Travels with Sydney, part 2

Spotty Internet service and good company have interrupted my good intentions to post a daily update.

When we say that we have on six or seven occasions driven between California and Long Island, Chris and I often get asked whether we have taken the “blue roads” – those highways “off the beaten track” to explore the small towns and lesser-known byways of this great country.

Wind farm outside of Palm Springs

And the answer has been, for the most part, no. On our way from Southampton to Laguna Beach, we are eager to get there…and on the way home, we need to get back. So generally we don’t stray too much from the main roads when travelling from one coast to the other.

This trip, however, has been somewhat different. For a start, because we routed through Palm Springs, we chose to take a route that wound us up through Yucca Valley but then were forced to detour through the Mojave Desert Preserve, through undulating waves of Joshua trees before connecting with I-15 just west of the Nevada border.

Our thinking on that day was that we would push as far as Richfield, UT in order to shorten the drive to Denver, where we were staying with friends the following day. However, as we crossed the Utah state line near St. George, what started as a light rain quickly became increasingly heavy snow, so we stopped in Cedar City for the night. Since we’d left an 80+-degree Palm Springs that morning, I needed to change out of flip flops before leaving the car.

Sydney jumps out of the car into a snow drift. SNOW! What is this?--and what is even more interesting, what might be hiding beneath it?

(Note to self: In future hotel stays, avoid the ground floor room at the end of the hall near the exterior doorway. Traffic in and out throughout the night meant that each time someone passed downs the hall she startled and barked and found it difficult to settle. So two out of three of us didn't get much sleep.)

SO....What were we THINKING, that waiting until late March would ensure us better weather?!? So far we’ve encountered the worst weather of any of our trips cross country. On Monday we got sandblasted in a windstorm outside of Desert Hot Springs in California. On Tuesday we drove over Vail Pass (elevation: 10,662 feet) in a snowstorm so intense that I was following in the tracks of a motorhome just so I could find some asphalt to drive on…followed by another detour, due to an accident, onto Highway 6 through gorgeous but scary, Loveland Pass (switchbacks, no guard rails; sheers drops) also while it snowed…Wednesday and Thursday we forded blinding thunderstorms most of the day between Denver and Indianapolis, following semi trucks on Interstate 70 because they are big enough to see. (What is WITH drivers who don’t put their headlights on during inclement weather? Didn’t we all learn that in driving school?) I am in sad need of my chiropractor to relieve the tension in my neck and back exacerbated by these weather events.

Meanwhile, blessedly, Sydney just sleeps through it all.

So far, she has discovered that:

1)  Rain sucks when you have to pee. And forget pooping. Tomorrow will be better. (Cue the theme song from Annie: "The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun...)

2) There are such things as Fenced Back Yards where leashes are not required (!) which sometimes contain things even MORE interesting than lizards to hunt and chase. WOO HOOOO!!!!

In Denver, she flushed a warren of bunnies. In Topeka, she discovered squirrels. (Chris is thrilled, thinking about the effect Sydney is likely to have on our burgeoning population of rabbits, squirrels and deer in our Southampton garden.) Ever since, she has since been on point to find other things that will run and allow her to give chase. Alas, as we are averaging 550 miles per day, she isn’t given much opportunity during a potty stop every couple of hours en route. But she’s such a good sport about a change of locale every night, with lots of different people to meet and be petted by. Still a little shy, but learning to try. Good practice for being a bed and breakfast dog!!

Just a few more days....