Traveling Dog

Hunnewell, MO Park

Now, I know why mom has been so busy these last couple of months working on her van.  All of a sudden, I'm living in the van!  At first I was scared of the van.  But when mom was spending so much time in it and it was open all the time, I started following the cats in it and stopped being afraid of it.

We left the evening of July 4^th. All that popping made me a little nervous. I wasn't very sure about the van either. I mostly stood in the aisle wondering when we were going to stop. After about 2 ½ hours we stopped at a truck stop and took a little walk. I kept pulling on the leash and mom kept stopping until I stopped pulling. Then she said something about not being welcome to park there, looked at the map, then we took off again. A little bit later we stopped at this great place on top of the mountains just over the border from the end of Maryland. It had a great grassy hill where we played fetch and I did my tricks. We did them again in the morning before we took off. Some people were standing down in the parking lot looking at me! She gave me some food but I was too nervous to eat. The cats wouldn't eat either and they've done this before.

Tuesday

We spent the whole day in the van going thru a bit of WV and the whole state of Ohio, finally ending up almost half way thru IN. Mom found a Menards with a nice grassy area and pond where we took a walk. Then she found a sign saying no overnight parking so we left that unfriendly place and headed for a Walmart. Then she saw a sign for a Casino and found a nice, nearly deserted level parking lot just for Semis to overnight. There was a grassy area next to a cornfield where we had a great time playing fetch and I could run dragging my leash without getting into danger. Mom was so happy because I did all my tricks almost perfectly and didn't blow her off like I do a lot at home. There's so much different in these places, I'm not going to get too far from her. After all, all good things come from her.

Wednesday

I played with my jolly ball since
mom wasn't playing with me.

Isn't this a nice place?  Except
for the heat and humidity

Another long day and it was hot outside! In the morning, I kept coming up in the aisle next to mom in the driver's seat and she pet me a bit then told me to go back. It's a new command, but I knew right away that she meant get back into the cabin part of the van. So I did. I was asking for a stop and play time. She said be patient, there's a good park a little further. And there was! It was the Ernie Pyle roadside rest with a neat covered bridge in the far west of IN. I was sooo excited. I got a really good fetch and training session. I even did well with that boring heel she wants me to do. After a good drink, I was ready to sleep all afternoon. We drove on and on and it got hotter and hotter. Mom found a really neat park called Hunnewell Lake in eastern MO where we could camp for free all by ourselves. I'm not allowed to run free but she put me on the 50' rope. She said I could go swimming in the lake.

Then it happened. I saw some geese and took off after them full speed. Mom said to leave it but I didn't and pulled her hard. She landed on her nose and shin. Smashed her glasses. Boy oh boy was she mad! She put me on a short leash then we walked back to the van where she hooked my rope to the van, put my water pail out and went inside to put ice on her injuries in the AC. After a while, she gave me some dinner and brought out my jolly ball to play with. But she wouldn't play fetch with me. She looks pretty bad now. And I never got to go swimming.

Thursday

Oberlon, KS Sappa State Park

A long day of riding. I got to go on a couple of little walks but mostly just rode in the van. I'm getting used to this drill. Mom did a lot of whimpering saying her hand hurt. By the end of the day it was less sultry. We stopped for the night at this neat park in Oberlon, KS. It is a whole lot of acres far from the road and they allow free camping. No hookups here. I got really dirty in some big puddles. There's a lake here but I didn't really want to go swimming. There's lots of room here and no one else so I got to play fetch off leash. I got lots of good exercise.