Still in Wyoming waiting on the weather to warm up enough so that I can get out of here. It has to be above 10 degrees at any stop on the trip before I can ship my furry little friend, Sidney. He’s really looking forward to warmer weather year around.
It’s looking like probably next Monday (21st) will by my launch date.
God, you may be there for six months, if it has to be above 10 in Wyoming, Montana and Colorado at the same time! Have you considered driving down to, say, St. Louis, and starting there?
Seriously, though, all your friends are looking forward to vicariously sharing your new life in paradise, and hope you are planning to do a lot of blogging and photo taking, if only to make us miserable during the winter months.
Yeah, trying to coordinate with the weather gods is difficult here in the winter. I thought of asking Pele, the volcano god, to get involved, but one never knows how she is going to do that. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for burning down Colorado or Montana.
I’m certainly hoping to get back into some sort of regular blogging, and definitely plan on doing some photography, but how quickly that will start I don’t know. The first few months at least will be getting settled and slipping into the new life, and finding a place to buy.
Hi Richard,
Are you going to “ship” Sydney by plane? (You’re talking about getting him to Hawaii, right?) If yes, can I offer a suggestion? I used to work in the airline industry. The pilots make mistakes sometimes. I don’t want to scare you, just want to give you a heads up. When you have an animal boarded in cargo, it’s always a really good idea to come on board and ask if you can say hello to the pilots. They will be doing their pre-flight check. You need to speak with the engineer after he’s gone down and walked around to check the aircraft outside and he probably will be right at boarding time. Give him/her a paper with your name and your seat number and very brief info on your cat (cat, Sydney, in cargo in a cage). Then tell him that you just want to make sure he knows an animal is in the cargo section and that you would appreciate it if, at some point during the flight, a flight attendant got with you to tell you what the temperature down there was. Pilots don’t generally tell people that they “forget” to keep the temperature warm in cargo but they do. This is your way of reminding them. If there are no animals on board, warming the cargo section of the airplane uses extra fuel that isn’t needed.
Gigi, thanks a lot for that heads up and I will definitely do that. The only issue is that when we get to Denver, we then take different flights – Sidney going to Honolulu and me going to the Big Island. I’ll definitely check on the first flight, but after that I’ll have to leave it in the hands of my spirit helpers to make sure he is taken care of.
Why does he go to Honolulu? (I’m just curious)
Here’s my thought, and I hope I’m not bugging you with this. I am such an animal lover and the cargo has to be kept warm or the animals will die…
1. Is it Denver-Honolulu, nonstop? If it’s a “direct” flight, that might mean it stops. Direct only means it’s going in the same direction. Unless they say “nonstop,” it could stop. But either way, I would clearly mark his cage “HNL” for Honolulu -in a permanent way, not just with a paper tag. Put HNL all over it so he doesn’t go somewhere else.
2. When you are in Denver, you could go to the flight that has Sydney on it and see if you can’t talk to the boarding flight attendant or someone in the crew. They can watch out for him. There’s almost always an animal lover in the crew.
Anyway, have fun. I think Frank might be right. It might be too cold and you’d have to drive. Or, you could beam yourself over. I’m jealous. I like Hawaii. I’ve never been to the Big Island but I’ve been to most of the others. Humpback whales and huge sea turtles and lots of artists and I can do without the poi. ha ha ha
alooooooooHA
I couldn’t get a “neighboring island” permit, and with the Holiday travel, even I ended up having to go to Honolulu instead of direct to Kona. Sidney will actually be traveling with me as “baggage” (don’t let him hear me say that) so we will both be on the same flights. He will be transferred from Honolulu to the big island a couple days after I get there.
It will be Denver for a change, then San Francisco then Honolulu. It looks like the Denver to Honolulu flight has been scrubbed for some reason as it is no longer showing up when I did flight searches.
Of course, the real problem, symptomatic of the problems you’re getting into, is being sure that Sidney doesn’t freeze between Oahu and the big island.
I just lost everything I wrote. Have to write it all again…
Frank, that would be a royal bummer… has anyone ever told you that you look like a fitter, more attractive version of Roger Ebert (the film critic)? :-)) <— that's a double chin
Delta has a Salt Lake City – Honolulu nonstop. I think United does, too, but I may be wrong.
Do pets get quarantined in Hawaii? I know they do in other places. Alternate idea: You could smuggle the cat on board. Of course, if you get caught, you'd be the one quarantined. I went to Cuba and wanted so badly to smuggle a pig out of there. I was in southern Cuba and that pig wound up butchered. Later, all I kept thinking about was how I wished I had bought that pig and walked it to Havana (or gotten in a car with it). My only problem was how to get it on my flight back to the states without anybody knowing. I should write about it. What do you think? Would that be funny?
kiss to Sidney from Harp (my cat)
There are three programs. A direct release program (lots of hoops to jump through), a 5 day or less (almost as many hoops) and then a 120 day quarantine for those that don’t do hoops.
I was on my way to the 5 day or less, but was side-swiped by my old veterinary hospital and had to start from scratch with a new one which messed up the schedule, so Sidney will have about 2 weeks of quarantine left when we arrive. That will actually be good since it will be one less thing for me to worry about while I’m virtually homeless for a week or so. It should give me enough time so that I actually have a place that can be “home” for him for a few months while I find a place to buy.
The thing is that they might even release him sooner than the two weeks. I’ve heard a number of people who have had two or three weeks cut off of the 120 day quarantine and gotten their pets sooner than they expected. I’ve also heard of some that due to paperwork issues (the people didn’t have what was required) where they have kept the furry little critters longer than 120 days.
I vote for cat smuggling.
Does traveling these places your job or your pleasure?
I am curious but it is okay not to answer it.
Smooth Sailing!