A Holiday Road Trip with a Diabetic & Geriatric Cat

Originally I was going to start this blog back in 2007, in order to share with our friends and family our adventures on the road with Jericho, our diabetic and geriatric cat. There are many accounts and tales of individuals embarking on car trips across the big ole US, most famously John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, with his geriatric standard black poodle. There aren't too many memoirs about people traveling with cats and when a hotel says it's "pet friendly" that doesn't always mean that cats are welcomed. Regardless, J. and I decided that we wanted to drive to his parent's home in Knoxville, TN, rather than fly so that we could take care of our 17 year old cranky, grandpa-like puss. Jericho does resemble a grandpa in all kinds of ways: he takes long naps; wakes up ridiculously early in the morning and when he eats he manages to get a lot of his food everywhere,including on himself.

Quite a few weeks have passed since our trip and the holiday season being officially over. Finally I've allotted time to recap our trip south mostly on I-80 South and our visit in Tennessee. But as with every trip, we'll start at the beginning. Planning was mostly done by myself with some input from Jericho.


We left on the Friday before Christmas with great expectations that we would do the first leg of the drive, six hours, and arrive early afternoon in Staunton, Virginia. Staunton, pronounced Stanton, is in the Shenandoah Valley, is a remarkably restored mill town; the birthplace of President Woodrow Wilson; home of the country music legends the Statler Brothers and is home to a great local food restaurant, the Staunton Grocery, that J. and I wanted to check out. The real reason why we selected Staunton? It is located exactly half way between New York City and Knoxville, TN. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a late start and didn't arrive in Staunton until 7:30 at night. Once we finally got on the road, we had some fun dashing through five states in one day.

Jericho sipping some water in the car.


Passing through state #2-we were so happy to leave NJ we didn't take a picture.
At the West Virginia Welcome Center there was a Boy Scout troop giving away hot dogs, coffee and hot chocolate for free. We had lots of smiles for W.VA even though we were in the state for all of an hour. Just a little bit longer than we were in Maryland. I was trying to keep Jericho occupied for the twenty minutes we were in Maryland, so that's why there's no picture of the state at all.

There weren't too many places for Jericho to hang out in the car given it was an economy compact car and was filled with gifts from us and J.'s sister's family. Hanging out by my feet was a momentary option, though not a good one ending up with Jericho being kicked by me. This is him pre-kicking.


So we finally arrived in Staunton. Our hotel was the Stonewall Jackson Hotel and Conference Center and within walking distance of everything downtown. Unfortunately being a small town much was closed by the time we arrived. Though at night it reminded me of a film set for what would be perceived as the ideal 1950s town. Kind of like the towns portrayed in Back to the Future and Pleasantville.


Not wanting to simply hang out at our hotel, J. and I walked around downtown Staunton. We were practically the only people walking around. We did find a used bookstore that was going out of business and picked up lot of hardcover books for free. Originally we had reservations at Staunton Grocery and had to cancel them from the road because of our tardy departure. On a whim and my pleading and whining, we decided to see if it was still open, and it was. Having filled ourselves on gas station strip road food, aka, McDonalds, neither of us wanted to eat a complete sit down meal. Instead we headed to the bar and opted for some of the small plate courses. Our delicious meal will be the next installment of the road trip. But here are some more nighttime pictures of Staunton.

Looking sassy and walking by Staunton's railroad station. The station is still a functioning Amtrack depot but the physical station house has been renovated and houses a steakhouse; a pub and a few stores.

The spooky church graveyard! In one section of Staunton, we counted not only a church on all four corners, but within walking distance of each corner there were six other churches. Your neighbors would be for certain to know if you had attended church or not. This graveyard made me think of every zombie film I've ever seen and the Duran Duran video for "Waiting for the Nightboat." Though there were no boats or waterways nearby, I could imagine Simon LeBon running through the maze of tombstones chased by some ghoulish entities.

We certainly were in the South. The electric roof sign of the Stonewall Jackson Hotel. Confederate general and hero; considered the be one of the greatest tactical commanders in US military history, yet was accidentally shot by Confederate troops during battle; his left arm amputated though he died from complications from pneumonia. The hotel opened in 1924 and the name was selected from an open contest in the county. The runner-up was "Woodrow Wilson." The staff was warm and welcoming and even alerted us that we hadn't closed our trunk all the way. Luckily nothing was taken but this cool car was parked next to us.




Check out their website.
www.stonewalljacksonhotel.com