How do you make the most of a roadtrip from DC to Wyoming with 3 cats? My friends just finished a 7 day drive with their furry friends and agreed to let me share their email which I loved.Â
Names have been removed to protect the innocent(?). Â
We are now happily ensconced in our new digs in Wyoming, and we are loving life. None of our belongings have arrived, but a few trips to the local Walmart has provided us with the essentials. Our long-suffering cats were none too happy with the trip, though they survived.
Nori & Trouble
I think The Dude was a bit car sick most of the time; Nori was the traveling pro, but I suppose once you’ve come from Kosovo, transcontinental travel is cake. They all love our new house, battered as they were with the 6 night, confusing, overwhelming, fascinating tour of our great country and its myriad scents.
I really wanted to write this email to share a few lessons that I learned from our brief time on the road. Road trips are wont to teach lessons, I feel. So here are mine:
First lesson, if you have never driven through it, drive through West Virginia. Poor West Virginia is always the butt end of incest jokes, but dear God, is their scenery beautiful. Our drive was cloudy and rainy, which proved hair-raising as much of I-64 is very steep, but produced visually magical vistas.
Verdant, steep mountains were interspersed with wispy, fairy clouds rising out of valley nooks and crannies. It was one of the most majestic views I had across the entire country. Take a weekend day and drive through it. Preferably on a rainy day. Also, go to Rollin’ Smoke BBQ just north of Charleston. Friggin’ great BBQ.
Lexington, KY was our second stop to witness the nuptials of our friends. It was a blast; they know how to throw a hell of a cocktail hour and wedding all at the same time. Lexington was quaint, everyone was friendly, and Lexingtonites (Lexintoners? Lexintonians?) have some of the coolest pseudo-southern drawls I’ve run into.
Second lesson is, start your Bourbon Trail adventures here with a taste of great breweries, friendly people, and a surprisingly funky fresh city.
Lesson #3: if you are driving through St. Louis with three cats, bring them into the Urban Chestnut Brewery and Biergarten. The proprietors are very chill there, and don’t mind pets at all. Plus, they have phenomenal German beer and food. Order the liverwurst on toast; holy crap was it good.
After St. Louis, we drove through Missouri and neither of us can remember any specific life lessons from there. We stopped in Kansas City, MO for the night, tired and worn from half of our trip. The cats were equally ragged. I suppose the lesson I learned about both Kansas Cities is to eat the burnt ends.
If I were to stay for longer, I’d investigate if both Cities hated each other, or if they were just in some kind of geographic stalemate of shared nomenclature.
Stay tuned for Pt 2
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Living for the little (and big things) that make life so fun, especially mistake deals and crazy last minute weekend mileage runs across the world.
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