Yesterday we spent most of the day preparing for the trip to Italy. That involved everything from making sure we had plenty of food for the dog to making sure all her toys and treats were packed…and then making sure we had everything for ourselves as well. So we packed everything up in the Defender this morning and somehow it all fit lol. Of course since we have packed and repacked all of these things in there a few times this year already, it wasn’t such a difficult task. On the other hand, we haven’t been camping in several months so things could have been a bit more difficult.
We originally planned to go down to see hubby’s parents so we could drop off the cats with them. Well of course we wanted to see them also since it’s been a few months but overall we were really concerned about the logistics of getting the dog and the cats in the Defender together without someone having a heart attack or having to drive off the road. And of course forcing the cats into a situation like that would not necessarily encourage everyone to play nicely in the future. But thankfully we ran into our neighbors’ son and made him a business proposition. He was absolutely thrilled to find a new source of income aside from his parents (what 8th grade boy isn’t happy to get money for almost nothing?) and we were happy to not have to worry about logistics or spending part of the vacation wondering if our cats were in good hands had we tried to take them to a kennel.
So we left home at about noon and it’s a 5 hour drive or so down to the “grandparents.” A nice evening at home awaited us with steaks on the grill and some good conversation before we set off on our journey the next day.
Ayla got to be spoiled a little by grandma who had bought her some new treats. Amusingly, she bought her some Pedigree DentaStix and some other Pedigree product and I let Ayla have them anyway since I didn’t want to tell grandma she couldn’t have them. Not once did Ayla do her whining thing with them so perhaps that phase has passed…or perhaps she just wanted to please grandma too.
Tomorrow we will leave for Italy at around 11 am so hopefully everything will go according to plan and we can meet our travel mates at 1 pm in Salzburg, Austria, as we’ve currently planned…
