A workaday morning, with an errand this afternoon that I was loathe to go on. I was delivering Schuyler and Willow to "durance vile," otherwise Willow's attitude to the vet.

You see, we are on vacation, and I'm still on a guilt trip. But the ride was a long one for Skye, and Willow has been barking during the night. I don't want to be a bad neighbor, even at a motel.

Wil figured something was up; I kept going in the bedroom and wouldn't let her see inside. After the fourth or fifth time she switched vantage points, from the archway to the wall near the closet. I'm sure she spied the suitcases that time, because when I took her outside, she took her time, reluctantly sniffing about, coming closer to me when I called, but never quite coming close until I insisted.

When I finally led her to the back door of the car, she was like a recalcitrant pony on a rope, but finally leaped up in the seat.

Schuyler just rode quietly in the back seat, then let out a happy volley of chirps when I took the cage from the car, responding to the wild birds. This is the first time she will be a long-time boarder, and I hope she's okay. The vet says they have several birds staying over.

Worked until James got home, we packed up the car, then headed for points north. Did the same routine as we did going to Gatlinburg, using side roads to the main highway to the freeway, which we weren't on very long. We told the GPS unit that we wanted to go the shortest route to Knoxville, and it took us up 441, a quiet state route going through towns like Chatsworth and one called "Tennga," on the border between the states. It was a pretty dark route, but between towns we could travel about sixty.

James drove for about two hours, and then I drove another. About eight-nine o'clock this great, lopsided orange shape appeared ahead of us: it was a half moon rising! If it had been full it would have looked like a pumpkin. We arrived at our motel about quarter to ten; I had scoped out this Quality Inn on line, and it does not disappoint so far. Plain, but clean and seemingly quiet. We had grabbed a burger each before leaving Highway 41, and now we were ready for a little better food. We went to Cracker Barrel and I had a nice bowl of turkey noodle soup and James had chicken and dumplings.

I've had friends tell me about the gift shop in this place; the shop in the one near us is very small. But this had some great stuff, and all the fall and Christmas things are out. I got a small chickadee motif candy dish and cup, two ginger people ornaments, and a gingerbread candy dish, a fall candy dish, and a turkey light. It's stained glass and wire in the shape of a turkey, with a little copper pilgrim hat! All the fall things were 40 percent off, so the lamp was very inexpensive. James thinks it will look cute in the foyer.

Anyway, tuckered out. Been awake since six. Tomorrow, on to Pennsylvania.

Good-night, Willow. Good-night, Schuyler. Love you.

Labels: pets, travel

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:17:00 PM

Comments:

Oh, that's right. How long are you going to be in Pennsylvania? If you're going to be in or near Philadelphia on Monday or Thursday, maybe I can arrange for a place to meet you. Those are my days off next week. :D

# posted by  Emma : 12:08:00 AM

 

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