Temporary Pet Relocation
Getting to Day 0
Like many epic journeys, ours started with a minor headache. Normally, we would ignore such a small inconvenience, but today, neither of us were in the mood to get pushed around by Hertz rental. So with 2 months of our lives packed in backpacks, a dog, and the wrong rental car (minivan, yuck), we waited for Hertz to right their wrong before we set off on the long road journey from Mountain View, California to Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Early in 2024, we both left our jobs, so we could take advantage of our (fading) youth, lack of responsibility, and Uma’s newly acquired Green Card. The plan was to take some time off and see a little more of this great big world. The first task, however, was to make sure that our sweet 6 year old dog had a comfortable home while we were out of the country. Han's parents very kindly volunteered to look after him for a few months and so, literally the day after Han's final day of work, we packed up and started driving towards his home town.
Taking turns at the wheel, we drove the 2,399 miles past rolling hills, snow-patched prairie and sparkling city lights in 37 hours, only stopping for gas and food. The journey was smoother and less tiring than we anticipated, barring a small snowstorm near Lake Tahoe.
We arrived at the Zhang’s in the wee hours of the morning, and were greeted with a wonderful warm home cooked meal. A perfect start to the 6-day stay, before our first leg to Singapore.
We’ll be back when the journey starts. (Bye Kovu!)
Nugget of the day: It’s super cheap to drive a rental car cross country. Flight for the two of us was $350 ea, but the rental car for two days was only $311.77 total for the 48hr rental (roughly $140/day).
Kovu is doing well at new home. 👍