Mad Dash To Arizona
We headed out of Oklahoma! We were planning on meeting friends out in Quartzsite, Arizona so we just put in day after day of travel! Why I thought we needed to make this mad dash to Arizona is a mystery, but I was driven to getting to Arizona!
Maybe I was ready for a good rest. A warm, friend filled zone of rest ..
Since Zach can drive around 150 miles before he needs to pull over for a leg-stretching break, we try and leave early in the morning. Once he has his stretch, then he can drive another 150-ish miles before it’s quit for the day! No complaints here, I don’t drive the bus!
Our first pitstop was in Odessa, Tx to visit a Jack Rabbit! The World’s Largest Jackrabbit to be exact! Well….former largest! I’ll have to investigate further where the new reigning big guy is!
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But it turns out there are a lot of them in town. Guess it’s true what they say about rabbits?! They multiply! Unfortunately, we didn’t allow much time to explore this town and we were in the bus. So we didn’t get any pics of them 🙁 Maybe next time around!
The next few days were spent driving! That’s it! No fun stuff, no huge things, just straight up driving! We got through the rest of Texas and all of New Mexico in a flash! 
Crossed the state line into Arizona, and decided to stop at the nearest Harvest Host location just over the Arizona state line. We planned to stay there 2 nights and then head out to Quartzsite and beyond!
That’s where things went wrong! Terribly, terribly wrong.
Sad Story Alert
From day one, we let our cats free roam. They go in and out all day and night. It’s always been safe for them. And they don’t go far from the bus.
When we arrived at our stay for the night, Zach walked the dogs, which meant the cats also popped out!
Pebbles, Heddy and Scabbers ~ all out to scout!
The Cat Routine
Heddy almost always comes back at dark, and will venture out again during the night for a little bit before requesting to come back in. Scabbers and Pebbles, they are night cats. Preferring to sleep in the bus all day and then go out and hunt bugs at night. Scabbers will come in and out throughout the night, but Pebbles always stays out all night. It’s her time!
The next morning, Pebbles didn’t join Zach and the pups on their morning walk. Something she ALWAYS did. But had on occasion decided to wait until later in the day to come home. By nightfall, she still hadn’t returned, and now we were very worried! 
Day 2, Day 3… No Pebbles, and we had no more time at this location! Zach rode around and spoke with the neighbors and showed them her picture and let them know where we stayed. The host also knew we were not able to find her. Since we were not going very far, we knew we could easily come back.
Making it to Quartzsite
Finally, we made it over to meet our friends in the area. I started a purge project to keep myself busy and Zach visited with friends.
Where he learned that our cats were never safe outside, even in the daytime. And either was Louie, our Puggle. Coyotes are bad in that area and they come right into camp.
We were in Quartzsite for about an hour. 
Mad Dash to Arizona, Reversed!
And then we were on the road again, heading back to Oklahoma!
Was it tough to leave our friends so quickly, of course! But they understood!
First stop was a Second chance at finding Pebbles. A one overnight chance.
We didn’t find her. 
Absolutely lost with her being lost! We cried, and cried, and kept our other two cats inside from the moment we found out they were unsafe.
Apart from parking on the side of the road, which we couldn’t do, we had no choice but to head out again without our feisty girl, Pebbles 
Just one pitstop ~ to find a roadrunner! We had seen him on the way out to Arizona, but he was on the opposite side of the highway and not easy to get to! So, we stopped on the return trip! He’s really cool! Made of all recycled material!
It took us 5 days to get from Arizona to Oklahoma, just south of Oklahoma City! Five days of non-stop cat crying. Scabbers and Heddy were NOT pleased with the no outside time. But we couldn’t take a chance!
At this time, the catio was born. Zach needed to figure out how to make the back deck still come down to use, as well as the lift. But it needed to be escape proof. He spent some time designing a way to make a cage around the cage. In addition to what is already there! Just needs modification!
When the Mad Dash to Arizona doesn’t work…
This has been the hardest post to write! Our hearts are clearly broken that Pebbles didn’t return to us, not yet anyway! We have not given up hope, and are in contact constantly with the people at the location we were at! I’m thinking she is one of those cats that is trailing us, and will catch up to us soon! Or maybe a sweet little girl found her and fell in love!
The one thing we have learned is that all animals should be microchipped! Slowly working on all animals being chipped in the near future (Louie is already chipped and registered). There’s no blame in any of this, but there are lessons!
Stay tuned for scenes from our next stop ~ Windy Oklahoma!!
Missed a few parts of the story?? Catch up here!!
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 9.5 Part 10
Love the hats we wear? Zach makes them! Check out his work here