Colorado! I'm told that we are "here."

The Adventure Begins

We finally made it to this place called “Boulder, Colorado.”  It’s pretty cool and I’m thinking all those days and miles in the car were worth it.  I woke up this morning and discovered that I actually have a yard now.  It’s pretty cool.  There is this little door just for me to go in and out as I please.   The thing that is neat about it is that when I go out I’m in my second favorite place ever, the yard.  When I come in the magic door, I’m in my favorite place of all-time, the kitchen.  It’s pretty sweet.  I really haven’t figured out yet how to use the door without help from my parents, but Coco is really good at it.  She said she’d teach me how to use it. 

So I was in the yard the first morning and I got in trouble for waking up the whole neighborhood.  Coco and I were outside and I smelled something funny.  When I looked up, there were 3 deer just walking down the middle of the street.  Coco and I start yelling at them, “Hey, get lost you cloven-hoofed freaks!”  They were pretty cocky and just keep strolling along.  I was doing my best to protect myself and warn everyone in the neighborhood that was still sleeping of the abominations walking down 19^th Street when the sprinklers came on.  I was trapped!  Now I needed help!  I was stuck between a fence, cascades of water, and 3 vicious deer/beasts.  I was eventually pulled to safety by my mom and the beasts made a left turn and disappeared.

Later that day, I went with my dad and Aunt Gigi to the mountains.  I’m no stranger to the mountains.  I have climbed Mt. Washington in New Hampshire and successfully rode in the backseat of a car to the top of Mount Mitchell in North Carolina.  My dad told me that I shouldn’t get too over-confident about it though.  He said both of those places are lower than where we are starting our hike from out here.

I got loose for a moment and on second thought, I think I’ll let my dad hold my leash.

Oklahoma to Boulder, Colorado: Day 5 (35 days in dog-days)

Oklahoma to Boulder, Colorado:   Day 5

I’ll be honest.  I’m scared out of my mind.  We are in Oklahoma, where the wind apparently comes with whips down the range.  Tornadoes come here, too.  To be safe, I will sleep in an area of shelter.

I have been told that today is the last day I have to be in the car.  I don’t think I can do it.  I’m beyond bored and I’m still having anxiety about rumble bars.  I don’t want to be left behind, however.  My parents have left the hotel room, which concerns me.  The car is still in front of the room so I guess I’ll keep my eye on it.  If it moves I’m going to freak out.

I thought I had a pretty good handle on the world until day.  I thought rumble bars where the scariest thing that I’d encounter while I was riding in the backseat.  Now I know that cattle guards are worse and I will be riding on someone’s lap each time we cross one.   I will try to soothe my anxiety one more time with the stupid peanut butter and treat stuffed thing my dad bought me.

Holy crap!  What the @$!#  is that?!!  It is right outside the car!  What is the deal here?  Am I expected to protect everyone? Or  is it every dog for themselves?  Regardless, I’ll be cowering in the backseat until we hit another cattleguard.

Now my parents want to go for a little hike.  Seriously?  Have they seen what’s out there?  There are big woolly things with horns that smell like beef jerky.  I can say for certain that they ARE NOT scared of me.

It’s official.  I’m never getting out of the car again.

Where did all the trees go?  What happens when I have to pee?

Still not in Colorado.  I’m given melatonin so I can relax.  I may be too tired to stand up but I’m still going to lay in the backseat and freak out about rumble bars, cattle guards, buffalo, prairie dogs, deer,  Texas longhorns, the lack of trees, and the thought that we are never going to get wherever it is we are going.

Only 4 hours left and there are still no trees.  I’ve been holding it since Hollis, Oklahoma.

The Peanut Butter-ish Substance Incident

Today I met a new friend.  We were walking around this neighborhood in Jasper, AL when these two dogs came running up to us.  One was really shy and ran away pretty quickly but the other one decided to walk with us and give me a tour of the area.  My dad checked to see if the dog had a collar and it didn’t so he thought it was a stray, but she was soooo nice.

She showed me how they chase squirrels in Alabama, which is exactly how I do it in Salem, MA.  Mom and dad got worried that my new friend was going to follow us back to the hotel or maybe get run over by a car.  They didn’t want the my new friend following us.  My dad took a bunch of my treats and lured the dog back to the spot she joined us while mom and I ran back to the hotel.  Then my mom went and got my dad in the car.  I was pretty upset about my new friend not being able to come with us.  I didn’t want to ride in the car anymore either because it was boring.  I think I overhead my dad say that we were only halfway to Colorado, too.  I'm not getting in the car!

When we got in the car for the day, I was pretty upset.  I panted a lot and didn’t want to sleep or lay down.  To make matters worse, I DO NOT like rumble bars or speed bumps.  Everytime my dad saw a bird flying and took his eyes off the road for a second, he swerved onto the shoulder and hit the rumble bars.  Who can relax when you are in fear for your life?  My parents decided that I could go to Petsmart and pick another car toy to play with.  The started looking for one in Mississippi, but couldn’t find one close to our route, but I guess it is OK to stop for stupid pictures.

We went through Memphis, TN and my dad got pulled over by a police man.   We all had trouble understanding what he was saying.  My dad gave him some papers and apologized for going 58 MPH in a 40 MPH zone.  The officer asked dad for more papers and dad couldn’t find them all.  I think the officer just got frustrated with the situation and let my dad go because he didn’t want to do all the paperwork.  Dad decided just to get out of Memphis and we didn’t go to the Petsmart there.  Finally we stopped in Conway, Arkansas.  The last time I went to a Petsmart, I got a bath, tick medicine put on me, fur-minated, and attacked by a blow dryer.  Going here made me even more nervous that something else was going to happen to me.  My parents huddled up and decided to buy me an activity toy for the car.  They didn’t want me to have the stuff I picked and decided they knew what was best for me.  This Kong toy is like a ball but they stuff treats, which don’t taste very good, inside of it and I’m supposed to be all excited to figure out how they come on so I can eat them.  Also, it has grooves on the outside that hold peanut butter.  Well, it is a peanut butter flavored putty that comes out of a can like cheese whiz.  My dad spent like 25 minutes carefully filling all the cracks with this nasty putty and the inside with treats.  He was so excited to give it to me.  He placed it in the backseat with me and I checked it out and rolled it around a little bit, but the stuff tasted nasty.

So my dad is pretty upset with me right now.  He said we spent sixty bucks and incurred a 45 minute delay by going to Petsmart and there is peanut butter EVERYWHERE.  It is on the back of the seat, the floor mats, my face, my feet, and everywhere my feet and face went.  He was pretty upset.  I tried.  I messed with it for about 30 seconds, but I didn’t like it.  I said, “Nah, I’ll just stare at the back of the seat and breath heavy some more.”  And by “some more”, I meant for two more days.