Returning to Earth

Inspirational song: When We Was Fab (George Harrison)

All good things must end, and it is now time to be back at the Park. The man and I are taking off out of Chicago, and hoping to avoid the bad weather in the northeast on the last leg of our trip. I enjoy being generally nomadic, but it is so hard to be away from my familiar spaces and all the adoring faces who live there. Maybe there is something to the man's idea of customizing our own big RV, and keeping the home with us when we go. I doubt the cats would think it is as cool as the dogs will, but when we are stopped at night, they will probably forgive me. The man pointed out, correctly, that the first time one of the cats tries to sneak out on their own, I'm going to lose my mind. That's why I say build in an airlock of sorts, so they would have to breach two lines of defense to find the great outdoors. I will do what it takes to keep them near me.

I would have loved to have seen the dogs' reaction to our encounter with nature yesterday morning. We woke early and drove into the first set of mountains to take pictures in the morning light. I got a few good ones on my little cell phone camera, and I am waiting for the man to share some of his with me. I wanted to try an experiment to see who could take the best shots of the exact same views. I have little expectation that I would win. On the way down to get the girls, driving along the westernmost edge of town, we passed a group of four mule deer grazing in a couple front lawns. They were awfully patient while we spun the car around so I could take their pictures. If either the red-headed dog or the professional eater dog had been with us, that would not have been nearly such a tranquil moment.

We have made it home now, and have been inspected by all the cats, and lectured by a few of them. My needy white cat stayed upstairs and glared from the shadows at me, just glowing red eyes of anger, until I ran something out to the trash can, and I came back to find her nose to the glass door, worried that I had run off again. I wish we could all stay together more often, us and the kids and the fur babies. I miss those days when we were all one unit. We had a lot of giggly moments on this trip, and it sure felt good to be laughing and teasing with the core family. I want to repeat some of the best lines of the trip, especially since the younger daughter was on fire this time around, but I'm afraid of ruining it all in the retelling. Suffice it to say that my trip was fabulous.