Well, I'm home, the cats are home, and we are having one big lovefest except for Muffin's usual hostility towards Mishka. She went out this morning with the express purpose of bounding up to him and giving him a swat across the nose. He responded as if it were a game but she meant business. This will last another 48 hours or so until she's reassured she's my favorite girl cat, and then she'll settle back into her usual routine. I watched TV one night and saw a special documentary on the Humane Society of the US, and the work they did two weeks after Katrina hit. It was pretty sad. Most of the people who had evacuated expected to be back in days, so they left the animals locked in the houses. The ones who were left outside or got outside for themselves were actually better off, although nothing guaranteed survival. They said it went so badly that when New Orleans had to be evacuated again for Rita, the government told the people to take their animals with them. When the feds learn a lesson you KNOW it was learned hard. Seeing all the tearful reunions, mostly dogs and their owners, I missed my cats deeply at that point, and will make myself up a survival kit for them with a water bottle and some necessities, that I can just grab and throw in the car (or maybe I'll keep it in the car). I think cats are more wary of strangers and would not survive as well as a dog.
Anyway, the trip back was fairly uneventful. I left Macroom about noonish after having "breakfast" with Lisa at a bakery there. I asked TomTom to take me back to Waterford but it gave me a route that went north, whereas I was pretty sure there was a more direct route. The last software upgrade was pretty muscular and now it has a very accessible "find alternate" option, which I pressed and which gave me the route I was looking for. I did what it told me for the most part, except once, when it told me to turn left but I noticed a wind farm straight ahead of me. I ignored the turn and went out and photographed the Richfield Wind Farm and then took the back route back to where it told me to.
I got back to Rosslare Harbour about 1700 and checked into the hotel. The receptionist remembered me and gave me the room next door to the one I'd had a week earlier. It might have been in a different hotel. The lock on the door was a standard door lock and had to be relocked every time I used the key. The toilet needed three pumps on the handle to flush, there was something electric that turned itself on and off all night somewhere in the walls, and it was so hot that around 0230 I got up and opened the balcony door, the heck with burglars and rapists. The diuretic hit me hard that night as well, so I didn't get much more than 45 minutes of sleep at any stretch. The next morning the shower worked just long enough for me to wash my hair, at which point it suddenly turned way too hot for me to stand under. Nothing I did made it less hot, and some things I did made it more so, so I eventually gave up and just did a "helmet wash" in the sink. I reported it before leaving and they said the whole hot water system needed to be replaced because things were failing on it right and left. From the state of the hotel in general, I felt for them, as it would probably take the good part of a year's profits to do. The people were great, the restaurant wonderful, the hotel is obviously in deep need of refurbishment.
I was in line at the ferry well before the 0845 departure time and boarded without incident. They tucked my car between four parked tractor trailers, right at the lift again. I went upstairs, armed with my book, my iPod, and my bag of M&Ms, and staked out a comfy corner seat. I heard them advertising that there were some spare cabins left if anyone was interested in upgrading, but silly me decided I could sleep just fine where I was. I got about half an hour with Enya droning in my ear, but even she couldn't drown out a toddler running past and yelling that excited yell of happiness. I couldn't be mad at that but I couldn't get back to sleep again either. By the time we approached Pembroke, I was Robot Chickened out, feeling a bit grimy from my lack of a true shower, and truly afraid of the six-hour drive I had ahead of me.
We were about half an hour late docking because we'd had to slow to pass a troop transport at Milford Haven. There was another car parked next to me, and as soon as some cars started their engines, this guy peeled out and disappeared. They had said to not do anything until you were told to, but I was hidden behind all those transport rigs, so after they let one line of cars go, I started mine and angled the Focus so that I could see the end of the next line (there were only two lines, so I would be the last off that deck). My intention was to go after they had finished, but no one moved. I still couldn't see toward the front of the ship, but a few minutes later a ship worker came peering around the end of the trailers. He caught my eye and motioned for me to leave, so I did. I guess they were trying to figure out where I was, since I hadn't left when the other guy did! I left the ship in some trepidation because I was transporting contraband, but there wasn't even a ghost of a customs agent there and within moments I was part of the twice-a-day traffic jam in Pembroke. Raspberry Sundae had made it through!
The trip back was uneventful except for the one time I did briefly go to sleep behind the wheel. I woke up as my car was drifting over the line and the shock was enough to keep me well awake the rest of the way home. The next time, I will book a cabin and have a nap and a quick shower before disembarking -- the extra expense is worth it.
I went to the cattery without going home, having called Jill three hours previously from a rest stop south of Birmingham to let her know I was on the way. The two were waiting for me in their baskets, as Jill had had to clean one of the kennels immediately as she was getting a new tenant for it the next morning. We made it home, they explored (and Muffin hissed every time she saw Mishka) while I dragged everything out of the car and into the entryway. We were in bed and asleep by 10:00, and both of them ended up on top of me at some point during the night. I slept like a log despite the pills and woke up this morning in a state of complete bliss. I had a great vacation, did absolutely nothing except walk around interesting places and drink and talk and eat good food, and it feels so good to be home I know I'm still caught up in the euphoria of the trip. When I start to realize how much clutter there is still around, I'll get depressed again, but this was great.
I'll make a few more entries for things I missed, but this is really the end of it.
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