leave tomorrow morning. Next stop is Wichita Falls, Texas - 358 miles from here. We plan to spend the night there tomorrow night. Hopefully we can update from there too!