I dream of a trip like this with my cat, Shadow. The vet is a 10-minute brisk walk from home, less than 5mins by car. Shadow will have howled and pooped before I’ve even backed the car off the drive and onto the road. Then he poops again on the journey, and at least once in the waiting room before he sees the vet. He even poops in the carrier on the way home again!
Hell, it depends on what personality the cat has chosen to adopt that day. My fuzzball was an angel on the long-ass trip from Sofia to Amsterdam to Chicago to San Francisco. No drugs, nothing. He was so good, it was…spooky.
Then, a few weeks later, he proceeded to embarrass the shit out of me by yowling his fool head off on a short flight between Charlotte and Detroit.
Cats is weird.
Keep them in carriers, and secure the carriers with seat belts, as you would with child seats. In a crash, unsecured cats will become ballistic objects, both to your and their detriment.
Mustbe related to Lenny. First Lenny would pee from fright. Then he would puke from car sickness. Then he’d poop everywhere. All this would happen within a block from home, but it meant poop samples were readily available for the vet.
WHen he was young, all I ever had to do was put down a towel, just in case, and put Lenny on it in the back seat with his “seatbelt” (a very small harness with a foot-and-a-half long leash that was run through the actual seatbelt). He’d snooze on the backseat. It was only went he got older that he became the spew-factory.
Quick note: You didn’t say if you were taking your own car. In case it’s a rental, check beforehand with the company about allowing pets - a lot of rental companies don’t allow pets in their rentals anymore. Enterprise definitely does not.
For hotels, La Quinta is known for being pet friendly.
:smack::smack::smack::smack:
Sorry. Completely misread that.
Wow ScarieFaerie you wouldn’t think a cat had that much poop in them.
I do have a pill delivery system. It kind of looks like a giant syringe. Pill is enclosed in the rubber flaps at the end. Pry cat’s mouth open. Stuff it down the back of the throat, depress the plunger to deliver pill. Hold cat’s mouth closed until he swallows. Not always perfect but I’ve found that if I’m fast and decisive in my movements the pill gets delivered. The old cat is currently on antibiotics for a UTI and I’ve been giving her a pill every day. I’m getting pretty good at it (though this morning I took me 3 tries)
I’m cautiously optimistic. I shudder to think of how miserable a 20 hour car ride will be with a yowling cat, not to mention a yowling cat that’s pooping, peeing and throwing up. Good times 
It’s going to be difficult to secure the carriers with seatbelts because we plan to remove all of the seats in the van to make room for our other stuff including 3 drum sets that my husband doesn’t want to put in the pod. But now that you mention it cerberus we’ll have to find some way to secure the carriers.
Oh, and thanks for the advice It’s Not Rocket Surgery! but it’s our van, not a rental.
Quartz no worries, it happens to the best of us. 
I think letting them out of their carriers is just fine - IF they don’t panic (or poop) in the car. My cat growing up was fine in the car, but not in the carrier (yowled). He drove cross country with us several times, mostly sitting on our laps and purring.
I would start working them up to the long trip by taking them on car rides in the upcoming weeks, complete with carriers and litterbox. You’ll be able to see from these trips what they are going to be like for the long one…
And learn to administer sedatives, if you haven’t already. My tried and true method is: kneel on the floor with the cat between your legs. Clamp with your knees, grab their head with one hand, force it back, and stick your thumb in the corner of their mouth so they open it; with the other hand , take the pill and stick it as far down their throat as possible. Hold their mouth closed with their head up, and stroke their throat gently. Works like a charm for all but the meanest cats, once you’ve got your technique down.
It really does. When I moved down to Texas from Illinois, I brought our cat with me in the moving van & let her run free the whole 17+ hour drive. (With regular breaks, of course!) But she absolutely hates carriers and is a perfect angel in the passenger seat. Worked out fine! OTOH, I would not in a billion years dream of trying this with any of the three cats I have since acquired here in Texas–they will travel in carriers, and at least one of them with powerful sedation, if I ever have to bring them on a trip like this.
(!! Why the fuck do I have four cats?! This has got to be listed as a symptom of something or other in DSM-IV …)