It's always so sad to leave the dogs behind when we travel. This time we're also boarding Caligula...it will be the first time he'll be boarded (unless you count leaving him at Stan's mom's in the nice window room for a few days being boarded). Persephone will be taken care of by our neighbors.

We had a tornado warning last night, here, in Madison, when the temperature had hardly gotten above 50 all day. Sort of a WTF weather moment. Tornados mostly go *around* Madison. I think it's a lake effect thing.

Since I'm not a purist or a retropolitan, we won't start our Route 66 tour from Chicago. Who needs that headache or the needless backtracking. After all, we're not going all the way to LA either. We'll take I-39 down to Normal, Illinois, where it meets up with the famous "Mother Road." If we had an extra week and extra money to spare, maybe we'd take the full route.

Stan thought we could leave this past Saturday, but upon checking with the kennel, we found we had made arrangements to bring the dogs in this afternoon. Just as well, had we left yesterday and heard of the tornado warning in Madison, I'd have been a basketcase worrying about our animals. Not that I won't worry about them on the trip anyway.

We will be driving into unchartered territory...Oklahoma and Texas...two of the four western states I've never been in (the others being Nevada and North Dakota). Once we get into New Mexico, especially central and Western New Mexico, I know I'll be a lot less nervous. The four corners area is one of my most favorite spots I've been to, and the area between Arizona and New Mexico, with its red cliffs is the stuff of flying dreams.

Just hope gas prices don't go up so much during this time that we won't be able to get back home to our animals.

Labels: Route-66-Part1, Vacation