At Animal Friends Pet Insurance, we don't ensure lions, or whales, or polar bears,

but we do ensure your precious pooches, majestic

moggies and trusty steeds. And there's more. Animal Friends policies have purpose. We've

donated over £9 million to more than 800 animal charities around the world. Get pet insurance

you can be proud of. Visit AnimalFriends.co.uk. We're wildly different. Are you?

Animal friend's insurance is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, T's and C's

apply.

I started out from Cheyenne at daybreak, figuring I could knock out most of the drive to Seattle

in one long push. I'd triple-checked my old Subaru the night before, oil level, tire pressure,

emergency kit, all that stuff. Despite my careful prep, a little voice told me I was forgetting

something. I hate that voice. It always seems to show up whenever

I'm about to tackle something big. Anyway, the first couple hours were nothing special, the usual

empty highways, a few semi-trucks, and my scratchy playlist keeping me awake. Occasionally, I glanced

at the fuel gauge, telling myself I'd grab gas at the next

decent stop.

Of course, next decent stop kept getting pushed back because each exit seemed sketchier than the

last.

One was a battered rest area with no visible pumps, another had a motel that looked like a horror

movie set.

I told myself, I'll keep going. There's bound to be a

nicer station further up. After a while, the roads got lonelier, and the wide Wyoming plains

started blending into Idaho's emptiness. Clouds crawled across the sky, and an unsettling

...