Sept 10 - We finally left California
After a week-long delay, we finally left California. First we're heading to Tennessee, then we plan on exploring New England.
We've got about 3 weeks to get to an event in Tennessee, so we're going to take a northerly route through Yellowstone, across the northern states to Upper Michigan, then south to Tennessee. Yeah, it's a lot of extra miles vs. a direct route, but we've never seen some of these northern states and it sounds like fun.
The first night we made it to Sparks, Nevada. There's a KOA next to one of the hotels that we have stayed at before. This evening was extra exciting because when we got to the campground, as soon as we opened the trailer door, our cat, Kira, jumped out and ran off. Normally Kira is pretty good when we travel. When she gets out, she usually stays close, and she comes back when she gets hungry. This time she jumped out when we were at the front of the campground, checking in. We couldn't stay there and wait for her, and the camp space we were assigned was a good quarter mile away.
Since it was still early, I put the cat out of my mind for a while and went out and found six caches. That felt good 
Later, I came back, ate dinner, then took a walk to look for Kira. I found her under a Toyota truck. As soon as I got close, she climbed up on top of the spare tire. 
I went back to the trailer and got a bowl and some milk and went back. Sure enough, this enticed her out, and I was able to grab her and bring her back to the trailer. The problem was that after crawling around in the underbelly of the Toyota, she was filthy. She even had some grease matted into her hair. I hate it when that happens.