With all the kerfuffle about airlines and their treatment of animals, even Jim wasn’t keen to take our beloved pets by plane, no matter how many hours (or days) it would take from our journey! So it came down to the car… Fortunately, Jim and I drive a big station wagon, so there’s plenty of room for the pets. We’ve driven with them quite a lot, actually, but never for any great distance (the longest an hour and a half journey to my parents’ place). Usually, it’s a quick trip to the vet’s or a trip to the park with the dogs. No big deal. But one thousand miles? This required far more organization!

For starters, even in a car you need the right sort of pet carriers. On a short trip, I’d often just have the dogs sitting on the seat, and Princess in her carrier. She’s a great cat to travel with, don’t get me wrong, but there’s something disconcerting about a cat climbing into your lap and kneading you lovingly with her long, sharp claws when you’re stuck in traffic!

Princess’s cat carrier seemed to be a fine solution for her, although we were well aware that we’d need to stop a lot on the journey to let her out…and letting her out in a strange, unfamiliar environment was going to come with its own set of problems! (Princess does not like having a leash!)

And of course, there’s also the problem of staying in hotels along the way! Most hotels are not pet friendly places, and honestly I can’t blame them for that. But there must be some pet lovers among hotel owners!

So, what did we need to do: First, find out about pet carriers and travel accessories, find and book into pet friendly hotels along the way and at our destination, and work out an itinerary which would allow us to stop at least once an hour for the animals to get out, have a drink of water, some food if needed and stretch their legs. I said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s much harder traveling with pets than kids!

Fortunately we found a great website (www.petswelcome.com). For starters, they have an entire listing of pet friendly lodgings across the United States and other international destinations, which is an invaluable resource when planning a cross country journey and they also have a ton of information about traveling with pets. Making a search for lodgings was very easy. You must select the state, then the town or city and you’re good to go! My one warning is this…while there are a heap of pet friendly hotels, many only let you have one pet per room…

And I gotta tell you this – there is no way we’re paying for three rooms! Ideally we were looking for hotels where a) you could have any number of pets, b) where pets don’t have to be kept in cages and c) where there are some “pet friendly” areas out side, or nearby where you can let them run around.

Fortunately, we managed to find hotels which would mostly accommodate our needs. In other words, as long as we got a) and b) it wasn’t too bad! The dogs love walkies on their leashes, wherever they are, and Princes is learning to accommodate a leash.