Jetlag

We’ve crossed through 4 time zones over the past 2 two months, usually spending a few weeks in the new region before moving in to the next zone.  However, we’ve gone through 3 zones in 4 nights.

Traveling East to West, slowing down an hour was relatively easy on us humans, while the dogs, Rugby in particular, had issues.  

You see, Rugby knows what time it is and if he’s not being fed at the proper times (8 am and 6 pm) he lets us know. In the morning he’ll start “talking” with a soft yodeling type of sound. Once he’s out of his crate, Rugby comes and sits on our feet and gives us a sad eye look.  The body contact to make you aware of the time resumes at about 5:45 pm.

On our journey west, we’ve been able to wean him in to the new times, and within 3 or 4 days, Rugby knew his new time to eat was later than before. Now that we’re working our way east, Rugby’s loving that he gets to eat sooner then expected.

From the human point of view, it’s been the sleep point of view.  Chuck generally wakes up around 6am, and in the Central and Mountain time zones, that was still his routine. However, when we reached the Pacific zone, he slept until 7. Heading back east, the two mornings we were back to Mountain time, I awoke right at 6. Today we’re back in Central time and once again, we awoke around 6.  Mind you, except for the 2 weeks we did Habitat work, we haven’t set an alarm to wake us.  

For me, the oddest part of all these time zone changes has been the time the sun rises and sets.  Coming from Coastal Maine, where the sun rises and sets early, it’s odd to have sunrise at 7:40 in West Texas. (Sunrise in Portland ME was 6:30). The bonus to the later sunrise is a later sunset, making it easier to see as we walk the dogs at night.