I had found hotels that would accept pets at 8 hour intervals for the 24 hour drive, prayed a lot for them to be decent and asked Jon T to man the phones by the Internet in case I found myself booked at a hotel that was disgusting or if I was unable to make it to the next scheduled stop. Jon would look up "pet friendly" hotels for us.

Other than that I had done little to plan the route, relying on Traffic Pro do to all the charting and routing. We got in the car at 8am and on the road in earnest at 830am. Traffic Pro (I call him "Bernie") said we'd be in at Rocky Mount at 315pm.



The top was up, usually in 50+ degree weather it would be down, but for the cat and the long trip ahead it stayed up. I was just behind the absurdly warm January weather we had in New York City, leaving just before the predictions of plummeting temperatures. I was taking the good weather with me. South. It was spitting wet stuff at my windshield and I was happy for my Euro Intermittent Wiper Control. Sourced by Ron Stygar, recommended by Shawn Fogg and installed at Fixit Day last year.
Once again it was all about Z3ers. Steve Borsse had recommended Naples when I needed a place to stay while they worked on my home, Tim UK had sourced the Traffic Pro for me, JonT was manning the phones, Dr Biggly was waiting for me in Rocky Mount- and I had absolutely no idea what that meant.

I turned the balance on the Traffic Pro to the driver's side, as the speakers are down by our feet, to spare the cat. I should have recorded CDs in "mono" because now I was only hearing Mick Jagger sing without the band.

Emmy gobbled up the cold air and roared down the turnpike. It was about lunchtime when I reached Baltimore. I thought about Dave Todd and crabs, and TCPinecone is somewhere in Maryland. I dropped a message to Dave via Jon on the Internet- no luck. Using Traffic Pro's "Points of Interest" function I searched for a seafood restaurant. When I found a restaurant, it was in a condominium set up, all brand new with no parking. Asking for directions didn't help because the staff only knew where they were standing, not how they got there or where to go. Some recommended the "Inner Harbor". I had read about the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and someday wished to go there, although this seemed not a good time to be poking around Baltimore.

I also had to pee. The vet had told me when I stop, if I leave the car, the cat must come with me. I thought the cat must also need to pee, even though the vet said he'd be fine for 8 hours a day sleeping in his carrier under the dash. Up til now Rock had been staring straight at me every nanosecond from his carrier without blinking.

The Sturdi Bag site also sells collapsible litter boxes.

I figured I would find a place to eat and park and give Rock a chance to be alone with his collapsible litter box. Spinning the Traffic Pro dial again I found "The Rusty Scupper". Somewhere I had heard of this place. They had a nice covered lot and I figured I would go inside and have a quick crab cake. The temperature was not hot and not cold inside the car. I put the UNGO alarm system on- thanks to Harvster and Dave T. I think Rock was moving around inside, as the alarm kept chirping. The chirping was probably upsetting Rock so I just locked the car and went inside. I had to, I needed my own collapsible litter box by that time.

Inside it turned out to be not only incredible, but also delicious.
.
By accident I had landed right on the Inner Harbor, and they sat me in the corner table with the most amazing view of the harbor.
One problem, they forgot about my order. After sitting there over a half hour and worrying about Rock and the 4 hours of driving that awaited me, as well as Dr Biggly, I made a fuss. The manager was so aghast she ran my meal out to me in a minute and the bill was zero dollars. I ran out to the car in the spitting rain thinking it would be nice to arrange a meal with the Maryland folks on the return trip-March 25. It's a Monday though and I hope to be there around 4pm.
Rock had not opted to use the Sturdi product. I put the litter back in the trunk bag of litter. There are two bags of litter in the car, one in the trunk, and one on the passenger seat, along with 3 disposable litter boxes and 2 collapsible litter boxes.

Back on the road again and headed into Virginia.
3
Zodom and Gamorrah
Part 1 Triple Packing~~ Part 2 Cat In a Bag~~ Part 3 Baltimore~~
Part 4 Virginia~~ Part 5 Dr. Biggly I Presume~~
Part 6 Zouth of the Border~~ Part 7 South Carolina~~
Part 8 Georgia~~
Part 9 Jacksonville, FL~~ Part 10 Road to Zodom~~
Part 11 Garage Gamorrah~~ Part 12 God Bless You, Steve Borsse~~
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