Awww, Stewie just wanted to cuddle

Drive safe, the crazies are on the road.

& KarenE doesn't mean Millennials.

Well, she doesn't only mean Millennials, hehe. They drive a lot of people crazy, road or no road, tee-hee-hee

We are traveling today to Ohio...

We got a late start... And Stewie is the reason...

The last 3 days he insists on getting out in the morning to play. At 5am sharp I hear crabbing and a lot of "Sssting" going on... I have peeked in on this and it's Stewie running across the pouch disturbing the girls sleep. He wants them to come out and play... Then he'll hang on to the door and bark... And bark... Then to the wheel, treadmill, jump on their sleeping pouch(crab, Ssst!) And then back to the door and bark... I I let him out, he climbs to the top of the cage and continually bark to let the girls know he is out and wants them to come out and play... After a few minutes, he realizes I'm standing there and glides to me. And starts barking more. Then back to the cage.... We play this for awhile, I put on their favorite sleeveless hoodie(it was my favorite once upon a time- before it got hot and I had to cut the sleeves off because Fiona wanted to have a hoodie nap), and off to the kitchen we go so I can pack their meals and so on...

Stewie played peek a boo running in and out the sleeves until hubby walked by to warm up the coffee. He glided to him, watched him pour the coffee and as he walked back to his chair, Stewie decides to come back to me.... Ok, let's go play in the living room.

He glides to my chair, I walk away and he follows me by way of gliding to the end table, then accross hubby, over to the next chair, up the curtains, accross the rod down the other side half way, glides to the next chair, climbs up the back of it, and glides to the back of my leg( I'm in sweats)..." What the??? Really??? Stay with Dad!!!!". So this goes on I kid you not 6 more times...

" Ok hubby, it's your turn to babysit" as I pull their hoodie over my head, and on to hubby. Stewie loves the game of climbing while the hoodie is being put on. He jumps on the hoodie as it goes over the head, crawls down your back when you pull the sides down. Then he peeks his head out the arm holes, and looks at you so sweet, and does it over and over . First climbing under the shirt part then climbing on the outside. So I'm done and walk away...

But Stewie isn't done... He wants to play jump between the Hooman trees!!!
"OMG!!! I got stuff to do! Could you please entertain him??!"
I just get a grin from hubby...

I wanted to leave by 7-8 am... Between putting up with both boys (Stewie and hubby) making a game of walking by as I'm trying to empty the dishwasher, filling the cooler, getting the house picked up, etc, it's funny to play the game of moving Hooman tree... "Can I catch her???"

Finally Stewie calmed down, and curled up on hubby's belly inside his hoodie and fell asleep.... At 9am... 4 hours of hard play!!!

I put the girls sleeping pouch and all into their travel cage, hubby added Stewie, I also put apple slices and seedless grapes in there. A few extra.

It was 10am when we rolled down the driveway... 11 hour trip... "Girls, your dinner will be late again tonight. Thank your brother!

Hutch, I want you to know I waved at you and your crew just as we got on I-70 at I-55 turn off... It was about 1500 hrs...

Bahahahahahahahaha! I told you he was a spitfire. Tucker is probably looking down going "good boy, Stewie".

The crew & I wave back, belated, & in spirit

Whew!!!! We are back in in South Carolina! And Christmas is done!!!!! Enjoyed seeing family, getting to spend time with our moms, dad's, kids and grandkids was just what I needed!

We still have one more trip to make soon. My Dad turns 80 this year and has AML(lukemia). He's feeling better than he has in a long time. We are traveling from SC, to Tucson AZ. We will start traveling in about 14 days... It's 1987 miles from one doorstep to the other.

We tossed around whether to drive with the RV or fly and board the fuzzbutz for 6 days. It was a toss up. After some long conversations, Hubby decided to drive. We have the time...

I don't know if any of you have ever traveled I-10 from Florida through to El Paso, but it's a very long and boring trip after you leave San Antonio. The 5th wheel makes the trip a bit slower. We will only drive 5-8 hours a day, at 62 mph (optimum gas mileage for our diesel truck.) Hubby decided we have the time to drive. I will do some windshield time too I guess since there will be a lot of flat road. We will take 8 days to get there in case of breakdowns... Probably do some boondocking along the way...

Since gliders are nocturnal, they won't be affected too much as long as we are parked by dinnertime... And allow Mr Stewie to stay up as long as he likes in the morning... Temperatures should be mild, I keep them covered in the backseat from the sun, and drafts when we stop to stretch our legs.

Since I put them on the Critterlove diet and kept them on it, stress of traveling doesn't seem to affect them much as long as their environment during the night stays the same. Now my traveling mealworm farm is a bit of a different story.... Yep, you read it right, a traveling mealworm farm.....

I see that Stewie has you both trained. He is really good. Great Grandpa would be proud of him and his teaching skills.

LOL! Traveling mealworm farm!

[ THE TRIP HOME:

Well, if you've been following along, you already know from a different topic I have a wounded glider (Fiona). Here:

http://www.glidercentral.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/1419142/dominance-wound#Post1419142

With the special care/needs of Fiona, our sleep schedule has been sketchy.

Stewie thinks he needs to stay up till 10am because, well he's Stewie... When he's tired, but won't go to bed, he goes into super hyper mode like a 3 year old child who refuses to take a nap... It doesn't help that both "His girls" aren't together with him.

For going on 2 weeks, we've had 2 cages in the 5th wheel. The big cage upstairs on the dresser, and a pop up dog kennel in the living room on the couch for Fiona. She has the travel wheel, which goes non stop when she's awake...

So yesterday we started our trip home... We got a late start partly because of , you guessed it, Stewie...

I had been thinking how to transport 3 gliders, one who had to stay separate safely. We only brought the travel size Glide-arium for the ride in the truck. It's size is about 12"x 12" x7". I want them to stay safe and warm. It is winter and we will be traveling into freezing temps. After our incident last year, I wanted to be prepared for anything. So keeping them together in one container was a must. (I might have forgot to mention I have a dogtag on this container that states their are gliders in it. Just in case the worst may happen...)

My solution:
Fiona into a glider safe (inside and out) bonding pouch with grapes, apple slices and 2pieces of Cheerios. Along with blankies and a fleece made 'buddy' ( full Glider size of course). Zipped up, Tucked in the Glide-arium sideways and hooked up to the convenient tabs in front and back. I then hung the sleeping pouch with Dot only in it on the back tabs. I tucked several pieces of fleece in and around both...

So you might ask yourself, where's Stewie? Oh he wasn't far away... I had tried to convince him to go to bed. He just wasn't having it. The harder I tried the faster and slipperier he got... So while packing the girls up, he's bee -bopping between me, the cage and the bed. Watching my every move... He's not jumping. He's full spread out gliding... (Face hugs!!!!!)

So I ignored him... When both girls were settled, apple slices, seedless grapes, and 4 pieces of Cheerios tucked behind the sleeping pouch, I zipped it up to the point it made a small flap, I offered Stewie a sniff of the ingredients of his travel cage. Nope, not having it... So I had to call in reenforcements... Hubby was outside, all slideouts in but the bedroom, truck hooked up, basically we were ready to roll...

He climbed inside, came upstairs to peel Stewie off the middle of my back. I'm holding the travel cage. All hubby had to say was "Ok buddy, let's go bye-bye.". And with a little herding, he went right in... I pushed his tail in and zipped him up.... Done... I got the "Really!?!" Look from hubby... "It's not that hard" he said... Yeah, right...

Yup, that sounds like what we've come to expect from your Stewie

He & Gywn would get along fine... much to our mutual horror!

Yeah, he's a hoot!!!!

I will say he has been a perfect addition to the family. He loves both the girls and wants them to live as a big happy family again...

We've been holed up in West Memphis waiting for this rain to pass.

Yesterday morning, Dot kicked Stewie out of the pouch because he fidgets too much. So I brought him to the living room to wear off some more energy. It took about an hour of gliding, jumping and climbing before he'd had enough and crawled into my hoodie and was out. I moved him to a zippered pouch I made in the front of the hoodie I had made just for Fiona 2 weeks ago, and he snuggled back down with her scent in there and fell fast asleep... All day!

He found a remnant piece of corn Chex Fiona left behind and snacked on it along with a grape I put in there for him about midday... We listened to the rain, took a nap together in the recliner watching a marathon on 'American Pickers'. KOA campgrounds have pretty good cable BTW...

It was kinda funny last night. Stewie had never slept with me all day, and wasn't sure how to wake up... Fiona was out for her nightly free run and pounced on Stewie while he was waking up inside her special pouch. I had unzipped it earlier, and when Fiona landed on him, he shot out like a cannon ball! I put him on a towel to do his business, and he complied, and sought Fiona out.

Hubby and I stayed within reach of both of them while they sniffed each other. Since Fiona is 95% healed from her wound, we allowed them to mingle under supervision. Stewie put one arm around Fiona's neck, and washed her face with his other paw and then held her face and kissed her. Didn't bother her wound at all... It was so sweet.... After that they followed each other around the room, jumping and gliding. Then went to opposite sides of the room and found a place to nap. Fiona in hubby's ball cap, and Stewie in their old smelly, but familiar red hoodie with the arms cut out...

We put Fiona back in her cage, and carefully placed the red hoodie in the bottom of the big cage where Dot was watching closely... I have no idea what happened next...

We had to get up early to start on our last leg of this trip home....

Good news! We made it home!!!!!!! Yay!!!! Now to unpack... UGH!!!

I think unpacking is worse than packing or hotels

Yeah, it is...

So, we are finally home again!!! After almost 3 months in SC helping the family and coping with the loss of Amara our granddaughter.

We had a great trip and now comes the unpacking and cleaning up and we will start intros with the gliders one more time right here:

http://www.glidercentral.net/ubbthr...1420860/re-introductions-101#Post1420860

We're letting everyone get settled in first!!!

It's always great to be home...