Day 1 - Tucson to Moriarity, New Mexico

Moriarity is about 40 miles east of Albuquerque.  Anyway, after 7.5 hrs driving we got here.  He screamed. He yelled. He cried. It went on for 1.5 hours before there was more than 5 minutes quiet at a time. It was every 2 seconds in the beginning - I was counting. At the top of his lungs he protested being forced to ride in a car.Then when that didn't work, he would whimper his "poor me" sound. After that, he would look out the window and sleep but waking at every little sound.  We had some great conversations at times in between his naps - don't know what he said but we chatted for awhile. I took a two lane road between Deming and Hatch New Mexico. Not long after I turned off we ran into a Border Patrol check-point.  As I am slowing the car down, I'm thinking "please just wave me on through".  I had images of being stopped and having to talk to the agent while Morris was screaming in the back seat. Fortunately I was waved through - guess I didn't look like a smuggler.

The carrier worked great - at least in my opinion. The best thing was not having to worry about where he was when I would open the car door.
I only made 2 - 15 min stops after I hit the freeway - once for a McDonald's bathroom break and then for gas and bathroom. I would normally have stopped at least 1-2 more times but didn't want to leave him in the hot car. When we got to the hotel, I left him in the car and brought everything in before bringing him in. He drank some water, used the litter box and ate food in that order.  Then he proceeded to check out every square inch in the room. Currently he is on top the microwave  which is on top of the frig and that is as high as he can get.  Poor guy - he is laying up there asleep - totally wore out.
After 5 hours of listening to CNBC I turned the radio to CNN and they had live coverage of the Moore, OK tornado.  When I tuned in, it was just coming into town so listened to that until I got to the hotel and could then turn the TV on.  The radio coverage was pretty amazing with storm chasers on the ground and a helicopter pilot in the air plus the local TV people. I just cannot imagine what it would be like to go through one of those but then I can't imagine being in a bad earthquake either.  As I said earlier, at least there are warning before tornado hits.Today they had about 30 minutes warning before the tornado hit.
So far, the only thing I forgot at home this morning was my pearl earrings that I wear most days.  Not bad.....
Tomorrow we drive onto Oklahoma City and according to the weather map, the storms will have moved on although we might run into some rain.