Tag: world travel

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Crossing the Mexican Border

(A look back at the border crossing experience, or Why We Were Stuck in Laredo for Two Days)
I was a little concerned about crossing the Mexican border. I knew there were several things that needed to be done in order to successfully enter Mexico, and I wasn’t exactly sure how, or where, to do them. I was particularly worried that we didn’t have the documentation we would need for our relatively new car. Finally, I was concerned about how long the lines at the border, because we had nearly a 7-hour drive to our first stop, and we had been cautioned not to drive in Mexico after dark.
I had read that most Americans heading to the Guadalajara area from the eastern US used one of the Laredo, Texas, border crossings. Many used the somewhat out-of-the-way Colombia Bridge crossing, which doesn’t have as much traffic as some of the others. It is not a 24-hour crossing, so our plan was to get there when it opened at 8AM.

The First Attempt

We arrived at the border at 8:15 AM, paid $3.50 USD to cross the bridge and we were in Mexico – almost. I had found very little information on the layout of the border crossing, but I knew we needed to visit Immigration and the Banerjcito (the import office) so we could temporarily import our car, which is a requirement if you want to take your car past the “free zone” the first 20 km or so inside  Mexico. Therefore, I was ecstatic when I immediately saw the Banerjcito and an empty parking lot. 
Empty parking lot

 We took our paperwork and went directly to the window inside. I knew they needed the car registration and/or car title. What I was concerned about, though, was that we only had a temporary vehicle registration paper from Vermont.

Getting rejected at the window
Here’s why: Our car was totaled in August and we had to get a new (used) vehicle less than a month before leaving Colorado. Our Colorado paperwork had not yet been processed by the time we left in September. In fact, the processing was so slow that we had to get the car dealership to send it to Lisa’s brother in Virginia, where we parked our car during our European trip, and it took so long that we needed an extension. We needed that paperwork so we could either fly back to Colorado to process it at DMV, or ask someone to perform the unenviable task of going to DMV for us.
Our second option was to register the car in Vermont, where we own a couple of vacation rental properties and where we were staying for a month. 
We decided to go the Vermont route for convenience sake, in early December. Unfortunately, only after they took my Colorado title did I find out that it would take them 4-6 weeks to process the paperwork and issue our car registration document. We had over 5 weeks, so I thought we were still in good shape. When it didn’t arrive, I was concerned but was still hopeful that Mexico would accept our temporary registration. 
They didn’t!

Rejected at the Border: Now What?

We turned around, crossed the bridge back into the US and cleared US customs. We had been in Mexico, but not really. We left thinking we were at the mercy of the Vermont DMV, something you don’t want to be. We decided to take a chance and call, and learned that our registration had been sent to our Colorado mailing address, but the address they used didn’t include our box number, so it was returned, where it was just sitting in our file. It would have to be resent. Could it be emailed? We don’t do that, said the man in the DMV office. FedExed? We don’t do that, droned the man in the DMV office. 
So what could we do for the next week while we waited for the registration to be snail mailed to our Colorado address, processed by our traveling mailbox, and then mailed to us? And where would it be mailed to, anyway? We had checked out of our hotel and our truck doesn’t have a mailbox.

Regrouping at McDonald’s

We went back to Laredo and regrouped at a McDonald’s, sitting in a corner booth with coffee and a computer. connected to the free Wifi. Looking out the window, we noticed a UPS Store across the parking lot. We dashed over, had a chat with the counter worker, and found out we could use their address to accept a Fed Ex. Newly energized, we returned to McD’s. While Lisa went online looking for a  pet-friendly place to stay for a couple nights, I pulled out a cellphone and called Vermont DMV again, this time determined to talk with a supervisor. 
Working in McD’s on lodging and getting that registration
However, a kind woman named Diane Hedding answered and immediately offered to help us. All we needed to do was to send her a prepaid shipping label and she would personally take our registration to the mail center and Fed-Ex it to us. She gave us her personal email address, and then sent us a note when she dropped off the package. We found a Laredo Airbnb for the next couple nights and waited for our package to arrive.

The Second Attempt

At 10:30 AM on Saturday, Jan. 11, we had our registration in hand! 
Registration!
We moved out of the apartment, packed up cats and luggage, and headed to the border. After paying another $3.50 to cross the Colombia Bridge, we confidently walked up to the Banjercito window. Just one person was in front of us, and the woman at the counter remembered us! This time they told us we needed to go to Immigration first, as they needed our immigration form to process the import.
 

Bob filling out the paperwork

Lisa filling forms

Lexie, too

We went over to Immigration, again no line, filled out the forms, showed them our Mexican Temporary Resident visas in our passports, and were processed. The immigration form was the same one was had always gotten when flying into Mexico, but there were several boxes that needed to be properly checked. This was done and we were now on a 30-day clock to get into Mexico, get to an in-country immigration office and finish up our Temporary Resident visa requirements.
Back to the Banjercito, still no line, they processed our paperwork, took a $400 deposit, (which will be returned when we take the car out of the country), gave us a sticker for our car and allowed us to proceed.

Getting Through Customs

Next up was Customs. We knew, with our luck, we would get selected for a complete car search. And, true to form we were selected. They didn’t want to see the International Health Certificates we had for the cats, but they did question me several times regarding firearms, alcohol and cigarettes. Next, they looked at what we had in the car and decided to X-ray it, which was probably better than taking everything out. This required humans and cats to get out of the car. I drove the car over to the X-ray area, where I was escorted behind a barrier and a movable X-ray device transited the length of our car, scanning it thoroughly. 
I drove back to where Lisa, Lexie and the cats were waiting, and in a couple of minutes, they told us we were good to go. After strapping the cats back in and getting our bearings, we crossed the border! Then we were officially off and driving in Mexico toward Tlaquepaque. It had taken us one and a half hours at the border crossing. That process would have taken much, much longer during busy season, so I felt extremely lucky that we were finally on our way!
WELCOME TO MEXICO!
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Crisis at the Border

Today we were supposed to enter Mexico. We didn’t.

Blame the U-Haul Driver

It all goes back to a U-Haul truck that caused a horrendous car accident for Bob and Lexie last August. It merged into their car on a highway when they were going 65 MPH, Lexie took evasive action to prevent impact but hit a car beside her, and in a blink of the eye, our 2013 Toyota Tacoma truck was totaled. We got a replacement (2015) truck as quickly as we could but couldn’t get it officially registered in Colorado before we left for our cross country trip in September. With a flight to Europe scheduled for Sept. 30, we had no wiggle room.

The border building

We actually got into Mexico but had to turn around and go back out

Bob before the denial, still hopeful

So when we got to Vermont after the Europe trip, we registered the truck there (since we own property in the state), but had limited time to receive the permanent registration and tag stickers, and they hadn’t arrived by the time we had to set off for Mexico.

So we arrived at the Mexican border this morning hoping they would let us cross with the temporary paperwork, but despite our best efforts, and speaking with every single Mexican who worked there, it was a no go.

So what to do? We had a hotel and a house booked in Mexico and no way to get there.

Working on Plan B

We left the border dispirited, found a McDonald’s with Wifi back in Laredo, bought an order of hash browns for Lexie to rent a corner booth, and called Vermont DMV, only to discover they had screwed up our mailing address (omitting the box number to save space) and the paperwork we desperately needed had been returned to their office. The automobile title was still in the mail to our mailbox in Colorado, but also going to an incomplete address.

Working out PLan B logistics in Mickey D’s

We appealed to the young man on the phone to email a copy of the registration, but he said they “don’t do that.” We asked him to FedEx the registration to us in Laredo, but he said they “don’t do that.”

We started working on changing hotel dates (supposedly non-refundable) and trying to figure out where to sleep tonight. We saw a UPS Store across the parking lot and went in, asking if we could receive a Fed Ex there. The answer was yes! Bob got on the phone to DMV again, this time reaching a wonderful woman named Diane who was sympathetic to our plight and willing to go the extra miles to FedEx our paperwork from Montpelier to Texas, to arrive by 10 AM Thursday morning.

Finding Lodging

We thought about crossing the border on a temporary visa for a couple days and staying in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico — where AirBnB rates are one-third the cost of the U.S. side — but we were afraid we had too much stuff in our truck to clear customs successfully. We found an AirBnB two-bedroom rental in Laredo that allows pets and quickly booked it, then hung out over a long lunch killing time till we could get in.

Our rental for two nights

So that’s where we are tonight — hoping our paperwork truly arrives tomorrow, and then hoping the registration will be sufficient to get our vehicle into Mexico, since it could be a couple weeks before we get the title sorted. The other consideration is that we only have ten days since getting the cats’ international health certificates to enter Mexico, and we only have three days left or we will have to find a new vet and pay for the process again!

Try, Try Again

If all goes well, we plan to try again on Friday to drive our vehicle into Mexico.

We’ll keep you posted!

  

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We are headed to Mexico!!

Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019

And we are off!

Our menagerie of three humans, three cats, two saxophones, one guitar, one harmonica, two bikes and a bunch of bags and suitcases has left Grandma’s house in Mechanicsburg, PA, and we are off on our next adventure!

Six days driving 2,400 miles to Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico, with a stop for a day in New Orleans in the middle. Follow us on the journey!

 9:21 am: Leave Mechanicsburg. Ellie starts crying.

10:16 am: Welcome to Maryland. 67 miles. Ellie is still crying.

10:26: am Welcome to West Virginia. That was quick! Still crying.

10:47 am: Welcome to Virginia. 103 miles. They are coming fast and furious! Guess what Ellie is doing?

The rest of the day: Taking turns driving through Virginia and into Tennessee.

8 PM: We finally reach Athens, Tennessee, around 7:10 PM, settle the cats into the Super 8 Hotel, and are now waiting for our food at the Applebee’s across the street. Ellie cried more than half the time and then acted out at the hotel by hissing at the other cats. Such a pleasant traveler.

Day 1 is in the books!

Kitty accommodations

Kitty accommodations

Double-decker kitties

Packing the truck
Remembering the bikes

Day 2: Tennessee to New Orleans


We were too busy enjoying New Orleans to blog about this. Watch for the blog later!


Day 3: New Orleans to Laredo


12 hours of quiet cats. ‘Nuff said. Tonight is our last night in the United States. Tomorrow we leave for Mexico!

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Vermont – A Change in Plans

Over 15 years ago, when we were living in New York, we bought a house in Vermont that we began making plans to retire to. 
We called the six-bedroom chalet The Lake House because it has a private dock on 200-acre Lake Rescue. Lisa and the kids spent half the summers there, while the kids attended Farm & Wilderness Day Camps, and I came up by train from Manhattan every weekend and took two weeks vacation in late August.  Often extended family members and friends would join us. 
When the house wasn’t rented out (which is how we paid for it), we spent winter weekends there, as the kids learned to ski at nearby Okemo. We went up in spring and fall to do projects, such as building a new back deck and tiling the kitchen. We read in the hammock, watched shooting stars from the hot tub, pulled the kids around in inner tubes from the back of a Zodiac inflatable boat. Lisa taught a number of children how to fish off the dock, and got up early many mornings to kayaked in the mist. 
The Lake House
 Even when we moved to Colorado and couldn’t get there anymore, we didn’t sell the place because of all of the fond memories. We just rented it out year-round, going up every couple of years just to check on it and make repairs. But as our retirement thinking evolved, we wondered whether we even wanted to go there after we stopped working. It was so cold compared to Colorado.
However, as part of our circuitous route to Mexico, we visited family and spent Christmas on the East Coast. That included five weeks, including Thanksgiving, in our house in Vermont. Ski resorts in Vermont typically try to get some runs open by Thanksgiving, usually with man-made snow, but we were “treated” to several unexpected snowfalls and temperatures that only on a few days exceeded freezing. Ludlow had gotten three feet of snow by the time we left.
Yet, even though it was cold and icy, we rediscovered what we loved about Vermont. We got up each morning, shoveled a new path to the hot tub on the back deck, and enjoyed an hour of warm, splashy solitude with mimosas while gazing up at snow-covered pine trees. 
Snowy hot tub morning
In addition to hours and hours spent maintaining the house, hiring staff, and replacing a TV and a mattress, we played Pinochle or UNO at night. We cuddled up watching movies. Lisa had a rom-com marathon with Grandma. We worked on a 1,000-piece puzzle. We discovered new restaurants and revisited old favorites. We walked through the shops in downtown Ludlow, and did Christmas shopping in charming Woodstock. We enjoyed ice cream multiple times at Sewards, our favorite ice cream shop in Rutland. Lisa reconnected with friends from her summertime church. We had family members visit with babies that drooled all over Duplo and threw scraps of food to the cats. 
It was divine.
To add to our rediscovery, Lexie plans to attend Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, beginning in August, and we want to help her get settled in. So instead of flying Lexie to college, we plan to drive back up from Mexico to Vermont in July and spend a few months at our house. We can enjoy Vermont in the summertime, our favorite season. Lexie may be able to get a summer job at the little store up the road, or the Italian restaurant down the road.  After we get Lexie settled into college in late August and return for Parents’ Weekend in late September, we may as well stay and enjoy the foliage season! Then we will head back to Mexico. 
That may be the plan for every year Lexie is in college — back to Vermont for the summer so she has a home to go to and make a little money, then return to Mexico for the remaining nine months of the year. 
We think this is a great way for us to get our fix of Vermont during a beautiful time of the year and still explore the world!
Running in the snow

Building a snowman

Visiting the Green Mountain Sugar House

Discovering Outback Pizza

Baking Christmas cookies

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Europe In Pictures

Before we leave for Mexico, we wanted to share some of the best pictures from our trip to Europe.


Visiting six countries in five weeks, we saw some spectacular sights: Ancient ruins, mammoth rocks, jaw-dropping waterfalls, amazing architecture, turquoise seas, fiery sunsets and too much more to list!

Let’s let pictures tell the story:

Germany

Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall, Hamburg

St. Michael the Archangel Church, Hamburg

England

London Eye

London Eye

London Eye

Kensington Gardens

Kensington Palace

Spain

Gaudi rooftop

Montserrat

Greece

Temple of Zeus

Poros Island

Italy

Palatine Hill from Coloseo
Capri
Solofra countryside

Iceland

Skalatjorn Homestay, Iceland

Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik
Thingvellir National Park, Iceland
Skogafoss Waterfall, Iceland
Dryholaey Nature Preserve, Iceland

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The HoHos (Hop-on, Hop-off Buses)

(We leave for Mexico soon, so we have to quickly churn out some of the European blogs we have in the can.)

One of the things we did in almost every city we visited in Europe was to take one of the Hop-on, Hop-off (hoHo) buses. We did it in Barcelona, London and Athens. I had a great time on them. Here’s the story!

Barcelona

In Barcelona, there were several routes to choose from. We all took Route 1, which took us through the downtown area and along the gorgeous port area and waterfront. We got off to look around at the unexpectedly beautiful Playa on a 75-degree day when we wished we had swimsuits on, and then at the world-famous Sagrada Familia, a strikingly original cathedral designed by Antonin Gaudi, for exploration and lunch.

View of the playa from the Barcelona HoHo

 When we got back to the starting point we walked with Lexie back to our apartment to give her a little break, and Lisa and I went back and took Route 2, which took us up onto the mountain, past the Olympic facilities, and then stopping at a Decathlon store for a little shopping before finishing well after dark.

We thought the HoHo buses were a great way to get an overall orientation of Barcelona, since we only had a couple of days. They allowed us to pick and choose where we would get off, and gave us ideas for what we wanted to explore in future days.

London

In London, Lexie and I again took the HoHo while Lisa went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio. We started on top of the double-decker bus, as that always gives the best views, but it was just a little chilly for that and we eventually moved down inside. Since we had already been to the London Eye and were planning on doing something the following day with Lisa, Lexie and I essentially used the HoHo as a HoSo (Hop-on, Stay-on). We did get off in some now-forgotten neighborhood to have delicious fish and chips for lunch, and eventually got off at Buckingham Palace to walk around a bit.

Grand view from the top of the London HoHo

The London routes are pretty long and the literature told us that the routes would take over 4 hours in total, but by now it was getting close to 5:30. We were planning on staying on for another 15 minutes or so to meet up with Lisa in Trafalgar Square, but we were unceremoniously booted off the bus at Green Park and were told that the buses stopped running at that time. This was quite the shock to us since we had only days earlier ridden the Barcelona buses to well past 8 PM. Nonetheless, we were off the bus, and at rush hour, forcing Lexie and me to take a long walk to Trafalgar Square, essentially ruining our nice relaxing day of butt sitting and sightseeing. Nowhere in the literature did it mention the early stopping time, again a contrast with the Barcelona buses. I was quite mad, but there wasn’t anything we could do (except warn you!).

No HoHo in Rome

Rome has HoHos and it was our plan to take them. However, once we got there, examined their routes and did some research, we realized that they weren’t as convenient as Barcelona and London and didn’t get as close to some of the major tourist destinations as we would have liked due to city congestion and restrictions. Instead, we took the Metro and walked. Other than the information we might have heard during the tour, we don’t feel like we really missed out on anything.

Athens

The HoHo was just a block from our hotel in Athens, so we hopped on again the first day and got a great overview of the city. We saw some places we wanted to get off and visit in more depth. After going around the route, Lexie returned to the room and Lisa and I went around again so we could get off at the Olympic Stadium and walk to the Temple of Zeus, where we got some excellent sunset pictures. We finally made our way back to the hotel by walking through the Plaka, an old neighborhood with excellent shopping.

Rushing by Hadrian’s Arch on the Athens HoHo

The next day we used the HoHo as transportation to get us to the National Archaeological  Museum. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world and contains the richest collection of artifacts from Greek antiquity worldwide. Given its reputation, we were surprised at how few people were actually in the museum. We stayed for several hours before getting tired and hungry and recatching the HoHo to get us back to our hotel.


What’s not to like?



In summary, we loved the HoHos. Sure, they’re touristy. But they are also a great way to get around, get an overview of a new city and get an idea of places you’d like to go back to and spend more time getting to know.

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Mexico Visa Day

(Written in September 2018) 

Today, Lexie and I got our Mexican Visas. Normally, when you go to Mexico on vacation, you automatically receive a visa that is good for 180 days. Since we will be staying longer than that, we needed to get a Temporary Resident Visa that is good for 1 year and renewable for up to 4 years.
To receive that visa, we needed to make copies of birth certificates and passports, create a letter in Spanish detailing our Mexican address, get passport photos, and have documentation that proves that we can financially support ourselves when we get there.
Once you get the visa in the US from a Mexican consulate, you have 6 months to enter Mexico and then another 30 days to finish up the requirements in Mexico.

Since I had read about other people going to their local consulate and getting their visa, I began the process in August, five months before our scheduled arrival in Mexico, and blocked off a day to spend waiting in an endless line waiting to be processed.

When I researched our local Denver consulate, I discovered that they only processed visas by appointment and that the only appointments available before we left were in September, during the week we were planning on packing and moving. The only other alternative was to wait until we were back east and then spend a day traveling to the consulate in Philadelphia and waiting in an endless line there. We decided to get the appointment in Denver. They had 2 appointments available one day and then another 3 days later. We took them.

The process was very smooth and organized. They took Lexie’s and my documentation, we paid our fee, got photographed and finger printed and got our visas.

It did take a bit longer than it should have because of a mistake I made when signing up for the appointments. I’m pretty loose with my name. I almost never use my middle name or initial and rarely use the suffix. Because I only used my first and last name when signing up for the appointment online, when they took my passport they couldn’t find me in their system because the Robert Greenawalt who signed up was not the same person whose passport they had, which also had a middle name and III at the end. After they informed me that I always had to use my full name when in Mexico, the consulate person re-entered my name and got us our visas. Total time was 3 ½ hours, including driving and a stop to get Lexie’s passport photo. Not bad!

Lexie and I are ready to go. Lisa will get hers in a few days.

(Postscript: Thanks to Bob’s experience, Lisa had her middle name on all paperwork and the process took less than an hour. She notes that they do their best to make you look as unattractive as possible in the photo. Remove glasses. Push hair behind ears and off forehead. Don’t smile. Consequently, this is the mug shot to end all mug shots.) 

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Resetting our Marriage

Bob’s Perspective

Lisa and I have been married 23 years. Our first few years of marriage were all about our careers, and the past 21 years we have been focused on dealing with the challenges of our two kids (if you know us and our kids you know what I’m talking about).

Like many marriages, over that time, we’ve been focused on our kids, our jobs and our home. And, like many other people, that left little time for us as a couple. Even with stopping working and starting our European trip it was rush, rush, rush – we had a mountain of tasks that needed to be accomplished.

For me, however, things finally slowed down when I went to Sorrento by myself and Lisa stayed in Naples with Lexie and her relatives. It rained most of the second day I was there and I didn’t really have much to do. I began to realize how much we had been through and how lucky I was to be with someone who shared the same excitement about the adventure on which we were about to embark. I realized how lucky I was and I committed to myself to let her know that, to let her know how much I appreciated being with her and looked forward to spending time as just a couple. (Disclaimer: We really enjoy being with Lexie for this year and our visits with Aryk, but there is just the new opportunity for so much “us” time.)

View from the top of the London Eye

When we got back together in Naples, we talked about this and she told me that she had been thinking the same thing, that we had an excellent opportunity to essentially reset our relationship. We had the opportunity to throw away some of the conflicts we’ve had over time and really just enjoy one another going forward.
We’ll never have a fully carefree life, but we’re both committed to working hard to enjoy one another and our life together going forward.

Our trip to Europe was worth it just for this!

Together in Hamburg at the top of the St. Michaelis Church Tower

____________________________________________________


Lisa’s Perspective

For me, it started long before we left Colorado, in summer 2017, when we made the decision to retire early and travel,  and started planning the next phase of our lives. We spent a lot of weekend hot tub mornings discussing what our plan would be. I think for many couples, they retire but have the same habits they had before, and that can lead to dissatisfaction or boredom. Planning a new life as sojourners opened us up to a lot of new conversations and gave our relationship a new dimension.

To prepare, we traveled to Mexico several times, enjoying each other’s company as we explored different communities as potential future domiciles.

To meet in the middle of our diverse interests, Bob mentioned that he would like to try yoga, which I practice, so we would have something to do in common, and I said I would be happy to hike more with him. We also started doing more running and bike riding together, which took us full circle back to the genesis of our relationship – we met through a multisport club, the New York Flyers, in the early 90s.

Hydra Island in Greece

We have both started learning Spanish to facilitate our lives in Mexico. We are talking about taking dancing lessons, trying new foods, hiking new mountains, discovering new beaches, making new friends, tasting tequilas, learning a new language together.

It’s exciting!

In the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik

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Adventure Cats in Rebersburg

(Written with help from Catherine Nelson, cat sitter extraordinaire)

The scariest thing about Ellie, Equinox and Kaylee’s temporary home in Rebersburg, PA, was the ferocious toddler, Audrey, age 1 ¾. Her attitude about pets was: Wow, new toys!
The Welcome Committee
When she first met the cats, Audrey flailed her arms, jumped up and down and screeched in excitement, inciting terror in three feline hearts. Equinox wouldn’t even come out of his cat crate for the first hour, and then he ran into a closet and didn’t come out for two days.

Cats in Hiding

At first, Audrey was always grabbing at cat ears. She pulled Ellie’s tail on the first day (Lexie was very protective). But over the course of six weeks of cohabitation, she learned to gently pet a rump and not treat a cat like a doll.

Audrey Helping

Observing cat eating rituals on Day 1.

Hand feeding one treat at a time to each cat, between her own taste testing. Very helpful.

Taking one bowl of dry food and pouring it into another cat’s bowl. Very helpful.

Pouring her own water into the water dish, before spilling all the water. Very helpful.
Catherine put a baby gate between the living room and the stairs to keep the baby out (and to keep Audrey from playing with the kitty litter, “which was a trial the entire time,” she said).
Clearly Noxy is not that into her

The baby gate is very helpful
Then Catherine set up a kitty oasis at the top of the steps the first day at the top of the steps.
Kitty oasis
Kaylee and Ellie hung out there, while Equinox took a corner over the closet under the stairs. Catherine spread the quilt down there for him. Then a week later she created a cat spot inside of their dog Cory’s crate under a table.
Kaylee spent the first day and a half under a couch in the living room, so Catherine would push food under the couch for her to make sure she ate. After a couple days, she discovered the spot at the top of the stairs. There was water, and a litter box, and a corner to hide in. Catherine would bring her food bowl up there as well, and just slide the food into that little nook.
But despite having a well-deserved reputation as the original scaredy cat, Kaylee was the first cat to venture out into the rest of the house. Eventually, the others came out as well, and each claimed their spot on (or under) certain favorite chairs. Equinox hung out with Mark on the back of his work chair.
Venturing out
Catherine encouraged Audrey to feed the cats treats or put down a food bowl, making her slightly less terrifying and in fact of some value to the cats. (But then she tried to eat their food.)  She also enjoyed stacking cat food cans, but otherwise cohabitated with the cats for the last few weeks in relative peace (and separation by a baby gate, when necessary).

Ellie, the Adventure Cat, will finish the story.


After a long time putting up with the evil toddler – who I eventually deigned to allow to touch my butt on occasion – our Mommy and family finally arrived one day. We thought they were gone forever!
We had a joyous reunion. My mommy cried. 

Reunion
They put us back in the crates in the car (I cried the whole ride, of course) and took us back to Grandma Greenawalt’s, and then up to their house in Vermont a few days later. 
I really hate car rides, but I really love the house in Vermont. There’s lots of room to chase Kaylee, and there’s pretty snow outside the window, and my favorite thing: a box on top of the washing machine to sleep on.
My favorite spot

(We like it, too!)
Keep calm and carry on, I say.
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