October 29th – (Friday) back in Vancouver! The flight was mostly uneventful, except for the little boy named Spencer that screamed for the entire 5 hours from Philly How did I know his name you ask? Because the guy sitting behind Spencer and his parents, the Snow Boarded Dude, kept trying to make friends with him to get him to stop crying. For most of this, I put my head phones and watched a movie. I then turned on my IPod and listened to music for the next 2 ½ hours. With about 15 minutes until touchdown in Utah, Snow Boarder Dude seemed to reach his limit. He leaned over the seat and said to Spencer… “Little Dude, do you know what they do with crying kids? They throw them off the plane. I don’t want to see them open that door and throw you out, so you need to make all these nice people happy and stop screaming.” Spencer kept screaming – Snow Boarder = 0 / Spencer = 1 (epic fail). 15 minutes later when we landed in Utah, I was one of the last people to get off the plane. As I walked through the door of the plane, there was a crowd gathered and things were starting to back up. I realized that the commotion was the 10 police officers handcuffing Snow Boarder Dude for threatening Spencer. The last thing I heard him say was that Spencer’s parents took it all out of context and that he really didn’t mean that he was going to throw their kid off the plane. Man, some people are just so sensitive.
The flight from Utah to Portland was great! Bad Dog picked me up at the airport with the Little Squirt in tow. I was happy to see them both! We headed to the Doggie Dude Ranch (aka Kimi K’s place). As usual, Lucy rolled the Little Squirt when she walked in the door. Lucy doesn’t like being left home.
October 30th – (Saturday) – Today we went to the Multnomah Falls. It was pouring rain the entire day so Bad Dog said that I was truly getting to experience Washington at its finest…… Even in the rain, it was fantastic. Not a good hair day, but I’m not sure there is no such a thing as a good hair day in Washington. Saturday night we met a bunch of Bad Dog’s friends at a local pub. The beer was great and the meeting up with friends was great too. As usual it was raining……… As we were leaving the bar and being the East coast pup that I am, I decided that I really didn’t want to get rained on again so I dashed across the parking lot to the car. As my feet left the ground to jump up on a curb, I realized that the curb was painted for “no parking” and it was slick with rain. Did you ever have that moment in time when you know something is a bad idea, but that thought comes a little too late…… This was one of those moments! As I expected my boot to grip the sidewalk, it didn’t and I slid across the sidewalk spinning out of control and landed on my back in a collection of rain water. So much for not getting wet! And as usual when I fall down, which is turning out to be more frequent as of late, I knew I hurt my knee, butI jumped up in hopes that no one saw it. Wrong……Glen and Daphne caught the performance as quick as it was. It was during the time when I was laying on the ground in the puddle, that I realized once again that my 48 year old body doesn’t respond like the 18 year old body I used to have. When we got back to the RV, I could tell that my knee took some of the impact as it was starting to swell and bruise. I also have this lovely little pea sized nugget that is sliding around on my knee cap. I guess I should call the Dr. so I can go in to see her when I get home…. At this point, it’s not time for an ER visit, but that will be re-evaluated at a later date. (update – you know it’s not a good sign when the Dr. touches the nugget on your knee and jumps back and and says – ewweeee. SHe said it just surprised her that it moved.) X-rays to come later.
Oh and by the way Daphne and Melissa – People’s sexiest man for 2010 – RYAN REYNOLDS – was #1 on my alternative (sounds like) bucket list.
October 31st – (Sunday – Happy Halloween) This morning when we woke up, it was just a little chilly willy in the RV. Our propane had run out during the night and the heat went off. It wasn’t a big deal as we were pulling out today and would stop to empty tanks and fill up on propane and gas. As Bad Dog and I were making the last minute checks to make sure that the overhead bins were closed and that the tray tables were securely fastened, the Crew went outside for the last time. I asked Bad Dog if it was ok that they were out front and he growled that they had been here for 2 weeks and it wasn’t a problem…. Just askin!
Everything was ready to go and I went outside to feed the Crew before takeoff. I couldn’t find the Little Squirt or the Psycho anywhere. The Beast was hanging out on the runway. I walked around the front a rear yards and still couldn’t find the Crew. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a white truck with vented sides pull into the driveway next to the Doggie Dude Ranch. I thought, hmmm that looks a lot like an animal control truck. I then looked through the fence and saw the Psycho running rampant through the neighbor’s yard, with the Doggie Law Lady chasing her! The Little Squirt, pink fur jacket and all, was in the animal control lady’s arms. As I ran up to the fence to the Psycho, the animal control lady yells, “Is that your dog”. Sheepishly I said yes. She asked, “is this yours too?” as she held up the Little Squirt in her pink fur coat. “Ummm, yes”, I replied. She then said, “well I can’t catch that one”, pointing to the Psycho, “But I will bring this cute little one back to you”.
As I hustled the Beast back into the RV, thinking that an encounter with the Beast was the last thing we needed to make a good impression with the law. The Doggie Law Lady drove up with the Little Squirt in her lap as Bad Dog was trying to coax the Psycho through the fence. The animal control lady said that since the Little Squirt looked so cute in her pink fur coat, she wouldn’t give us a ticket. As she looked as the RV and saw the BAD DOG ROAD TRIP vinyl on the back, she asked “you’ all are not from around here huh?” “I’m not going to give you a ticket because this little thing in the pink coat is so cute.” She handed the Little Squirt to me and just laughed and shook her head and got back into her truck. I thought it might be pressing our luck to ask for her to hold the Little Squirt and the Psycho in back of the RV so we could get her picture. I wished I would have asked. We placed the CONVICTS in the RV and headed out to meet Mama Wanna and Kimi K for breakfast.
After breakfast we headed out by way of Mt. Hood and the Oregon Trail. The mountain was amazing, the snow was like nothing I have felt on the east coast, and the air felt healing to breathe! Any thoughts as to if I would move here?
We spent the night in Bend, Oregon in an amazing little town! We ate pizza at Cibilli’s Pizza while we did laundry because the Little Squirt once again earned her name. I think we need to take her back –she’s broken – she leaks……… We then parked for the night at Ana’s Reservoir RV Park, another great place. When we pulled in for the night it was dark. We drove down this little back road in the complete darkness and found this RV Park. It looked desolate and there was only one other coach in the park. At 6:00 am, when the rooster from the farm next door woke me up, I took the convicts and the Beast outside. There were cows mooing up a storm next door and the rooster was in full cock-a-doodle-doo mode. Bad Dog slept through it.
I made coffee, went and grabbed a shower in this a great little bath-house. A long hot shower was in dire need. As I went back to the RV and opened the front door, the Psycho bounded out and headed for the cattle farm! Needless to say, I was in slippers and I still had a towel on my head. Bad Dog came out and tried to help wrangle her, but I told him to go grab a shower (since he had not had a real shower with unlimited hot water for over 3 weeks) and I would get her. 30 agonizing minutes later I caught her. The Psycho had squeezed through the farmers fence and she was trying to make friends with the cows, the sheep and the rooster! Needless to say, she was not on the favorites list….. Mine or the farmers. I swear she must think her name is “Lucy NO!”
November 1st (Monday) – Today we finished off Oregon, California and entered Nevada. We were on the road most of the day. We stopped in Fallon, just south of Reno Nevada at an RV Park before heading to Las Vegas in the AM.
November 2nd (Tuesday). We got up this morning and headed to Vegas. We pulled into Vegas and I was amazed. Vegas had been on my bucket list for so long. Just looking at the lights brought a smile to my face. We stayed at Circus Circus KOA Park. We settled in and took the crew out for a walk and then hit the strip. We walked down Las Vegas Blvd. to Treasure Island, the Palazzo, the Mirage, the Encore and the Wynn. All were amazing. I thought it was hysterical that there were guys standing on the street corners wearing shirts that said, “If you want a girl, I can have one here in less than 40 minutes!, any kind you like!” I guess the big thing in Vegas is baseball card hookers. They were everywhere – like business cards. You know, name, number stats, activities etc.
We walked back to Circus Circus so I could gamble a little. Bad Dog isn’t a gambler so this was all me! We bought $30 in chips and I decided to play blackjack. I won about $45 and decided to walk away a winner when the guy next to me fired up a cigarette. Being an ex-smoker – the part of Vegas that was totally disgusting was the amount of smoke in the casinos. I wanted to play roulette but the only open spots were in between two people smoking and that wasn’t happening. How can people sit there and play with a two inch ash hanging off a cigarette and a cloud of smoke surrounding their heads? How can people sit next to that? Without any non smoking options, I found a craps table where no one was smoking! Woot Woot!
Playing at that table proved to be my downfall. I gave it all back in under 10 minutes. I only wanted to play long enough to roll the dice. As I got the dice in my hand and I was ready to throw, a Drunk British Guy asks me, “How do you play this game?” Really? Drunk British Guy, I have freaking dice in my hand and money on the table and you think that I want to take the time to tutor you on the basics of craps? F’ing Really? He then proceeded to say, “This looks really hard to play, how does it work?” AGAIN, F’ing Really? I looked at him and said, “Dude, I’m losing money, I’m the last person you should ask.” At that point I threw the dice and started to win. It didn’t last long………… Bad Dog growled that I should have walked away a winner, but I didn’t listen. Go figure? But seriously, it didn’t matter if I won or lost, I just wanted to play game. Yeah, right……I wanted to WIN! All in all, we spent $30 and I got to check Las Vegas off my bucket list.
In the morning, we took the crew out for daily business. I was freaking out telling Bad Dog not to let the crew eat the Deer scat on the ground because we had a bad experience with that on the trip out. Deer poop + Doggie Digestion = messy clean up – nuff said…. No need for details. Anyway, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Have you seen a deer in Vegas?” Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen a single deer. So what were all of these little black nuggets on the ground? It took me a while to figure it out….all I had to do was look up at the trees in the park. The RV Park was an olive grove. Doh!
November 3rd (Wednesday) This morning we left Vegas in search of the Hoover Dam. I now realize the Hoover Dam isn’t that easy to find. We missed the turn, went over the dam and had toturn around. Bad Dog pulled off the road and thought that this little gravel road may be a throughway to the parking lot. IT WASN’T. It was a little single lane gravel road that went up and down and left and right and into the valley of the dam. Just as Bad Dog decided that this may not be such a good idea, we stopped the RV and he turned it around. The off road thing in an RV that is 29 foot long was fun. Not that I want to do it again, but it is something we can laugh about now. After the Dam, we finished up the day in Flaggstaff Arizona and called it a night at the Flinstones RV Park.
November 4th (Thursday) – Grand Canyon Day! What an amazing day! We were complete tourists today and took hundreds of pictures. The Little Squirt got to sit on the wall of the Grand Canyon. We actually climbed down a few of the picture stops and as usual, I did some pretty stupid things, which I would do all over again. The one thing that sticks out in my mind is Bad Dog’s words of wisdom…….. “It’s much easier to climb up than it is to climb down.” True Dat. The Grand Canyon couldn’t possibly be captured in my words, so take a look at the pics. We ended the day at the Grand Canyon Outpost. We gather a bunch of beer. Beer named Chicken Killer, Asylum, some Arrogant Bastard, and a few others. It was a good night.
November 5th (Friday) – 607 miles today. We stopped in Amarillo at an Iron Skillet to see if we could find a “Texas” sticker. Negative. Since it was 9:30 – oh wait it was 11:30 since we lost 2 hours from west coast time to central time we decided to spend the night there. Bad Dog parked the RV in the trucker lot. We stuck out like a sore thumb…….we were the only RV in sight. In fact we were the only RV in the entire place.
November 6th (Saturday) We left Amarillo and we were hoping to get at least 700 miles for the day. Hope was good. Bad Dog drove us through Texas, Oklahoma and we landed in Arkansas. Late Saturday night we pulled into a Flying J to fill up the tank and Bad Dog kept going. He drove through the night and I slept in the bed. We finally pulled over and Bad Dog hit the sack and I took over driving.
November 7th (Sunday) We arrived home safe and sound. Once again, I apologize for not finishing this when we got home. Next time I will be more diligent.
the River City Wine and Jazz Festival where they had beer and wines from all over the area that you could sample for a small fee of $15.00 per person.
