Dumas, Texas to Ft Worth, Texas

Tuesday, November 21 - Today was another day of driving. Dad had to hold the wheel at 45 degrees to drive straight.  It was kind of exciting though since we had a strong side wind most of the day.  The wind was blowing so hard that the windmills on the wind farms were turned off.  Dad said too high a wind can damage them, so they turn them off. 

Mom and Dad said that the wind made driving hard.  The rocking just put me to sleep. 

We decided to stop for the night at the Elks Lodge in Wichita Falls.

Wednesday, November 23 - Today was a short drive from Wichita Falls into Fort Worth.  Actually, we stay at the Cowtown RV Park in Aledo, which is just west of Fort Worth.  It's nice that it is close to Aunt Mary, Uncle Don, and cousin Scout's house and a short drive to Granddaddy's.  The RV park has a fenced dog area that smells wonderful.  I love to go check it out as often as I can.

After we got settled in, we went to visit Granddaddy.  We haven't seen him since he came to our house in August.  I was glad to see that he was doing well.  His neighbors are really nice.  Everyone loves to pet me when I'm there.  I like that.

In the evening Mom and Dad went out to dinner with Chris and Amanda.  They all smelled good when they came out of the restaurant. 

Thursday, November 24 - Today we went to Aunt Mary and Uncle Don's house.  Aunt Mary is Dad's sister and she is at the end of the table in the picture below.  I got to go see Cousin Scout.  He's adopted, too and his birth parents are Poodle, just like me.  We always have fun together.  The humans had lots to eat.  This is them waiting for their food bowls to be filled.

Their food looked really good.  This is Dad carving the turkey.

Uncle Don cooked the turkey and took all the pictures, so we don't have a picture of him.

Friday, November 24 to Tuesday, November 28 - The days are just a blur of listening to the humans talk and watching them eat.  I got more visits with cousin Scout, saw cousin Oliver, and met my new cousin Reggie.  This is Oliver and Reggie with their parents, Chris and Amanda.

One day, we took Granddaddy to the Botanic Gardens.  This is the rose garden.

I'm in this one.  See me near the fountain, on the right.  Dad and Granddaddy are there, too.  The rose garden is huge!

Dad took some nice pictures of Granddaddy with this tree.

That pretty well sums up the week in Ft Worth.  I'll write soon, about the next part of our trip.

  

Denver, Colorado to Dumas, Texas

Saturday, November 18 - After a nice night at the Elks Lodge in Northglenn (northern suburb of Denver), Mom and Dad checked out the craft fair in the lodge.  Then, we all hopped in the Jeep to check out Downtown Denver.  We took a quick drive through the RiNo (RIver NOrth) district, which is an up and coming arts district.  Not much was happening on Saturday morning.  Seems that the galleries don't open until noon. 

After a drive through downtown, we went to the Denver Museum of  Nature and Science.  I wasn't allowed to go inside, so I made myself comfortable in the parking garage and took a nap for a couple of hours.  When Mom and Dad came back, they said that we must come here again.  They didn't fully see the special exhibits on the 3rd floor and didn't see any of the 1st or 2nd floor.  They saw lots of dinosaur stuff and Mom brought these photos back for me.

I've never tasted a dinosaur, but they look a little dry.  I prefer my bones juicy.  

When we left the museum, we went back to the Elks Lodge to get the motor home and then headed to Peyton, Colorado.  The main thing we are seeing in Peyton is Dad's cousin Allen and Allen's wife Abby.  They have an acreage north of Peyton and they have 6 cats, 5 dogs, 5 horses, and a guinea pig.  It was a great place, but I was so overwhelmed that I wasn't sure what to do.

Mom and Dad said that Abby made a wonderful Roast Beef dinner for them.  I had kibble.

Sunday, November 19 - Today we got up and got to watch Abby give riding lessons.  She works with students that have physical challenges and also kids who are bullied in school.  The horses are very accepting and the kids build self-confidence.   Here are some photos of Allen and Abby with Abby's students.

After lessons, the humans went into Colorado Springs, took a drive around The Garden of the Gods, and had dinner.  Then they came home and fed the horses and spent the evening continuing to catch up.  

This is Allen and Abby's daughter Katie.  She's sweet and a gorgeous blonde.  I think I'm in love 💕💖💋💘💓💋💘

Monday, November 20 - After a nice chat with Abby, we were on the road again.  She sent a care package with us.  There is an assortment of cookies for Mom and Dad and jerky treats for me!!  Abby is the best!

The rest of the day was mostly driving.  Tonight we are at Texhoma Park, in Dumas, TX.  It's a nice city park with 20 electric connections in pull through sites with 30 and 50 amp service.  There is water and a dump station in the park.  It's free (donations welcome) and limited to stays up to 24 hours.  Perfect for us for tonight.  We only have one neighbor.  I got to run off leash and it was great.  This is our campsite.  I think I love these small west Texas towns with free RV parking in city parks.

Pendleton, Oregon to Denver, Colorado

Wednesday, November 15 - We left Pendleton this morning to sunshine and clear skies.  I got a rest stop and this was our view.  Nice to have snow on the mountains to look at, but not on the road.

Today was a day of driving.  I don't remember much of it.  I had a nice nap.  We made a few stops for Mom and Dad to swap driving, but other than that, not much happened until we got to Boise.  We stopped near the freeway, unhitched the Jeep, and drove into downtown.  We saw the Idaho state capital and Mom and Dad looked around at an art gallery.  We went over to the river trail to take a walk, but it started to rain as we got there, so we decided to go back to the motor home and continue on the way.  

We spent the night at the Elks Lodge in Mountain Home, Idaho.  Mom and Dad said that people in the lodge were friendly and we had electricity, water, and a dump station.  Great stop!

Thursday, November 16 - The Elks Lodge in Mountain Home only had one drawback.  It was really close to a railroad track and trains went by regularly, ALL night long.  I was a nervous wreck by morning.  I don't like loud, strange sounds.  As a result, I slept most of the day.  I remember some rain, some sunshine, and Mom and Dad changing drivers.  I also remember a welcome to Utah sign and later a welcome to Wyoming sign.  We spent the night at Wal-Mart in Rock Springs, WY.  It was a nice place with a big grassy area for me.

Friday, November 17 -  We woke up this morning to snow.  It was white everywhere and lots of big wet, gloppy flakes of snow were coming down.  Mom and Dad spent time looking at the weather and road conditions.  They found that I-80 was closed behind us.  The forecast for the day wasn't very good where we were going.  The roads still looked passable up ahead, but were supposed to get worse.  They decided to hit the road.  They started getting ready to leave and put the slides in.  At least they tried and one of them got jammed with the wet snow.  Dad tried to clear it from the ground, but that didn't work.  He needed to go up on the roof and reached over the side.  Fortunately, he didn't slide off the roof!!!

We finally got on the road.  This is a photo taken just outside of Rock Springs.

This is I-80.  There are two lanes in each direction.  You just can't see the other one.  After awhile it got better.  Then it got worse.  Then it got better.  We just kept going and fortunately, we eventually drove out of it, after about 200 miles.  Yikes, what a trip!

Dad made a bold fashion statement today driving.  His sunglasses were in the Jeep, so he wore a pair of Mom's.  It may be hard to see, but they are red and have rhinestones.  I think he was stunning with his orange stocking cap!  That's why I took this picture of him.

Tonight we are in Denver.  It's raining, but it's also warmer, so hopefully tomorrow will be an easier day.  

Tuesday, November 14 - Olympia, WA to Pendleton, OR

We've been telling people for several weeks that we were going to leave on Wednesday the 15th.  That was the plan, UNTIL Sunday afternoon when Mom looked at the weather forecast for the cities we plan to pass through over the next several days.  Everywhere we were going it was supposed to rain when we were there, BUT the day before we get there it is supposed to be nice.  That's when Mom and Dad decided that a Tuesday departure would be better, so we get ahead of all the storms. 

It was crazy busy at our house yesterday as Mom and Dad got everything loaded into the motor home so we would be ready to leave during wind and rain in Olympia.  I'm pretty sure that I saw my food go in, so that's all that matters.

So far, the weather reports are right.  It was a beautiful day.  This is us crossing the Columbia River and entering Oregon.  Yes, that's sunshine outside.

We got nice views of Mt Hood.  

The first part of the drive through the Columbia River Gorge was a little sad.  We were on I-84 which was closed for 19 days in September due to forest fires.  We saw so many dead trees and places where the fires came up to the road.   Crews are still working to clear the dead trees that might topple onto the road this winter and to repair things alongside the road.  Most/all the exits were closed, including Multnomah Falls.

There was lots of nice fall color and pretty views of the river.  The sunshine was nice, too.  It's hard to take pictures at 65 mph, but this is some of what we saw.

Mom took a turn at driving.  She says to tell you that she doesn't usually drive with her eyes closed.  I just managed to snap the picture when she was blinking, so it looks that way.  

Tonight we are parked at the Wild Horse Casino.  Mom says that Casino is a Native American word for cheap place to park the motor home.  This is an especially nice, cheap place and is our usual stop the first night out, when we are coming this direction.  Once we were parked, Mom and Dad took me into town to watch people pump gas into their cars.  

While I was watching the gas station, they went down the street to the Prodigal Son Brewery for dinner.   I got kibble once we got back to the casino parking lot.

Tomorrow, we plan to continue on toward Idaho.  I'll try to keep you posted on our ramblings.