The great American road trip is something magical. There’s something so awesome about pointing your car in a direction, any direction, and just taking in all of the sights this country has to offer. Doing one of these trips with a great travel partner is better, but even better than that? A really cute pet.
Matt wrote a Morning Dump, which featured Isuzu’s latest brand ambassador, a really cute dog. Car brands love pets, and we do, too. My green-cheeked conures love a good road trip. They’ll stand on the side of their bird RV and happily watch the world go by in a way that they just cannot do at home. The little guy in the topshot is the late Malort, who always loved going on Gambler 500 adventures. Anyway, the comments are great. Tbird:
Our cat is a surprising little road warrior. He is good for 8-10 hours or so in the car, we know his signs when he needs to stop and use the litter pan. He will nap in his carrier, or sit on a lap watching the cars go by. I got stares a few years ago as he sat in the front seat watching the big trucks in NC. He has been to FL once from PA, and the Carolinas a number of times. We look for pet friendly hotel/condo. He accompanied us to Richmond over Memorial Day. He generally only gets restless when it’s litter pan time, which I keep bagged and ready.
He has his own little luggage with food, toys, scratcher, litter mat.
Sid Bridge:
When I was in college (Virginia Tech), I caught a ride home with my roommate, who was also tasked with transporting his sister’s beautiful white and fluffy Himalayan cat with us to Richmond.
My roommate drove a second-hand mid-1980’s Honda Accord, white with blue interior. The three-hour drive to Richmond was uneventful. The cat was super chill and spent most of the ride sitting on the rear deckboard looking out the back window.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR ANYONE TRANSPORTING A WHITE HIMALAYAN CAT IN AN OLD HONDA ACCORD WITH BLUE INTERIOR:
The material on the deckboard will degrade and break free. It will dye your cat blue. The cat turned half blue.
Oops. Heh.
Thomas Metcalf:
I had a black lab that LOVED car rides. At the time, I drove a single cab Chevy S-10. It was fairly uncomfortable with 2 people and a 90 lb dog. That was the best damn dog I ever had.
Alexk98 comes in with a hot take:
This is probably controversial, but I believe Suabru and Dodge/Ram ad campaigns are equally as cringy in how aggressively they try to push a hyper idealized image of their cars to their market. The only difference is Dodge/Ram yell about V8s to insecure conservative men, while Subaru markets to insecure, slightly outdoorsy interested people of all genders. Both are a form of car cosplay that aren’t really as good as what people think.
Finally, Thomas wrote about the time when Ford sold a car with a “lifetime” air filter. Taargus Taargus speaks the truth:
These days when I see the term “lifetime” for anything associated with a car, I run. Nothing lasts a lifetime. Hell most lifetimes don’t last a lifetime.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top photo: Mercedes Streeter
Not quite on-topic, but I once had five dogs riding in the back of my ’04 Volvo XC90, back when I was dog sitting at home around the holidays. One dog was mine (of course) and the rest were guests who just felt ‘in the mood for a ride.’
I must have taken a photo, but can’t find it for the life of me. 🙁 They were all well behaved and seemed to enjoy themselves. My own dog isn’t crazy about car rides… she mostly just lies on a dog bed whereas the last one would always have her head out the window and be getting tangled in her leash.
My current dog has a bad foot and the ‘floor’ of the XC90 is a bit too high for her to jump into w/o help. She can get into the 240 wagon or the NA Miata by herself though. 🙂
Hit and miss. They either like it, or they vomit.
I was driving a friend’s standard poodle/giant schnauzer mix home from the vet in her Prius V, and the dog just let go with a torrent of puke the literal moment we pulled into her carport. I mean: it was a sloshing lake of vomit.
Lifetime Guarantee! Or
Guaranteed for the lifetime of the part.
I dunno about “Baby Katherine Janeway”. I’m getting a strong D’vana Tendi vibe from that bird.
Had a cat who loved car trips till he learned 100% of his trips were to the vet. Till then he loved laying on the rear parcel shelf with the rear windows down.
Our little chocolate lab mix loves car rides, not really a fan of walks, which is fine as he’s on chemo so any of his output is toxic. We take him on a ride almost daily, to the ice cream shop to get a pup cup or just around neighborhoods.
One of the neighborhoods around here(house starting the LOW 1.2M’s!) has a horse stable and corrals, he really likes going by that, though in typical spacey lab form he’ll sniff out the opposite side of the car that the horses are on, all “they’re close, I can smell them!”, like other side dude, we’re 10 feet from one.
I have logged many miles with many dogs over the years, but one of my favorite single moments was moving cross country from Arizona to Florida in a 1977 Dodge Tradesman van (I still miss that thing) with a Mustang LX on a trailer behind it and all my worldly possessions inside it, and my faithful dog Limbo riding shotgun. I used to describe his mix of breeds, as best I could tell, as “Black lab/pit/chow/blockhead mix.” He was named after a Rush instrumental.
So we’re crossing from New Mexico into Texas on I-10 at sundown on travel day one, which was Labor Day weekend, and with no air conditioning, naturally all the windows were open. Just west of El Paso off I-10, there is a gigantic stockyard, with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of head of cattle milling around, and with the windows open in early September heat, you would know it was there even in the dark – phew. Limbo was dead asleep on his seat next to me, when suddenly that massive wave of cow smell hit his nostrils. He snapped awake and stood ramrod straight on the seat, with his snout stuck out the window, heaving in the most intense inhaling breaths I’ve ever heard a dog take in my life – he sounded like he was snorting rails of cow smell. He went back and forth from sticking his nose out the window to looking back over at me every once in awhile as if to say, “I don’t know what the hell I smell, but WOW do I smell a lot of it!” It was by far the most excitement he got during the actual travel portion of the trip. It was like the doggy version of me buying him a lap dance or something. He LOVED it.
There’s coffee in that birdcage!
Baby Kate would probably love “Star Trek: Prodigy” if she hasn’t already seen it. (first 2 eps are slow)
And while pets may make good travel companions, animals don’t always. A buddy of mine drives for an animal rehabilitation organization and had a very cranky peacock in his van for about 6+ hrs. Apparently not a good time. Luckily some of the more aggressive animals get drugged up beforehand.
Our dog actually hates car rides, haha. Moving cross country was not a fun time…
When I was about ten years old we had a pet goat. Once we had to take her somewhere in the pickup, but since she only wanted to stand on top of the cab she had ride inside the cab.
The highlight of the trip was when we stopped at a stoplight and a sheriff’s department K-9 patrol car pulled up next to us. The goat and the dog looked at each other and the dog went absolutely batshit crazy.
I think for the dogs, you have to start young. Out first dog went camping with us at 4 months old. We only used the carrier for road trips, so she liked using it. Second and third dogs were more lap dogs, but sometimes they would rest in the crate without the door on. We have a B van, so we put a dog nest pillow between the front seats. Our current dog (#3) gets a little bit bothered by windy roads, but it’s improved as he has gotten a little older. He’s two years old and he has figured out what “packing” looks like.
All dogs like boats, especially dinghy rides… like having head out the window and fresh air on the ears. We don’t do stand up paddle, but water dogs love that too.
When I was a kid, we would take our trailer home to pack. Our poodle would get in the trailer and not want to leave it. She did not want to be left behind!
I was reading about a guitar maker who offers a lifetime guarantee, who says “keep in mind that I’m 70 years old”
At the moment, we have a dog who can’t be boarded. This means any trip needs to be to a pet-friendly airbnb, with the accompanying road trip to the destination.
One dog (the un-bopardable one) is excited and panting the entire time, determined to smear a consistent layer of dog snot on every inch of glass he can reach. The other dog just wants to be in contact with her humans and doesn’t even look out the windows unless the car stops and she thinks we’re about to come back and give her attention.
My best road trip dog LOVED car rides, and I had a very embarrassing experience with him in VT one day. I was on my way home to Boston after working in VT for the week. TJ loved looking out the window, so I had him on the passenger seat of the Chevy (whatever followed the Astro) minivan. Luckily I had his leash tied in to the seatbelt, because I looked out he window as we passed a restaurant with a full outdoor patio to see his leash out the window and no TJ. I pulled over immediately, but I did drive by a busy restaurant dangling my beloved dog out the window by his neck.
I have two Chihuahuas that are similar to the late Malort. One doesn’t care about cars and the other is WIRED.
Also, not sure about anybody else, but every time I see a Smart car on the road I check the tags. I figure eventually it’ll be Mercedes.
This.
But what needs to be REALLY SETTLED:
“Dogs love travelling in cars”. Not every breed. Some breeds hate it. Same with cats.
And, there are cats that behave like dogs do (I am obviously biased, as you can probably tell, but still).
That brings us to Walter the cat ad. Chevrolet did a really good job with the ad (not with the L87 grenades or the valve body issues, but that is besides the point).
The ad itself is far more family friendly.
And by contrast, Dodge’s ads are mostly about recklessness. Shame.
We have taken our cat in car rides but she did panic if it was not a place she knew.
And, I had to grip her tight so as to prevent her getting out of the bag and running around when the car was moving.
Secure your cat in a suitable carrier, or don’t bring one if they hate rides. Some cats do like rides (especially in long haul trucker journeys, but those cats live most of their lives on the road and aren’t really comparable).
I missed the morning dump article, but even more I miss my old, large dog Greta whose favorite thing was going on rides in my regular cab, 2wd Tacoma. She’d fill the middle and passenger bench seat and would have her head out the window. There were times when I would do yard work and she’s fuss until I opened the door so she could sit in the truck and watch me work. Of course she would refuse to get out until I took her for a ride down the road and back. When she got really old, I would lift her into the truck and we would just drive to nowhere. It was her happy place. On her last day, she was very sore but rested her head on the window sill and we drove very gently around for a while before we went to the vet. Greta’s last ride was the most memorable drive and she was the best dog I have ever had and will have. Our two current Greater Swiss Mountain dogs are very nice, but Greta was the one we rescued and was the best.
Sounds like a wonderful companion, so sorry for your loss.