Successful landing

After two days of absolutely grueling travel (getting lost around Peoria, IL, and having the settings wrong in the GPS unit, added 4 solid hours to Sunday's drive; and horrendous, blinding storms added about 2 hours to Monday's drive), we got to our home in OKC at about 8 pm on Monday.

We were on the road for a total of 22 mind numbing, body wrenching hours.

At least after the first 4 or 5 hours, we re-arranged the pets so that I no longer had to sit sideways in my seat with no where to put my feet.

The cab was VERY small for the 4 of us, because it's a van front end, with the engine dog house taking up most of the foot space for the passenger side! Having the bird down there eliminated my ability to sit comfortably.

However, we found that stacking the bird cage on top of the cat carrier, which was wedged into the middle seat, and keeping both of them covered most of the time, worked much better. That allowed me to sit in the seat like I was supposed to!

Jack the cat fussed and cried steadily for about the first two hours, then sporadically for the rest of Sunday.
Monday, he was much more calm.
Nichi, the 20 year old cockatiel, was FINE! That was a pleasant surprise!

Our stay in Missouri was traumatic for the cat, but it was good to stay with friends in their cabin in the woods. Jack was pretty well terrified the whole night, and kept me awake, and D's air mattress collapsed under him, but at least the lodging was free, and the folks were great.

Driving through rural Missouri on Monday was soooo pretty, but I missed most of eastern Oklahoma because of the storms. It was almost as dark as night, and the rain fell SO hard that we literally could not see the taillights ahead of us. The water on the pavement looked like a waterfall coming at us whenever we were going up an incline.

The lack of visibility reminded me of a white out snow storm, which, of course, they don't get around these parts!
The driving was very dangerous, so we had to slow down to a crawl, and hope that no one rear ended us. Even though we were creeping along, the wind was so powerful that D had to fight to keep the truck and trailer in our lane.

It was VERY stressful.

The trailer arrangement with the car on it worked out well, except when we pulled down the wrong lane in the dead of night in Missouri, unable to find our friends' house in the dark...then having to back the damned rig down a long, bendy single lane, surrounded by trees, in the pitch dark.

We called our friends, and he came out to help direct us out, and over to his property.

So, since we arrived here in OKC so late, and SO tired, we left everything loaded, ordered a pizza, and just rested last night. (D had planned on us arriving around 5:30, and having his son come with some friends to unload as soon as we got here. In a way, I am glad that didn't happen, since we were already exhausted.) D's son came and ate with us, and welcomed me in, which was nice of him.

Today, we are going to attack the truck...just me and D, until after his son gets out of work. Then, the boyo and his young, strong buddies can come over and get the last of it, and help D take the truck back.

More long days and hard work await...I have never been this exhausted IN MY LIFE.

But we're here, sweet home Oklahoma City!