Acadia and I won’t go to Bar Harbor this year, but we will go to Ocracoke Island. We’ll stay at a pet-friendly motel there called The Island Inn and hope that its 32 Trip Advisor “excellent” ratings were posted by people whose reasonable expectations were exceeded, whereas its 28 “terrible” ratings were posted by people whose loveless marriages predispose them to hate everything, including themselves.

Madness: Driving 438 miles to the Cedar Island Ferry with a six-month-old cat in the seat beside me (and the seat behind me) (and the trunk).

Method: Getting cat accustomed to using her litterbox in transit by driving with her to places that aren’t as far away as the Cedar Island Ferry, but are considerably farther away that the other side of town, which distance she’s travelled many times.

Difficulty rating: (unknown)