"Brock whimpered fitfully as he lay curled up on the motel bed beside me, a soft crinkling sound as he shifted slightly in response to my gentle stroking of his back. It had been a very trying day for both of us, but for him, it must have been pure torture. It had all started before we had even left our apartment in Denver. I was honestly surprised that he'd insisted on going ahead with the trip despite his unexpected regression the night before, but it had been the right thing to do. Brock needed to get out into the world again, whatever condition he might be in, so I was proud of him for taking these steps.

Even getting out of the apartment had been a major chore. Breakfast wasn't quite as messy as usual because we kept it pretty simple, but that still meant that Brock needed a bath afterwards to get the jam out of his fur. Problem was, he was so anxious to be on the road, so nervous and apprehensive about seeing his old friends again that he couldn't sit still, and bathtime was far from its usual relaxing and enjoyable time for both of us. His fidgeting ended up making a horrific mess of the bathroom, which I then had to clean up along with the kitchen, while he paced the living room like a wild animal trapped in a cage.

Finally able to shower and get myself ready to go, Brock had been snapping and snarling at me for delaying things with my slowness, and even though he did manage to calm himself down enough to apologize, he did say some hurtful things. Thats one of the problems with him as a cub. He can't really stop his thoughts from becoming words, and sometimes this can lead to really awkward or hurtful situations. It's not his fault. I know he would never say these things if he weren't in the state he was in, but still, sometimes it does hurt to know what's actually going through his mind.
Once we finally got on the road, he did calm down... at least for a little while. We'd never driven anywhere further away than a cross town trip, maybe half an hour or so at the longest, and it became readily apparent that this long trip was going to be... problematic. For the first hour, He seemed to be OK, keeping himself occupied with his books and toys, and aside from a few bored sighs things seemed to be fine, even though it was difficult to communicate over the road noise and drone of the engine with him in the back-seat and me up front.

Then he started getting really antsy. Fidgety. He complained that he couldn't see anything from where he was in the car, that he was bored and cramped. He wanted to move around some. Not much to be done about that, really. I could understand, he does get bored easily as a cub and tends to have a lot of energy to burn, but he got whiney, and wouldn't stop. It soon started to grate on even my nerves and I started to look for a place we could pull over for a little bit and give him a chance to move around a bit, burn off some excess energy and all that, but we were literally in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere around the Colorado / Kansas border at that point and miles away from the next rest stop."

Excerpt from A Tale of Two Badgers - Chapter 26 - Road Trip

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