road trip (no shama lama ding dong)

The Seattle trip finally happened a couple of weeks ago. Rachel* and I loaded 20 kitties into a rented van, including three of my fosters, and spent three days driving north. 

We went through New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho and Utah, stopping a couple of times to take in the sights for an hour or two. Rachel has a thing for waterfalls so we stopped in Twin Falls and Shoshone Falls, which is part of the Snake River and close to where Evel Kneivel attempted to jump the river.

It was raining when we reached Seattle Humane, which was a place all animal shelters should aspire to. Okay, they're better-funded, and there appears to be a higher percentage of folks who don't let their pets run wild and breed nonstop. But they don't euthanize for space and even accept ill animals. I did feel a bit sad about leaving two of my three foster cats as I'd become attached, but no so sad that I kept them. 

Sleeping on the floor of a van is not pleasant so I finally sprang for a hotel room in Yakima after we dropped off the cats, and another one two nights later in Durango, Colorado. This is where I did a bad thing, which was to lose my Saint Gertrude medallion. All attempts to bribe management to visit the room and find it were in vain.

Perhaps the loss of my Saint Gertrude triggered my decision to send Cincinnati* a small gift I had planned to present to him last November. It was a special medallion of the Madonna del Ghisallo, the patron saint of cyclists, and was designed to attach easily to a bicycle. It didn't arrive from Italy until I had returned from visiting Cincinnati, and by then things had gone awry between us. So the medallion had been living in my dresser for almost a year. I enclosed a small note explaining what it was, why I bought it, and that I was sending it now because I planned to move soon.

I did not expect to hear anything from Cincinnati upon receipt of the medallion, and I half-expected him to return it unopened. But instead, he unblocked me on Facebook and sent me this message:

"I received your letter and gift and it meant a lot to me. I'm so sorry to hear of your mother's passing. I can't imagine the sense of loss you're feeling. Please feel free to respond if you'd like to talk further sometime."

Although I wanted to respond, I couldn't think of what to say. So I waited a day before I did.

* See The Usual Suspects.