Cats can take benadryl. However as with any human medicaction contact your vet for advice. The vet can tell you the right amount to give your animal.
I've taken him on short (crated) car trips before, and he always cried for a little bit and then went to sleep. For this trip where he was only harnessed, he didn't cry at all. He curled up between his parents and slept literally the entire time we were driving (he hated stopping for gas/food/sleep though).
If your cats really hate car rides, you could talk to your vet about some sort of anti-anxiety medication. When I told my vet we were moving, he brought up the topic without me having to ask. Or if you have someone in Ohio who the cats could stay with until you got to Arizona, you could look into petairways.com, which seems like a much safer way to ship your animals.
They only fly out of a few cities and none of them are in Ohio, so I guess you'd need to find someone willing to drive them to DC or Chicago (whichever is closest to where you are), which might be a hassle. Sorry my experience wasn't more helpful.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.