The most drastic change in getting up in the United States so far was the humidity that hit me, as soon as I woke up, stepped outside, and I realized how much I had lived without humidity, and how nice it had been.  HAD been.  The dogs were definitely feeling the pressure of the heat – and thank goodness, the air conditioning was perfect with the Mountaineer the whole way up, and not having been used ever, it worked like a champ.  It saved us all along the way.  We headed out and before we knew it, were in Tennessee. After two days of sneaking animals successfully into overnight stays, I was confident my luck would not able to keep pushing my way through successful stays, and I wanted to be there somehow, someway, this third day.  In my mind, Virginia and Tennessee would be the largest time consumers of travel, and once I made it through there, home free.Again, in contemplating whether I could reach 2 hours south of Nashville to see my cousin, I thought I would love to but having to unleash the animals, as well as recover the route away from heading back to DE would out be back anymore, and I felt my physical and mental state with traveling could probably only handle this third day without starting to come undone.

Speaking of that, at one point, I feel I did come undone with one of the cats, Suzy, who for some odd reason, just did not want to stop meowing, odd at this stage in the trip, but each day I changed the cats out of the setup – one day Suzy and Hangover in the large crate, Dewey in the individual crate, and each time we would keep rotating.  Suzy obviously was not buying the crate by herself at all.  Not having it.  At one point, the meowing got to me so much I pulled over, tried to reason in threatening tones with Suzy, and had dropped my cellphone somewhere, thinking it fell out of the passenger door when I opened it up.  I kept thrashing the grass on the passenger side of the car, and looked up and there was the phone, caught in the handle on the side of the door – do or die, I needed to make it to Delaware this third day, my nerves were waning.As the hours led into the dark and I kept seeing signs for Raleigh and points north in Virginia, the speed of the Mountaineer kept increasing, and eventually, I could not believe it, I crossed into Maryland, then Delaware, and around 1:30 AM, I found myself in an area in MD I slightly recognized.

It gave me confidence to realize that I COULD DO THIS.  I COULD MAKE THIS!  I was determined at this point.  The cats and dogs were strangely tired, but I did not want to subject them to another evening of transition that was not permanent.  Onto the road, we drive drove drove, and no kidding, the wee hours took me across the Bay Bridge, and the dogs could sense a change in the smells and wind, they stuck their heads out, and despite the darkness, the dogs knew something was changing, they simply knew.

Bordering on 3:00 AM, I knew this was within reach now obviously.  All the way to the roads I had traveled so many years before, it was exciting no matter what hour.I made my way to Felton, (how odd is it that my storage all these years was in the same town?) – I stopped the Royal Farms to really find out, where the heck is the street this house was on?  I did not know the exact location of the street, but knew the address, and had already communicated with the landlord about the key being available to let myself in the back – now to just find it.  Sure enough, someone was in Royal Farms this hour of 5:00 AM that informed me his residence was pretty much back to mine, excellent.  I get the FYI, headed out and sure enough, there was the house in the pictures, NO KIDDING.  I made my way around the back, looked for the key, and due to me being BRAINDEAD from one heck of a day, could not FIND A KEY ANYWHERE.

I checked the window leading into the kitchen from the back deck, YES – OPEN.  I was tired but desperate to just be in one place, lol.  I opened, crawled, and only unloaded cats into the master bedroom bathroom, dogs into the mudroom that was two adjacent rooms, and I grabbed one pillow.  Nothing else.  Daylight was beginning to come through the windows. I dropped the pillow.  I dropped onto the pillow.  I remember nothing more except letting complete exhaustion swim over me.