Colorado Springs

Zoe here from Colorado Springs:

This is really a beautiful place right at the foot of Pikes Peak. Unfortunately, my best friend, Phaedra, had to go to the hospital to have her front tooth removed. Remember she ran into mom in East Lansing? Well, some dogs will do anything to get sympathy. Mom makes special food for her and gives her lots of petting. But, I’m glad that she is a lot better now.

We hiked in the Garden of the Gods. There are red rock formations, which are large natural sandstone boulders. We all got to go and saw really neat things like The

Kissing Camels and Balanced Rock. When we returned from our

first walk, there was a whole bunch of excitement! Police cars were all over the lot, all around our truck. We found out later that two people were

robbed at gunpoint on the same trail that we were on. I heard that this is the first time in 35 years since someone was robbed here. Lucky we missed that! Of course, Phaedra and I would have protected Mom and Papa.

Mom wanted to visit a fancy hotel called the Broadmore where she had visited as a kid. They spent a couple hours walking around the resort, which included a tour of the main hotel. While they were waiting for a tour of the hotel, they had a drink on the lake patio and guess what? People came out onto the patio with dogs. I wonder why we don’t get to stay there. Maybe it is because a room costs around $300 a night. Still, they take dogs so it must be good. We were still back at the camper during this. Then, they had a great time hiking in Cheyenne Canon and driving to the top of it. They do like driving up mountains without the camper.

A visit to the Air Force Academy was a great experience. We stayed home again. We missed the first big wild animal of the trip---a brown bear. That’s all they could talk about when they got home. And we missed it! I would have barked and barked! I’m not afraid!!!

We had great weather in Colorado Springs - except for the wind. Saturday morning I almost fell off the bed because the camper was rocking so much. Chairs, rugs, towels, and everything not tied down had been blown all over the campground. If I’d been outside, you’d have been able to see dogs fly!

Memorial Day Weekend is a great time here. There was Territory Days, a street fair with food, artisans, food, entertainment, and food in the Old Colorado Town. Of course we had to stay home.

They also went to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings that had been brought to this area in the early 1900’s from the Four Corners area. The Anasazi Puebloans built them around sometime around1100 A.D. They were good but not as good as either Mesa Verde or Bandelier.

The best thing the folks did was ride on a cog railway all the way to the top of Pikes Peak. They were gone for 4 hours going up to 14,000 feet. They enjoyed it a lot more than trying to drive up the mountain. It sure got them in the mood for more mountains.

Tomorrow they get their wish…

Zoe

Howdy Pardners!

Phaedra here: On the road again!

Here Zoe and I are, once again, in the truck. Boooooooring!!!!!! We got some good zzzz’s riding around, though.

Imagine this… We all went to Michigan for Taylore’s and Mat’s wedding and guess who never met them. That’s right. Zoe and I... never met them!!! We did see Erin, Audrey and Brad at the camper. Zoe really liked Erin who kissed up by throwing the ball over and over for her. I pretended not to be interested. All we got to see was the inside of the camper and the campground. We did NOT GO ANYWHERE!!!!!

They really liked being in East Lansing and even checked out Mom's old dorm at MSU. I didn’t really enjoy Lansing much. Zoe and I were running around playing chase and I wasn’t watching where I was going. I ran into Mom’s knee and knocked my front tooth loose. I didn’t like hearing that I’m going to have to get the tooth pulled once I reach Colorado Springs. I think we should just ignore it, but Mom is so over-protective! I don’t think I’m going to win this argument…

We were only in Lansing 4 days and left Sunday heading out for Colorado. Sometimes I wish we could just skip the travel and wish ourselves to the next city. It rained way too much all the way from North Carolina to Michigan, then on to Illinois and Iowa.

We finally set up camp without any rain once we got to the middle of Nebraska (which by the way, Dad says goes on for days and days just to upset Mom). The wind was blowing about 35 miles per hour the whole time. After dark, we were surrounded by storms and tornado warnings. Out came the big map! Mom watched the storm’s progress on the computer and packed our GO Bags just in case. We didn’t even put out the slides because the folks were worried. When the wind reached gusts of 55 to 60 miles per hour, we really rocked. Fortunately, the storms subsided after several hours and no tornadoes were seen where we camped. Still, there isn’t a very good place to evacuate to at a campground unless the bathhouses are concrete. These weren’t.

We got out of there as soon as the sun came up, and Dad drove over 500 miles. We went all the way to Colorado Springs. It was so fun seeing the snow covered mountains. We always play a game of who will see the Rockies first! Guess who won! Of course, it was me. I made Mom want to take this picture so she made Dad pull over on the highway. If you look really, really hard, you can see the mountains just peeking over the high plains.

It’s really just spring here, now.

There are lots of wonderful things to do in Colorado Springs. Zoe will write more about that later.

Arf! Arf! ... For now.

P

Arrivederci, Naples!

Our stay in Naples is coming to an end. We leave tomorrow for Myrtle Beach. It's kind of sad, but I get to play on the beach with Phaedra when we get to MB. Oh Boy!!!!!! Plus, we miss Parker and her parents, too. We’ve had fun these last two weeks once Papa got to feeling better. Besides, a week of rest wasn’t too bad. We spent lots of time together around the camper and got in good family time.

Our friends, Sally and Jim, returned from Chapel Hill, and they all made plans to have adventures. Without us, of course. Mom and Papa celebrated Papa’s birthday by going to a great restaurant on the water for breakfast, and then went to dinner with Sally and Jim that evening at a place called Snook Inn on the Isle of Capri. It was cold and rainy, but they still had fun eating outside by the waterway. They didn’t even bring anything back for us. Fish or steak would have been just the thing. I wonder if they even remembered that they had two great girls waiting patiently for them back home. Fish would have been really nice, don’t you think?

The weather went back to being cool, again, and it even rained. Mom never put on her swimsuit. Papa did – to wash the truck, once. They were pretty bummed out! It didn’t get warm until the 23^rd. It finally got up to about 80 degrees, and Mom and Papa went kayaking with Sally and Jim and their friends, Phil and Pat. Their friends had their own kayaks, but Mom and Papa rented one. They had pedal sea-kayaks and thought it was really wonderful. They went shelling on an island right near the Gulf, saw lots of birds and even kayaked beside dolphins. They were gone for 5 long hours while we stayed home. By ourselves, of course. Alone!

All of us went to Ding Darling Nature Preserve on Sanibel Island a couple of days ago. It was amazing that there were any birds out at all because it was so cold and windy. Mom got great pictures of herons, roseate spoonbills, and white Pelicans. The best part was that they visited with their friend, Sherree, from Madison, Wisconsin. We got to go this time. We had to stay in the car, though. I kept guard for them.

There was a nest with osprey right outside the house. Mom really liked that. Phae and I barked at it, but we didn’t scare it. It was bigger than we are. I’m glad that it liked the fish it was eating so it didn’t want to eat us.

The next day, we all went back to Turner Road in the Big Cypress Swamp. We saw great birds and alligators. Since it was the last trip out there, Papa thought we should go panther hunting, too. This time we followed the GPS and didn’t get lost!

We saw a pair of bobcats but no panthers. There were new signs up all over the area, though, warning that it is a designated panther area. The folks wondered why the signs were new. Maybe we weren’t the only ones to see panthers there recently!

It got cold again. Phae and I don’t mind too much. We have nice, warm coats and I get to sleep under the covers next to Mom at night. But, it rained so much that the truck was in the middle of a puddle yesterday. It got colder too. I didn’t think it could get much colder. People say that this is the coldest February on record. EVER! Just as we are getting ready to leave, it’s supposed to start to get warm. Go figure!

Oh, guess what? I don’t need my den anymore. I haven’t eaten any pillows and the comforter hasn’t had a malfunction again. It’s been difficult, but I’m a really good little girl. Mama always says so. Phaedra doesn’t agree, but she’s just jealous! I just get better and better, don’t you know!

Tomorrow we hit the road so we probably won’t write until this summer when we head out for the west coast. We’ll be in touch in a couple of months.

So long for now.

Ciao,

Zoe (and my sister, Phaedra.

Phaedra and Pigs to Pelicans

Finally we recovered from the Great Swamp Trip! Zoe and I still can’t believe that we didn’t get stuck in one of those road-wide ponds, and my headache from hitting the ceiling of the truck is doing better. When Papa washed the truck the next day, the whole driveway was gray with the mud that came off the truck!

Do you think that stopped all of us from going to the ends of the earth? NO! A couple of days later we went to Rookery Bay. It isn’t more than 5 miles from our place, but we might as well been in the middle of the Everglades! Driving down the road toward the kayak launch, we had to lie down on our bed in the back and hold on for dear life. If someone tried to create the most bumpy road in the world, it would have been this one. We didn’t go fast. Thank heavens! That’s probably why all of a sudden Mom said, “Look over there! Wild pigs!” I barked and barked, and they ran off right away. They might be bigger than I am, but they are really skittish. Zoe and I could have had BBQ for dinner if we could have gotten out of the truck. We met a man on our hike that said you wouldn’t want to meet a wild pig because they are really mean. Bring them on, I say! Zoe, not so much - she hides behind Mama or Papa when another dog comes up to sniff her!

At the end of the bumpy road, we stopped and hiked a trail on Rookery Bay, which has manatees and dolphins and birds – so many birds - and is really pretty. There were really good smells, too. Maybe this came from the pigs.

We did have a surprise, though. We were walking along a waterway and there was a really loud splash. Zoe ran behind Papa. I barked. And Mama and Papa cautiously walked through the mangrove to the edge of the water. They thought an alligator had crashed into the water. Not so! A really big White Pelican was the only life form visible! It was big – bigger than two of Zoe and me. There it was just floating along in the inlet. The only way this walk could have been better was if we could have gone swimming. The folks wouldn’t let us swim because they didn’t want us to be someone’s dinner they said. I’m glad about that for sure.




Naples is really beautiful. Dogs are really liked here. They go into shops and even into Bad Ass Coffee. Not us, though! We don’t always get to go with Papa and Mama when they explore. (The good news, though, is that Zoe hasn’t eaten any comforters or pillows since the first “comforter malfunction”! Maybe she won’t need her “den” after this trip. Dad isn’t so sure about that, but we’ll see.)






There are really unusual things to see in Naples, too. We were driving down the street one afternoon and we saw some other people looking up into a tree. There was a flock of Ibis grazing two blocks from shops and restaurants and art galleries! In the tree was a crazy thing. It looked like an upside-down owl to Papa and a furry animal like a sloth to Mom. Turns out, it was a gigantic bee hive and honeycomb. Oh, the things you'll see if you just look around!



Zoe will probably write you about a kayaking trip the folks are planning. Maybe we'll get to go this time. Anyway, take time to look around! You'll be surprised at what you can see.

Phaedra

Please Drive to Designated Route…

Please Drive to Designated Route...

If we heard that once, we heard it a hundred times. Phaedra and I were in the back of the truck when this bossy female voice (no not our Mom) came on the GPS over and over again.

The maps were out in the front seat and Papa kept saying, “If you just stay on 78^th Avenue it should go straight into Sable Palm Blvd. And, we kept holding on with every toenail we have.

Then, to make matters more interesting, Mom, who was driving, poked Papa and said, “Look!!! That’s a panther!” We didn’t believe our eyes as this really big, black cat calmly walked across the road in front of the truck. It was huge! Boy, am I glad that we didn’t stall or weren’t having a picnic outside. I would have been sandwich meat for that big cat. We were somewhere in the Picayune Strand State Forest not too far from Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park and in the middle of nowhere. The GPS voice thought we were in the middle of a swamp. Guess what, we were!

Phaedra and I heard Mom say that she hoped that we found the right road before the sun went down. I hid under my pillow. Then, Mom poked Papa again and said, “Bobcat!” They were so excited to see a Black Panther, a Bobcat, and 3 White-Tailed Deer. Forget about the alligators and birds – we have arrived in a totally different world by this time.

Guess what came next? The “road” turned into a mud hole and Mom drove through a lake that came up to the front bumper. The truck started to swish back and forth, and I thought “I’m not going swimming even if we get stuck out here. I don’t care if we don’t have cell phone reception or aren’t on the GPS, I’m not getting out of this truck.”

Phaedra was getting a tad anxious, too. After going across the lake, they came to another bigger lake and decided to turn around. Back across the first lake they went, but this time Papa told Mom to drive faster. Mud covered the front windshield and up the side of the door. We made it, though. In just a couple of minutes, another truck came toward us. The folks stopped the truck, which had two twenty-something guys and the biggest pit bull dog I’ve ever seen in the bed of the truck. The kids in the truck said that we were on the right road and that we could make it to Naples before dark. Sounds fun, right? NO! Anyway, the kids told us they’d lead us out so back through the flooded road we went. We were bumping and swerving along at a hundred miles an hour and I got carsick! It really was that bad! It took about 20 minutes and at least 50 flooded places before the kids pulled over and told us that all we had to do was to follow the new road and stay on it and we’d get home. We got back to cement roads just before the sun went down. I was so happy and Papa told Mom that he had wanted to get out and kiss the ground when he got out to thank the kids – who mom thought were right out of Deliverance!

What a terrible ride that was! I don’t know why the folks were so excited and had so much fun. Can you imagine? I don’t think we will go back there again. If I hear the name again, I am going to hide under the bed until they leave!

It was really cool seeing the Panther and the Bobcat, though. I guess it made it worth the ride to hear the folks talking about how rare Panthers are and how few people ever see the Florida Black Panther in the wild.

BTW, if you think anyone took pictures on the road from Hell, think again. They just tried to hang onto the “Oh, Jesus” handle or steering wheel and keep from hitting their heads on the roof.

Phaedra might be up to writing the dog blog again soon – once she recovers from this trip!

Hanging on by a toenail!

Zoe