2008 Missouri Trip: Day Two: From Pittsburgh to Dayton
August 12th, 2008, 6:02 am by Sue
This is the second post in a series of our trip to Columbia Missouri. To read what Padre, Panda Bear, and Meerkat were up to in our absence, check out the Furry Bambinos blog.
On Tuesday, July 29, David and I went over to Patty’s apartment to help Patty clean her place. We chose the divide and conquer technique: Patty took the bathroom, I did the kitchen, and David washed all the windows and vacuumed all the carpets. Meanwhile, Chris headed to my parents house for some much needed napping, since Rainbow and Muse spent most of the night trying to alert Patty and Chris about all the missing furniture and boxes. Chris did not get much sleep Monday night.
While we cleaned, Rainbow was tucked into the living room closet, and Muse was on top of the kitchen cabinets.
In a few hours, we were done, packed up, and ready to drop Patty’s keys off at the management company office. This is a photo of Patty in front of her apartment building. She lived there for 13 years!
After dropping off the keys, we headed back to my parents’ house to unload items that were staying with my parents, rather than going to Missouri, and reloaded the vehicles. Given the steep grade of my parents’ street, it made for an interesting experience!
We took a few photos before heading out. This is a photo of “The Fambly”: Jim, Patty, Dad, Mom, and Chris:
This is a photo of “The Four Intrepid Travelers” (well, the human travelers that is). David, Sue, Patty, and Chris:
We set off at about 5:10 pm EDT, with Bruiser, Rainbow, and Muse riding with Patty and Chris. Cinnamon and Toast rode with David and me. I took this photo of Patty and Chris’s vehicle in the side mirror of our mini-van:
We stopped to gas up the van right away at the Sunoco in Crafton, PA. Bought 10.6 gallons at a total cost of $42.40. Mileage at 163.6.
Westward bound! We took I-79 South, then changed to I-70 West. We crossed into the panhandle of West Virginia at about 6:09 pm.
David’s quote: “The speed limit is 70! Sweet!”
We took turns taking the lead. This time, we followed behind Chris and Patty.
In about ten minutes, we left West Virginia and entered Ohio at 6:21 pm. The stretch of West Virginia that we crossed is very narrow, only about 10 miles wide. They don’t call it a panhandle for nothin’!
Once we got to Ohio, the traffic thinned a little, and we let Cinnamon and Toast out of their carriers, AKA PTU’s (Prisoner Transport Units). Both of them did not like being cooped up, and let us know, LOUDLY and REPEATEDLY. Cinnamon apparently thought that David could use some help driving, and within three minutes of being let out of his carrier, climbed into David’s lap.
David told Cinnamon to get OFF his lap so that he could drive. So Cinnamon climbed onto the dashboard instead:
We finally got Cinnamon settled in the middle seats where he had a great view, sitting atop a cat carrier:
Fur covered the inside of the van within an hour! Every time I opened a map, fur flew everywhere!
At some point, we passed Patty and Chris, and Cinnamon waved to them (with a little help from me) as we drove by.
We stopped for a rest break at 7:12 pm, and ate the sandwiches that Mom packed for us. At this first rest stop, a mere 2 hours into the 2-day drip, we learned from Chris that his muffler pipe had broken away from the catalytic converter!
Fortunately, the pipe was still connected to the vehicle, but the noise was deafening for Chris and Patty!
Cinnamon calmed down during our rest stop. He sat and napped on my lap from our rest stop for the rest of the drive on Tuesday.
We made it as far as Dayton, Ohio by 10:15 pm EDT, where we stayed at a pet-friendly Motel 6 for the night. “One pet per room”. Um, yeah, close enough. Cinnamon and Toast hung out under the beds most of the night. Cinnamon occasionally climbed on and around David overnight.
Miles travelled from Pittsburgh: 250.5
5 hours on the road, 4 hours of driving.
Looking for more? Try these related posts:
Posted: August 12th, 2008 under Missouri Trip.
Comments: 2
Comments
Pingback from the cross-country m word: part 2
Time: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 6:03 am, 6:03 am
[…] this is the second post in a series about what we did while mom and dad abandoned us to help aunt patty and uncle chris with the m word. our poor cousins rainbow, muse, cinnamon, toast, and bruiser (the woofie) had to endure being cooped up in rooms that moved for days and days. if you want to know what mom and dad were doing, go read their stupid blog. […]
Comment from Riley & Tiki
Time: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 8:44 am, 8:44 am
We waved when you passed through Cow-lumbus. Did you see us? Hope the rest of your trip went well.
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