Camping Trip, Day One, July 27

Wednesday, July 27: left home around 9 a.m. this morning, heading to a campground around four and half hours away. Hubbie pulled the camper, and I drove the van, because Mother can't lift herself up into the truck.

This trip, we took Shih Tzu, our elderly dog, Mother's cat, and three kittens, two of which have bad eyes. Usually, the dog and Mother's cat are good travelers, but today, Cat protested the trip. She started her protestation by spitting at Hubbie and swatting him, when he tried to get her into the small pet carrier for transfer to a large carrier. She left scratches on his arm.

Then she yowled the entire length of the trip..."NO-o-o-o," she seemed to wail. She might have been unhappy about traveling in the van rather than the truck. Also, we were not out of town, before she did her business in the carrier, sans litter box. She's a very fastidious cat, so having to put up with a mess in the large carrier didn't suit her. It didn't suit us, either, since we had to live with the odor until we stopped for lunch (we weren't about to reach into that carrier and risk the cat's wrath).

Shih Tzu was restless, too, and Hubbie had to stop twice to walk her. The three kittens, however, were good as gold...not a sound out of them. They rode in a large carrier on the back seat of the truck.

We hadn't traveled far before I realized the right tail light on the camper was not working, which meant I had to follow pretty closely, so as not to let someone else get right behind him. I asked Hubbie to pump his brakes a few times to alert me when he was coming to a stop light, or when he was going to exit the highway, since I couldn't see over the top of the camper, and couldn't tell where the exit ramps were.

At noon, we stopped at a rest area for lunch. Since we had failed to close the blinds in the camper, it was pretty hot. We didn't dilly dally over lunch, and were back on the road in about twenty minutes.

We arrived at the campground around 1:30, and set up in a site with a view of the river. Sis arrived before suppertime, bringing her shih tzu dog with her. Our blind and deaf shih tzu didn't seem aware of the new visitor, and the kittens didn't care...they just continued wrestling and tumbling in their cage, set atop the cage holding Mother's cat.

But Mother's cat, who was already thoroughly put out with the kittens, simply could not abide this new invader. She with hackles raised, and ears back, she growled, and hissed, and spit, and attempted to swat Sis's dog. She was so thoroughly angry about the whole situation that no one could get near her cage without being growled at and swatted.

Sis's dog was none too happy about her new surroundings, either, and let us all know it by continuously yapping. Finally, Sis tied her outside the camper, where she continued to yap.

Around 5 p.m., we had a supper of leftover meatloaf, baked potatoes, cottage cheese and garden tomatoes, with Italian bread.

After that, we drove to the other side of the dam, where there is a viewing area, accessed by a suspended wood and steel bridge. Down an embankment of large rocks, people were sitting and fishing, which added to the charm of the scene. Sis and I snapped several pictures.

Back at camp, we played Skipbo until bedtime. All the animals were very good throughout the night. Maybe they were like us, too tired after a hot and humid day to do anything but sleep.