Migration South Day 20-22 – Miller’s Ferry Campground, Camden, MS

We made another decision to enjoy the journey instead of racing to get to the destination so we decided our next stop would be Miller’s Ferry Campground, yet another Army Corps of Engineers campground near Camden, Alabama. It was only 107 miles closer to our eventual destination but it is such a nice place we had to stop. We had a leisurely breakfast, packed up slow and easy, and drove at a nice easy pace on quiet back country roads. We made a stop at a lumber yard to pick up some replacement wood planks for parking our trailer on if the ground is soggy. (The ones we had were splitting.) Plus I needed to get some new connectors for that overheating melted connection.

Misty practicing loose leash and sit-stay under some Spanish Moss.

Everyone I know in the RVing community has been robbed or cheated at least once. So far we have been very lucky and it hasn’t happened to us. We have been told criminals tend to target Canadians because they know we are unlikely to be carrying guns. I credit the alert dogs we always have with us. We nearly got robbed again and again, the dog saved the day. We were in the back of the lumber yard chatting with the nice young man who was cutting our 12 foot board for us and I had foolishly left the truck window down half way with my purse in plain view. Suddenly, I heard our Misty giving her alarm bark. It’s a very impressive big booming “Rowr! Rowr! Rowr!” Though she’s gentle as a kitten she has a set of big white teeth many alligators would be intimidated by. I looked up just in time to see a man pulling his arm, hand empty, out of the truck and then watching him run off as if a demon were chasing him. Misty was really angry and she wouldn’t calm down as quickly as she usual does. I gave her the command that all was well now, praised her up for the alert, and she finally put her hackles down and laid down again in back. I wonder if that apparent would be purse thief got himself a bad start when this 70 pound black dog rose up from where she had been sleeping in the back to give her big booming alert bark. I hope he soiled himself! He sure pissed our Misty off. Misty was madder at him than she was at those herons.

The dock at our campsite.

We arrived at Miller’s Creek just after 1:00pm and then settled in to a lovely spot. We even had our own private dock! My first job was fixing that loose connection. Again, birds, open space, wonderful scenery, flowing stream. This park is very popular and so even for winter it was about one quarter full. We have several lovely long walks. The sun was shining all day. The temperatures were not quite at T shirt level but a sweet pleasure.We stayed two nights. They had a nice laundry for only $1/load so we got caught up on that chore. We met a nice couple who showed off their fancy Bigfoot trailer and shared lots of advice to consider for our next travel trailer.

We found we were back in Spanish moss territory. We also found a whole lot of bamboo. Bamboo may not be native to North American but it has to be the nicest grass there is.

Overall it was a wonderful stay and I’m so glad we decided to travel only 107 miles that stage of our trip to take the time to enjoy Miller’s Creek. Life is too short to miss such wonderful pleasures. That stop for the sheer pleasure of it completed, we continued on our way towards the Florida PanHandle.

Migration South Day 20-22 – Twiltley Branch Campground, Collinsville, MS

Our camper in the distance. We had the whole place to ourselves.

On our way out from Minden to Collinsville we saw a gas station selling propane tank refills. I don’t mean the exchanges, I mean refilling your tank for you. $12 for our tank. We got an empty tank refilled and we topped up the gas tank. About 300 kilometres later, we pulled into a store to stock up on a few things. Just as we turned into the parking lot there was a terrific clunk and a funny noise and we stopped in a safe place and got out. One of our sway bars had come loose and was dragging on the ground. We had not put the pin that holds the lifter part of the sway bar set up back in properly so it fell out. To get to our propane tank you have to lift the tank away from the pin. We had not even lost the pin. It was still hanging there. Some angel was watching over us that day. If that had gone on the main highway in interstate traffic with big rigs all around at 55mph who knows what might have happened. As it was we were going about 10mph and just slowing to park. Lesson learned. An inspection showed us no real damage. Thank you to that guardian angel.

View outside the other window.

Twiltley Branch Campground was yet another exceptionally lovely Army Corp of Engineer’s campground. Because my husband is an American citizen, he has a senior Passport America and so the fee for us was a mere $9.50(US) a night. This was a much larger facility that Caney Lake. It had three different campground sections in it, each one holding three times more camp sites than Caney. We got a site in “loblolly” section and we had the whole place to ourselves for three days we stayed. We arrived to lovely warm sunny weather and went for a nice long walk.

By evening it had clouded over and overnight it rained and rained. To the south were some violent thunderstorms that reached severe level but not where we were. We awoke to soggy ground and wet everything but by midafternoon the sun was out and we took another nice long walk. The following morning yet another storm system was coming through (actually the back end of the one that had just passed us over to the south) so we walked down to the campground office and paid for another night. The rain started up again about half way back so we got back to our trailer feeling wet and cold. A change of clothes, a cup of hot tea and we were ready to face the world again.

View outside my window.

We had one amusing little incident with Misty. Misty is only nineteen months old and so we are still doing a lot of obedience training with her. One of our first professional dog trainers we worked with told us if you have the dog with you all the time and they see all kinds of people doing all kinds of things and if you take every opportunity to socialize them, you get a smart dog who knows what’s normal. They won’t react to normal things, only to people acting weird, in trouble or up to no good. That advice has certainly fit our experience. So we had Misty with us and while my husband was inside paying I put Misty through her sit, stay, lie down, stay, and stand stay paces. She mostly has it though stand is one she’s still working on. She does need a fair bit of reminders and she can be distracted. Anyway, she was standing beside me when the fellow in front of us came out and she looked at him. I gave her a verbal reminder to “stay” as she was shifting her body weight to go say hi. She froze. She did a perfect stand stay. She smiled her big toothy grin at him. The man stopped in his tracks. He gave me a sick smile, and then instead of passing on front of us, he went back around the office and went to his truck the long way. He was afraid of our sweet Misty even though Misty was perfectly behaved and had done nothing but look at him and give him a doggy smile. Some people find a well trained dog far scarier than an untrained one. My husband says it’s because you just never know what else a well trained dog might be trained to do. Misty is trained to alert bark at anything she thinks is weird or out of the ordinary, not attack. We have trained all our dogs that way and it has served us well. We have never had one of our dogs bite anyone.

While we had no human neighbours the lovely bays on two sides of our site had plenty of interesting feathered neighbours. We had some snowy white egrets, two great blue herons, yellow warblers, and innumerable ducks of assorted types and some western grebes in view all the time. We also had a huge osprey catch fish right outside our campsite. The Osprey carried the fish up to a tree in our campground and proceeded to gut it and fillet it right there. Of course the Osprey didn’t discard the gutted part. That was a wonderful pleasure, seeing such a magnificent bird of prey so close.

Misty seemed to think the great blue herons were some sort of vicious enemy that must be driven away. She barked and barked but they just ignored her. We kept telling her “off bird”. We expect Misty to bark a warning at strange things but we also expect her to shut up when we have investigated the cause of her alarm back and told her to ignore it. For some reason she just wouldn’t quit about the herons. We’d tell her “off bird” and she’d look at us like we were stupid. Perhaps the way they ignored her bugged her. If she barks at the other birds they would move away. The herons would just give her a dirty look and carry on. Random barking for no good reason is not something we tolerate. It meant she could not spend her usual long stretches sitting outside watching the world go by. Eventually my husband figured out that to Misty “bird” means one of those little tweeters. When he started telling her “off heron” and pointing at the heron she finally got it. We were telling her “off bird” but that great blue heron was no bird in her books. We were telling her not to worry about birds while she was telling us about the pterodactyl fishing outside the door. No wonder she thought we were being stupid!

We had another of those little RVing mishaps at Twitchley that make life interesting. After my husband showered the morning we were set to leave I smelled that ominous order that says electric short. After tracking down I discovered one of the connections to the hot water heater was hot to touch and the plastic was partially melted. Diagnosis was a loose connection. Bumping up and down in an RV going down the highway, if it can come loose, it will come loose. We needed to stop at a hardware store and to get more connectors of a larger type and better quality. Meantime the hot water heater had to stay off. That could have been very bad if it had progressed to the point of causing a fire. Life in an RV means always being aware of and following up on any little thing that seem out of order. You just never know when paying attention to a funny noise, or a weird smell, or a clunk means you prevent a disaster. He was with us again.

Migration South Day 18-20 – Beaver Lake/Caney Lake Campground – Louisiana

The trip from Bonham to our destination in Louisiana was unusually nice. We stuck to secondary highways in Texas and they were lovely and well maintained and traffic was light. We enjoyed the trip right up until we got to Louisiana and immediately hit bumps and thumps and potholes. While we stopped at a gas station the attendant complained about how they pay a road tax on every gallon of gas they buy but it never seems to get spend on fixing the roads. I agree. Of every state in the lower forty eight I have been in Louisianna has the absolute worst possible roads. Fortunately we didn’t have long to get to our National Forest Campground. We were aiming for Beaver Dam Campground, 194 Caney Lake Park Rd, near Minden. (If you ask the locals where Beaver Dam Campground is you’ll get blank looks so ask for Caney Lake Campground.) With my husband’s senior status and Passport America we were charged on $9.50/night. It is one of the few very nice National Forest campgrounds in the area and so we did not have the place to ourselves. There were several other campers including slow moving snowbirds like us heading south.

The campground is absolutely lovely. The individual sites are huge and long. There’s lots of spaces in between. They almost all look out over the lake. We took #12 which was high up on a bend with lake on two sides. We shared our campsite with Juncos and Chickadees. We arrived just as the sun was setting and the filtered light through the trees was lovely. There was only one drawback. Verizon coverage was spotty so sometimes we were able to log into internet but other times it didn’t work at all. Even when it did work it was very slow. We walked the campground loop several times including once at night in the deep dark with Misty wearing her lighted harness. Misty loved the place. Of course Misty loves just about any place full of new smells and sights.

There are two dams making Caney Lake so there is an upper lake and a lower lake. There is a lovely walk from the upper lake boat launch to the upper dam spillway. The spillway has a little pedestrian bridge and that connects to the dike of the upper dam. We have been here twice before and for some reason we never got to walk the upper dike. One of the locals had told us on our last trip that the alligators like to come up onto the upper dike and sun themselves. I wanted to get back and see this. This time we finally did it. We walked the upper dike. I kept Misty on a short leash and did not let her swim or even stick her head into the big culverts with shallow streams. If there’s water, you have to count on a dog eating gator. I watched the water carefully, especially on the upper lake side which was only six feet to water. The air was too cold for gators to be out sunning and it was cloudy anyway. We saw nothing but lovely egrets and fish jumping.

We had originally thought to stay longer at Caney Lake but the forecast was for more rain and thunderstorms so the second morning we woke up and packed and, with regret, left the lovely Caney Lake. I hope we get to come back again soon. It is one of the nicest National Forest campgrounds we’ve been in. One word of warning. The only shower there is barely lukewarm. Don’t plan on showering there unless you find cold showers refreshing. It was my first experience taking a cool shower in cold air and while it was interesting, and refreshing, I don’t think I want to do it again.

 

Migration South Day 13-18 – Bonham State Park – Texas

The weather has been particularly nasty this trip. Either that or I am growing old and can’t be bothered to deal with it. We left Fort Cobbs State Park in Oklahoma with our grey water valve frozen open and a forecast for snow for the area. (We dumped before we left and put the cap on so we weren’t dripping all the way.) It wasn’t just the snow. It was warnings about a massive low pressure system with the threat of freezing rain, flooding, thunderstorms, sleet and cold, in addition to snow. Examining the forecast, it was clear we had three options. First, we could race east as fast as possible and hope to stay one step ahead of this mess. Second, we could just wing it and take the weather as it came. Third, we could do what we did when faced with the nasty blizzard in Nebraska/Kansas only a couple of weeks ago and find a good spot to sit it out and let it pass us by. We checked the map and noticed a really nice state park we had stayed at before that was sitting pretty outside the worst of the rain/thunderstorm region of the big storm but below the freeze/snow line. It was a very reasonable four hours of driving. We made for Bonham State Park in north east Texas.

I had been really surprised on my trip through eastern Texas last year. Until I saw eastern Texas, I thought all of Texas was open desert, bleak, windy, dry and hot. Eastern Texas is lovely, treed, green, and has abundant lakes and streams and even low rolling hills. It was a pleasure to be back. This state park itself is small. There are live in rangers/staff so it’s well run. Its main feature is a little jewel of a lake with a road that circles it. It has abundant woods with some really old trees and the place is criss crossed with trails. It is very close to the town of Bonhom and it gets a lot of day use by the locals. It is a favourite spot for local dog owners to bring their dogs and walk the 4 km (2.5 mi) perimeter road. It has a park feel, not a wild place feel. Normally, I prefer the wild place feel, but after just spending a lot of time in the wild places of Oklahoma I was ready for a little park experience. I was concerned because the main road into the park had warning signs about it having a bad habit of flooding. The ranger assured us it was not a worry because he knew the back roads and if the main road was blocked, he would personally lead us out along the higher back roads. We decided to sit this storm system out in a safe comfortable place. Given the forecast, that meant five nights.We pulled in and paid the $160 in assorted fees to stay five nights on a full service site with marginal but useable internet. ($24/night for the site and $4 a day each for park use fees.)

The first afternoon after we arrived was really nice. We took a nice walk. We enjoyed the pretty park. The second day the forecast was for rain to begin at noon so we got going early and had a second lovely long walk with Misty on the 27ft lunge line. The rain began promptly at noon as forecast. We had a quiet day of writing, napping and watching old reruns on the TV stations that come over the air. Daytime, the internet did not work but in the evening, once the staff went home, the internet worked well enough we could even watch a show on Netflix before bed.

The second day we had another pause in the rain and hubby dearest had an online seminar so Misty and I went for another walk around the lake. There had been a lot of rain overnight. A meandering wee little stream by the roadside we had enjoyed yesterday was now a metre wide (about a yard) torrent about 30cm (a foot) deep. We let Misty go for a swim, the last lake swim she’ll have for a while since we knew we’d be in gator country soon. The rain began again shortly after noon and it rained and rained and rained all night long. The thunderstorms and severe stuff went south. There were soon flash flood warnings everywhere and it was nice to be sitting in a pretty and sheltered spot safe above it all. The campground was no longer empty as other travellers soon joined us.

The third day was rain again, rain, rain, rain. I’ve seen prairie monsoons before but this one was one for the books. Steady drizzle interspersed with heavy downpours. Water was running everywhere and the NOAA weather map covered in bright green. It was a very good day to not be driving anywhere. Finally, as we curled up in bed, the rain slowly gave up and quit. We woke to a brilliant and very welcome morning sunshine and blue Texas skies. The other campers who had arrived in the rain packed up and left. We aren’t in a hurry and our next planned campground stop is in Louisiana under a flood advisory so we decided to stay one more day and enjoy the sunshine, the lovely state park, and de-mud the trailer. I spent the day baking bread, doing the laundry, cleaning the trailer. Work aside we took another long walk in the afternoon and then settled in for the night to get ready to move again.

As we were getting into bed one of those unexpected events that happens while you are RVing hit us. The power went out. Thinking we were facing simple breaker issue I went outside and found smoking pouring out of the power outlet. I disconnected our rig and waited. The smoke slowed. I then got a lamp out and used it to check the other outlets. Our entire row was disconnected. At this point there was only one other camper in a different row and they had power. It was late Sunday night and we just didn’t want to deal with it. We put our landlines away and turned the propane on and went to bed. We left a note for the ranger about the outlet and went to bed. We woke up at six in the morning and we packed up and left for Louisiana.

Migration South Day 13-15 – Fort Cobbs State Park, Oklahoma

Geese. Hundreds of geese, no thousands of Canada Geese plus hundreds of white pelicans and in among those birds, ducks, cormorants, and a few chickadees and blackbirds. The park was lovely, next to a busy golf course. We found a lot of yellow golf balls near the driving range. We had only one other occupant in the entire campground. There was a big private dock that was busy with people and boats. It was delightful.

We followed our usual rule of travel one day rest one day. The first day was nice and warm so we walked and walked and enjoyed our arrival day. The site was lovely, great view and full service. Full service campsites in state parks are few and far between. The next day was cold and windy so we went for one walk with Misty and otherwise huddled in our trailer writing. I made a lovely beef stew in the slow cooker.

One big drawback to this spot was it was full of those little grass seed balls with the sticky spikes all over. This meant we spent a lot of time picking stickers out of everything from Misty’s feet to our bed sheets as the nasty little things traveled everywhere. Even so the sight of all these geese was so magnificent and so uplifting I really didn’t care about the stickers. Every so often for no reason we could understand all of them would take to the air and circle above in a great roar of wings and calls. Misty spent hours literally sitting outside watching the geese. Unfortunately the weather changed and snow was forecast and so we left for Bonham State Park Texas which promised to be warmer though it could hardly be any finer.

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Migration South Day 10-12 – Great Salt Plains State Park, Oklahoma

The short trip between the Wellington KOA and the Great Salt Plains State Park turned out to be a treat. The weather was lovely and warm. The scenery was lovely and we got a little whimsy for joy from a farmer. Have I mentioned I love the open plains? It was as wide and as open as could be. We pulled into the State Park and were delighted to have the entire campground to ourselves. The first day was warm and sunny and we liked it so much we mused about staying for a month. The next day it got cold and windy and we took a long walk but it was not warm enough for it to be pleasant.

The view was beyond spectacular. Directly across from us was a neat red cliff, reminders of Utah. There was a big dam with three tiers of spillways so we got to listen to the sound of a waterfall all night. I liked the “waterfall” while Dick was most interested in the diatom scum in the pool.

Having a whole campground to ourselves was really nice. Misty kind of accidentally on purpose got away from us and went for a nice long run. Fortunately all that recall training worked and she came right away when called. The river had pelicans in it and Misty alerted us every time they came near. She also let us know when horsemen went by which they did frequently.

Friday night the thunderstorms rolled by as forecast but, as forecast, nothing severe came near us. We got some rain and we heard some rumbles but we didn’t have to run to the shelter/bathroom. The next day we had planned to leave but the wind was ferocious. We decided to unhitch and go for a drive since it was too windy to travel with the trailer. First we paid for another night at the park.

The trip we took was out to the selenite crystal digging spot. During the summer you can walk out to that salt flat and dig up lovely selenite crystals. The place is closed in winter to protect the migrating birds. We could only look from the gate. We have some crystals so we didn’t feel a need to dig anyway. The wind was incredible, huge dust devils over the dirt fields. There were pump jacks everywhere. We stopped into a local grocery store in Cherokee Oklahoma. That was fun because we got to see different brands of foods and other neat stuff. I found some really lovely pottery with a south west theme and almost bought it, until I flipped it over. Made in China. Well it looked authentic.

Finally Sunday morning the sky was clear, the wind was low and the forecast was for snow. It was time to move south. And so we headed south to the Fort Cobb State park in south western Oklahoma.

Migration South Day 7-9 – South Kansas

We left Fort Kearney and it was freezing cold. As the day progressed and we moved south it got warmer. Our original plan was to try to get to a KOA just north of Oklahoma City. It was a long trip. Dick checked our KOA campground book and discovered there was another year round KOA near Wellington Kansas about twenty miles (32 km) or so from the border with Oklahoma. That shaved some two hours of driving so we diverted there. We settled into the Wellington KOA and signed up for two days.

We had been driving in above zero weather for about four hours and temperature was a balmy (compared to what we had been dealing with) 7C (45F). To my great relief, as soon as we hooked up to the sewer and I pulled the valves, they opened easily and the trailer drained. More important, they closed perfectly afterward. Letting your plumbing freeze up is a bad thing to do. When it freezes you can damage things. This time we got lucky.

There were a few things we really needed to do. Most important, we both needed a good hot shower. We had a big pile of laundry to do the next day. We also had tracked mud all over the trailer and it was in sore need of a good cleaning and there was a lot of stuff to sort and put away. This is why we like to check into a “proper” campground every so often. KOAs are rarely beautiful on lakesides with gorgeous views although that can happen. They are almost uniformly solid and reliable when it comes to whether the WIFI works, the cable connects, and full hookups with water and sewer are available. They are also pretty uniformly clean and well run. We have rarely been disappointed. The Wellington KOA was a better run KOA with a cheerful fellow who greeted us nicely. We settled in for a day of cleaning and catch up. The weather was lovely and we took a long walk the second afternoon. We found some neat things like a windmill and lots and lots of hedge apples and glorious junipers taller the us and magnificent cedars.

The weather reports were turning ominous though. Our area was supposed to be hit by severe weather Friday night. We did what we usually did. We changed our path to go a bit west out of the yellow hatched danger zone on the NOAA map. There was a promising state park near Enid, out of the danger zone. It was called the Great Salt Plains State Park. The drive was only 72 miles (116km) an easy hop skip and jump, so we decided to take it. We slept in, we said goodbye to the Kansas, and the very nice KOA just before check out, and by 2:00pm we were comfortably settled in a wonderful spot on the river in full view of a beautiful spillway that looked like a big two tier waterfall. Lovely!

Migrating South Day 2 – North Dakota

Our second day we planned on getting to South Dakota and staying at a state park. The distance was at the upper limit of what I like to do in a day. Nature had other plans. The forecast was not promising so we decided to just go as far as Bismark. The day started out nicely enough but soon after we got out of Minot we hit heavy fog with a stiff south east breeze. What had started out as a nice day turned bad fast. We had one nice stop at a Lewis and Clark interpretive centre but we pulled into the KOA in Bismark glad to be able to stop and wait out the fog. I was glad we did.

Fascinating Stop

Steel Buffalo

We left another Neepawa Rocks rock here.

We arrived after lunch and settled in to a nice quiet American Thanksgiving day. We had actually celebrated the Canadian version a month before but we had roasted chicken, cranberry, lehfse we got in North Dakota, and a sweet potato pie.

Fog on the Highway

Ice from the fog settling on everything

Our campsite in Bismark. Misty loved the campsite and the large doggy park.

Fog ice on the dog park fence.

Fog ice on all the trees and bushes

 

Migrating South 2018 – Day 1

Our trip south began with a new nice twist. One of the joys of living in an RV is traveling but most people, including us, get stuck in the idea of a specific destination and an urge to get to it was quickly as possible. Over time, we have found the very best trips are those where we take our time and let weather and circumstances guide the when, where and how long of pausing.

In the past, we have always started our journey south in the cold with a frenetic dash trying to get to warm climes as rapidly as possible. There are two reasons for this. First winter comes in Manitoba well before we leave and so we have to fill our water lines with antifreeze to protect the lines through the cold. Before we can use the water system again, we have to reach temperatures warm enough that the lines won’t just freeze right up on us. The second reason is there are simply very few campgrounds open in the north in November. Past trips have meant we make a long mad dash first day to Fargo, North Dakota where we spend one miserable cold night in a truck stop. We wake up early and immediately drive hard all day to get to the first full service campground on the main 29 interstate going south. That campground is in Sioux City North, South Dakota. Typically, we then stay two nights because we’re both exhausted and tired and need showers and a break. Then we make another mad two day drive south in order to reach Kansas or Oklahoma where the weather is better and some of the campgrounds are open. Finally, we can relax and begin to enjoy the trip.

Last year we went went to Wyoming first. In our explorations for places to stop on the way to Wyoming, I discovered there are full service campgrounds open in North and South Dakota. They are in the central and western portions and not on the 29 interstate. If you look at the map of North America you can also see that the 29 north/south interstate doesn’t actually go straight north/south. It veers off to the east. We often found ourselves following that interstate south and then having to backtrack to the east to get to some of our favourite campsites in Kansas. This year we decided to indulge ourselves and go through the central parts of the Dakotas and Nebraska and see some new territory. First stop, Minot, North Dakota where there is a full service KOA campground open year round.

The trip itself was miserable because of a stiff south east wind that made the trailer buck and fight the truck. I try to drive at precisely 55 mph or just over 90 kmh because that is the setting the trailer travels best at with reasonable gas mileage. The one time we had a sudden blow out I did not loose control and I was able to safely stop, which I attribute to not going over that speed level. The roads were not in great shape. Mostly bare but some ice spots and the south east wind meant it was tricky to keep the speed at the right level.

One very nice part was a brief stop in Neepawa to see our son and his family. We left with a bag of painted rocks compliments of Lizzie Burke from the fun group Neepawa Rocks. I learned about this group while babysitting the grandkids. We took them out to the bird sanctuary and park in Neepawa and the grandkids found painted rocks. From this I learned how it works. You find a pretty painted rock and you can either keep it or rehide it so someone else can find it. All the group asks is that you post your find on their Facebook page. I now had a whole bag of rocks to deposit on the trail south.

I left the first rock in Brandon. My husband wanted to stop for lunch but I was in my usual “Joe Gotta Go” mode. The idea of stopping made me feel so resentful. I had to give myself a mental shake. It’s the journey not the destination. If my beloved husband wants to stop for a bite to eat I need to be grateful I have a husband to enjoy a bite to eat with, not get all resentful about stopping. I decided a nice bowl of soup would turn the stop into a welcome break for me as well. I left the first rock on a ledge outside the Tim Horton’s on the number one in Brandon.

We got through customs without a hitch in spite of Misty taking a dislike to the agent and acting as if she wanted to eat him. We do encourage her to let us know about potential bad guys but we have also trained her to shut up on command and behave herself. After giving the border agent a start, and getting the shut up command, she lay quietly in the back seat grumbling in her “I’m obeying you but I am not happy with you” doggy way. She did not understand why we were ignoring her warning and letting this bad guy search our truck and trailer. Fortunately, our cat Klinger remained unseen as the agent searched the trailer. Klinger is usually a friendly cat but he has occasionally expressed the same opinion about border guards and he is not as obedient as Misty. It was a female border guard who gave Klinger the nickname “that f*cking demon cat from hell” after one of his “I don’t like you” greetings. She had startled him in his hiding place while searching for contraband. Since then I always warn them the cat is in the trailer and I say he hates everyone but me.

The trip from the border to Minot was uneventful. We saw a herd of four cow moose ambling across the field. One thing very nice about being off the interstate is you don’t have many big semis and so traveling was much easier. Once in Minot we pulled into a Walmart to stock up. The list of fresh fruits and veggies permitted into the US is short and ever changing so we simply don’t bring in any. We leave all the fresh stuff with the neighbour when we depart. We stop and restock over the line. Walking around Walmart there were piles of stuff marked as for Black Friday only. As usual for Black Friday I saw nothing I wanted. It was just lots of “stuff”. There are certain foods that you can only get in the USA. I was delighted to find smoked ham make from turkey at our first stop and we stocked up. I was so looking forward to a breakfast that included a slice of fried turkey ham. The campground had a nice doggy park for Misty and she had fun running around. We saw deer and rabbits on the nature trail. It was too cold and icy to go walking but we did leave a rock behind. And so our first day of traveling turned out to be fine.

 

Post I missed. Pawdi Gras 2018

In February we took our pup Misty to Pawdi Gras, an annual Humane Society fund raiser in Apalachicola Florida. We had attended the event with Fred and Trusty two years before. The two dogs had a blast, especially Trusty who could never resist an opportunity to be admired and to pose for pictures. I figured this might be fun for Misty and since she was eleven months old, also great opportunity to socialize and train her. She did indeed have a blast.

Misty kept looking up at me with this expression of bewildered delight.

Many merchants, and other doggy type businesses put up kiosks in the park area and they sell all the things dog related. We are all there for the dogs so there is little to no evidence of the political divide. I did see one pit bull dressed up as President Trump and everyone, Republican and Democrat, laughed at that. In addition to doggy things, the event is also attended by various other wildlife and animal rescue group. A band was hired to play Mardi Gras appropriate tunes. And of course there was a lot of southern food, most of it deep fried. The crowning moment was the arrival of the King and Queen, two dogs, the longest term residents in the shelter, seeking homes.

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Jack, Rita and Luiga

The event consists of everyone gathering in the town’s central park location. For $5 you can buy a wrist band that entitles you to walk your dog in the parade. For $25 you can ride the route in your golf cart. In addition assorted city officials and other dignitaries attend in floats and open cars. Everyone else lines the streets and cheers on the dogs. At the appointed time all the parade people gather in one location and everyone introduces themselves and admires everyone else dogs. We walk the six block or so of the parade route and then we hang about and chat and visit the kiosks. At least one restaurant has a dog friendly back porch so our plan was to retire there for a bite after the big event. We were delighted this year because our Florida host, Jack Rudloe of Gulf Specimen Marine Lab was in attendance with his special lady friend Jane Brandt and their two rescued part pit bulls, the ubiquitous dog of the south. We also had our guest scientist from Italy, Luiga Santella, with us to experience this insane American event.

Jack and Rita and Jane and Belle on the dock on the Apalachicola river.

Misty was totally and absolutely enthralled by the whole thing. She had never seen so many assorted dogs in one place. No matter where she turned there were doggy noses and butts to sniff. Most of them were older well behaved dogs and she took her cue from them and sat prettily when told and otherwise stayed near me. She often looked up at me for reassurance this insanity was okay. We dressed her up in a feather boa and she didn’t mind that at all. She was really excited and occasionally trembled but she was having such a good time I decided it was a positive puppy stress. When the time came to walk the parade route she joined right in. She didn’t seem to quite know what to do since half of the people were walking and half were sitting by the side cheering. She concentrated on staying near me although she couldn’t resist running up to a few cheering children sitting the curb to bestow kisses. Since this is a doggy event, all the children present were doggy savy and they accepted her exuberant puppy kisses with delight and understanding.

Jack, Rita and Luiga

 

Halfway through the walk Misty abruptly left the parade and lay down beside a nearby tire. I felt horrible. She was overwhelmed by Pawdi Gras and her poor puppy brain had apparently imploded. I knelt beside her and reassured her and then decided I would take her away. Kind strangers offered her a drink of water which she gratefully slurped up and a puppy treat appeared out of nowhere which she gulped down.  When I got up to go and head away from the crowd she resisted and strained to get into her place in the parade. I let her guide me back into the commotion and she was fine with it, tail wagging, eyes bright, a totally happy engaged dog. She had just needed a break from the excitement. I was very proud of her and how she handled the break.

After the parade we dispersed and found Jack and Jane and Misty had a joyous greeting with her best buddy, Jack’s Rita and then we wandered off to eat. Misty was mostly well behaved in the restaurant porch where we had a bite to eat. She was tired and stayed quietly at my feet with only a few reminders.

We got turned around on the trip back to the truck and we couldn’t find it. I gave Misty the command “Truck! Truck!” which means run to the truck and wait there to jump in. Misty had learned that imitating Fred. Misty knew exactly where the truck was and she pulled the right way and we followed and lo and behold there was the truck. She didn’t take the most direct route, but she instead followed the route we had taken on leaving the truck so I assume she used our scent trail from earlier to back track to the truck. We were again very proud of our clever smart girl. We loaded up and headed home. Misty fell asleep immediately. She slept deeply and on return home she voluntarily went straight to her bed and, after a long drink and a snack, she slept without a peep until morning. She twitched a lot as her sleeping puppy brain absorbed that intense happy day. Hopefully, God willing and the creek don’t rise, as they say in the south, we can do Pawdi Gras again next year.