Pride on the move: Travel Journal – Saturday

Having worn Cub completely out the prior day, he lets us sleep in all the way until 9:00. The various members of the Cat family do their various morning routines, with the adults taking turns shepherding the offspring towards something resembling preparedness.

Food follows, then we all climb into the Catmobile again; Mama Cat has errands to run. Down off the mountain and into the madding crowd of motorcyclists. I notice several businesses in town that are no longer open, and this reaffirms my general opinion of Indian business sense. Exhibit A: in a time of unprecedented building and growth on the reservation, the only hardware/lumber store in the area has gone out of business because the owner’s prices were too high. I was taken with an impulse to call him up and remind him that historically, the Cherokee didn’t scalp people, and the fact that he had a local monopoly was no reason to break with tradition. Exhibit B: The Indian-owned motorcycle repair shop was closed for the weekend, while the white-owned repair shop was open and had a huge crowd. Let’s see…50,000 motorcyclists have come to my neighborhood, far from their usual mechanics and parts suppliers. I make my living doing mechanical work on motorcycles. Nah…no reason for me to stay open. Dumbass. You deserve to fail.

Errands take us into neighboring counties, and we chew up the afternoon. I make a quick side trip to a local library in order to get an Internet fix, and this allows me to drive back to the cottage without shaking too badly.

Another dinner, and then Mrs. Cat and I head back to town, ostensibly to pick up some more kibble for Cub, but really to snag an hour alone. On the way back, we run into a multi-departmental cooperative task force, who has set up a D.U.I. checkpoint at one of the three exits from the reservation. They had pulled no less than thirty vehicles into the median and since it was just after dark, most of them had their lights on. I was sorely tempted to crank up some techno music, but Mrs. Cat dissuaded me by the simple act of threatening to break my paw if I reached for the CD carrier. (She knows me so well.)

We demonstrated that we were law-abiding kitties, properly papered, just taking some milk home to the pride, and we were allowed to continue. I thought the whole thing was overkill since the road they had staked out can be closed by a big gate in the case of treacherous weather. It would have taken three people maximum to run the checkpoint. Four if you wanted a transport van there. I hope they made enough in tickets and fines to justify all the overtime. It was a groovy lightshow, though.