Jen's East Coast Adventures, Part II

While I was doing all the things I was doing in New Hampshire, Doug was breaking in his new motorcycle in Oregon and Nevada.  Someday, he might even put up a blog entry detailing all his great rides.  😏  He also spent a few days getting the RV slide fixed, so we can actually walk all the way from the bedroom to the garage again without going outside! 

On Sunday, 23 September, while Doug was settling in to Salt Lake City, Sunday and I headed south to New Jersey in the rental car.  I forgot how annoying the Sunday afternoon slog-back-to-the-city was.  Bumper-to-bumper traffic, texting drivers, accidents, construction, and reverse yield signs (you know, the ones where drivers entering the highway think they have the right of way).  But we survived, and many hours later, made it to New Jersey just in time for my mother's homemade baked ziti! 

I didn't take many pictures on this part of the trip, because it rained the entire week.  I spent most of the time visiting with my mother, while Sunday spent most of the time eating the liverwurst my mother bought especially for her.  We did catch a little window of no rain to go for a quick swim, though.

Sunset Beach, Toms River

And, of course, I made a visit to my favorite (woman-veteran owned!) brewery, Backward Flag in Forked River.   

"Really mom? I can have a sip??"

That was about all the excitement there was to be had in NJ.  On the way to the airport in Philadelphia, we made a stop to visit Nino at Lehigh University.  We had planned to spend a few hours and have lunch together, but traffic traffic and more traffic meant we only had 10 minutes. 

Sunday LOVES Nino!!

Then we hit even more traffic trying to get to PHL and had to literally run through the airport to catch our flight.  Poor Sunday even had to use the "Pet Relief Area" in the terminal because I didn't have time to walk her before going through TSA.  Normally she wont even let her precious little paws touch that gross astroturf. 

When you gotta go, you gotta go.

But we were lucky to have a direct flight from PHL - SLC, so once we got settled in on the plane, we were able to relax.  Sunday has gotten so good at flying, she actually sleeps through take-off now.

Sunday's area on the plane.

The excitement didn't end when we landed in Salt Lake, however.  Right before Doug left the RV to pick us up at the airport, Mookie figured out how to open the screen door and ran out into the night.  We spent a little while walking around the dark campground yelling "Mooooooooooooooookie" and shining flashlights under each RV, to no avail.  Of course, she decided to go on a little adventure in the biggest RV park we've ever stayed in - over 700 sites!!!  On Saturday, we walked the entire RV park several times, shared the shit out of her photo on social media, and plastered the RV park with "lost kitty" signs.  We were scheduled to leave on Sunday, and sadly, we had to have a serious conversation about how long it made sense to wait there, just in case.  And then my phone rang.  And it was a RVer I had spoken with the day before - she had Mookie!!  In two days, the damn cat went less than a hundred yards, but she was dirty, thirsty and very happy to see her food bowl. 

She was less than pleased with my effort to give her a bath after her little adventure.

With the whole Nomadic Norvell pack back together, we headed out toward Moab that afternoon.  And on our "to do" list is to find an escape-proof screen door for the RV!