Go West, Young Dogs, Go West

Westward Ho!  That's my motto for this summer.
Remember me?  I'm the one and only, beautiful Phaedra! 

Zoe and I began our Summer 2012 Road Trip this past Monday.



North Carolina is really beautiful, you know.  The trip through Asheville and on to Knoxville was fantastic.  We loved seeing the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville even though we flew by leaving that for another visit.  The Mississippi River is so wide!  The St. Louis Gateway Arch is welcomed us to the Show Me State, too.  I think we passed over the Missouri River several times as it wound around and through various cities.


We are heading cross-country and plan to visit national parks, wildlife refuges, coffee shops (can't forget those with Mama around, can we?), and the coast of Oregon with its sea lions, seals, and birds.  Then on to Northern California and the Redwoods. 


Of course, all of this is possible ONLY if we make it out of Kansas!  It has only taken us two nights so far.  Today we arrived here in Kansas. We passed the Oz Winery and remembered Dorothy.  The wind turbines we passed made us think that we weren't in Kansas anymore, but when we stopped for the night, we knew we still were in the "Sunflower State".

      Those of you who "follow" us on our travels may remember that in May of 2010 we were camping in mid-Nebraska overnight on our way to Rocky Mountain National Park.  The reason this is important is because we were located smack dab in between two tornadic cells.  Well, this afternoon before we stopped Mama started noticing the black clouds forming on the horizon.  The sun was still shining on us when we pulled in to the campground, but she asked Papa to find out where the tornado shelter was when he registered.  We learned that there is no shelter.  In case of a tornado, everyone in the campground would evacuate to the bathrooms.  Mind you, the structures are not brick or cinder-block.  Oh, no!  When Mama checked them out (you knew she'd do that, right?) she discovered that they were plain old wood structures.  She didn't think too much of that, you might imagine.  She convinced Papa to unhook the camper from the truck in case we all had to high tail it out of here.  To go where, I have no idea since there are only two places here in WaKeeney which have basements but both of them were closed.  Papa is so nice to humor Mama the way he does.  I guess that's why they will celebrate their 43rd anniversary this summer somewhere on the west coast.

Anyway, as the storms came closer and closer, we had the weather radio blaring, both phones with weather apps displaying radar, and the laptop turned to NOAA.  We could see the storm converging on this little cow-town on TV, laptop, phone, and in the sky!  There were golf ball to tennis ball size hail coming out of this storm we heard on the radio.


All of our slides were pulled in so that we would be more stable and could cope with the 60 plus mile an hour winds that were predicted.  The storm was moving so fast that it seemed like it was on the way out within 15 minutes of arriving.  We didn't get the hail, and we didn't need to evacuate even though all our bags with meds, computers, and cameras were packed and right by the door.  Almost as soon as we felt the brunt of the wind, the sun appeared in the west.  All of us were relieved when the warning was canceled for us.  The storms are still going on now two hours later in Wichita, and it is black, black, black out of our east facing windows.

You could tell that Papa and Mama were relieved when they went to the campground ice cream social before they ate dinner!  Of course, we didn't get to go.  No surprise there!

Tomorrow we leave for Loveland or Longmont, CO.  Then on to Estes Park.  We just heard that there are many, many elk in the town still.  Zoe and I can't wait!  You'll never guess why we can't wait, either!

We'll be in touch!  Wags and yips.

Phaedra (and my sister, Zoe)

Reflections from Sanibel

Zoe and Phaedra here from beautiful Sanibel:

How can this be?  We only have 3 more weeks to live in the mangroves by the sea.  Then again, we got to Skype with our little best friend, Parker, a few nights ago, and it made us homesick for our family.  Soon we'll be home, and we wonder if then we will miss our Sanibel home?  Too bad our family doesn't have on-demand vacation and then they could be here with us!

Last night the Papa and Mama dashed home

from the Ding, gathered us up, and tore off to the 

Wildlife Drive.  The Tower monitors had shown hundreds and hundreds of birds.  Well, guess what - it was a bit of a disappointment because most of the big white birds had gone and there were only about 30 American White Pelicans, 3 Roseatte Spoonbills, and hundreds of little brown jobs which we loved seeing and wished we could be chasing all of them.  There  was something that no one liked, though – the  No-see ums!  Those pesky little midges give us a bite that is so ugly you can’t imagine it.  They love to get into everyone’s hair so unlike Papa and Mama, we can’t wear hats on our bodies.  But those of you who know Mama, “the spider saver”, know that she always tries to find something to like about everyone and everything.  Well, she might not be wrong in this case.  Even though we don’t get to eat it, CHOCOLATE is the main thing that comes from No-See-Um pollination!  They pollinate the Cacao Trees so don’t kill them all – just the ones who are biting you.

So, you ask, what’s been happening since the last time we wrote:  just daily living albeit in paradise.   Of course, the Sanibel Bean takes up at least three mornings for the folks.  That is where they have met so many of their Sanibel friends like Vicki and Allan or Eddie and Nancy or Barbara and Ed.  One person we really like is Phillipe.  He speaks to Mama and Papa in Spanish only, so we can’t understand him when we visit on the porch.  There are so many dogs who get their morning fix with a “cup a joe” while they are with their parents, but we only get there only once in a while.  (BTW, we don’t mean the urban dictionary definition of "cup a joe", either!)

Did you know that Papa celebrated his 29^th birthday for about the 115^th time?  I had lots of fun at his party.  It wasn’t about food that night, though.  There were 16 people who would throw my ball so I could chase it.  If only one or two people are around they get tired of tossing it.  But, imagine me in "Zoe's hog heaven"!  Speaking of throwing things, when my friend Tug comes to visit with Jen he brings the best toys with him.  I got caught, though, stealing his rope tug.  I loved that so much that Mama sent away for one for me.  It took her only 23 minutes to throw the tug up on top of the camper cover which is almost 20 feet tall with a flattish roof.  I circled and circled Woody’s RV and it never came down.  A whole week later, Woody got out the Ding “Cherry Picker” and finally my tug is back!  Mama is not allowed to throw my tug anywhere near the RV covers anymore.  

Sometimes it seems like we are left alone too much.
Papa and Mama play cards, eat out, have picnics at sunset on the beach, and ride the Wildlife Drive ALL THE TIME.  You know what Mama says when she leaves us?  “Guard the house.  Listen to your sister.  Don’t get into any trouble.”  So, I wonder what she expects will happen to the house inside this gated community.  No one is going to get in here.  I think she is just saying that so that we think we have a job and won’t get into trouble.  At least, I still have my friends to throw my tug or ball for me!  After all, we are herding dogs and need work.  Phaedra herds me around all the time!  And, she bites my ankles!  Mama always thinks I’m the one who does bad things – not true at all! 

Friends of ours, Marc and Sherree from Madison and Jody, Zoe, and Dov from New York City visited us a while back.  Papa took them out kayaking and Mama had to stay at home with a workman.  At least we weren’t left alone again.  It’s funny that these long-time friends they knew in  Durham now meet up with us here on Sanibel.  You know, they say the whole world ends up on Sanibel.  Guess it’s true.

This week, there was a Prescribed Burn at Ding Darling.  It seemed like hundreds of Firepeople and many, many, many fire trucks and equipment moved into our community on loan from other refuges across Florida.  You see, when you are in an area that has lots of vegetation which of course dies and becomes a fire danger you need to get rid of the foder for a wildfire.  We never saw the flames (right across the street from us) but we did smell smoke!  It is only half done, but the next burn will be after we leave Sanibel.

With only two weeks left to be here there is so much to do yet.  We have to see more Burrowing Owls on Cape Coral.  We hope to help our friend Rachel find and band the Mangrove Cuckoo.  There are so many people who want to throw the ball for me, too.  We’re running out of days.

Well, maybe this will be the last time this year we write to you from Sanibel . Who knows what next year will bring us, but we're happy we get to travel with Papa and Mama to places like this.  In the meantime, I think we are heading for Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and California this summer so maybe we’ll have a few things to send to you then.  I hope there will be some new people to throw my tug for me!

 

I think the best way to tell the rest of the story is with our pictures.  Hope you like them. 

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Sweet Ibis

Three Whites

Twelve Foot Alligator

Yellow Rat Snake Eating
Palm Rat

Pileated Woodpecker

Sunset on the Causeway

Phaedra and I hope you have a beautiful spring with lots of squirrels to chase.  We hope it’s the same for us back in Chapel Hill, too.

Wags and Hugs from Zoe and Phaedra!

Zoe here - with all my people!

Yippee!  Parker is here!!!!!!!!   More ball throwers!  Dov can really throw it.  He doesn’t try to trick me like Papa does.  When I look up at Dov or Anne with my beautiful brown eyes, they can do nothing but throw the ball for me!

They arrived on Christmas Day, and we had a nice Hanukkah celebration with latkes and everything. Parker liked playing with her gifts better than with me sometimes.  Can you believe that Phaedra and I got nothing?  I couldn't either!  Go figure!   

The tent was set up right next to the camper on the pad.  It was great for them and close to me. Phaedra wanted to sleep with Parker when she spent the night in the camper.  She got kind of heavy sitting on Parker, though, so Mama made her come to bed with me, upstairs.

Even though Parker had a little cold, they were still able to go lots of places and leave us alone all of the time. She's such a good little friend even though she left me home when they went out.  They walked on the beach, looked for shells, and built sand castles!  I never got to see the Gulf while they were here.  Not fair at all!

Everyone but Phaedra and I went kayaking and saw sea stars and birds. They had fun, but I heard Papa say something about Anne and Dov taking the scenic route and something about the shortest distance between two points.  I sure did not understand.  But I think everyone should take the scenic routes through life.  After all, that’s where all the good smells are, right?

One day, they 

visited the only “real” campground on the island.  I think it is kind of snooty.  They won’t let Phaedra and me camp there.  So what if the campground has a lot of exotic birds and a breeding aviary.  We wouldn’t chase the birds - not too much, anyway.  What I heard about why the birds are there is that people just abandon these beautiful birds at Periwinkle Park because they can’t handle them or don’t like hearing their noise. Because the owner of Periwinkle Park raises birds, they figure someone will take care of them.  A 79-year-old lady, Libby, does a show daily trying to educate people about how having a big bird like these isn’t a good idea for a pet.   All of my people got to hold birds and feel their talons and feathers.  I would have barked and barked.  Papa says that is why we can never camp there!  Too bad, though.  Parker had a great time and I would have, too.

Anne really liked going out onto the drive at sunset. Papa took them out while Mama stayed back and cooked.  (I think that is the first time since we got to Sanibel that she cooked.  You know, she says she wants a house without a kitchen.  How could we get treats if she didn’t have a kitchen?)  Well anyway, we kept her company. They saw many rosette spoonbills and woodstorks. The weather was perfect.

When everyone went to the beach we were left alone, again. Parker, Dov and Papa went in the Gulf, but 71 degrees was too cold for the smarter ones. They brought back lots of shells, which we got to smell. That was yummy. No eating though.

Parker left with Anne and Dov on Friday on their way to Charleston. I didn't want them to go, but one good thing happened for Phaedra and me.  We finally got to go sightseeing.  Still, we all miss them already and wish they were still here!

Phaedra and I want to wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year.

Zoe over and out!!!!!!!