Wednesday, August 15, 2018

August 10-17: Smoke over Ashland

Smoke from forest fires envelopes Ashland, and we are doing our best to have a good time.

Outdoor performances are located to the smaller local high school stage, with long waits for ticketed customers if you want to get in.

Outside, the smoke stings your eyes and makes you want to keep taking showers every time you come in.

Kind of an anti-climactic end to the summer adventure. Climate change--

https://www.dw.com/en/how-climate-change-is-increasing-forest-fires-around-the-world/a-19465490

Friday, August 10, 2018

August 10: Ashland, Oregon

Yesterday, Miss Louise once again slipped her harness under the scariest circumstances imaginable. She tore across a street with traffic to greet a dog on the other side. The young friend I was having coffee with in a sidewalk cafe tore after her, she eluded him, ran back across the street and assumed "naughty puppy" pose at my feet.

For the rest of the trip, she has to wear two harnesses. Her dog walker back home has found something more secure for her to wear on our arrival.

Today, the tenth, we drove through thick woodsmoke, the sun a bright red disk in the sky. Ashland not as bad as it was north of Grants Pass. Here's hoping well for outside shows, though my asthma is definitely feeling the effects.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

August 8-9: Lake Oswego, Oregon

Near Portland. A full dance card of friends to see.

I splurged on a room with a beautiful new of the lake.

Eloise in the Water

I spoke too soon. While I went to have dinner with an old friend in Bremerton, Penny took the dogs down to the lake, where Louise once more slipped her harness and proceeded to play in the water, but not swim.

Monday, August 6, 2018

August 4-7: "Cousins at the Lake" in Port Orchard, Washington


A houseful of relations at a rented lake house at Lake Carney. Many young children. Eloise, as it turns out, is just fine with kids, even with young and clueless ones. They have to be told to leave Bobby alone, however.

Eloise has no interest in water, however, while my Washington sister's Jack Russell terrier enjoys swimming and waterboarding. Go figure.

Friday, August 3, 2018

August 3: Missoula, Montana


Across the beautiful state of Montana to Missoula.

The Missoula LaQuinta offers creekside breakfast--a terrace off the breakfast room overlooking the water.

I find Missoula very appealing, but my relations remind me that this is August. If I don't like winter in New England, I sure wouldn't like it in Missoula.

August 2: Gillette, Wyoming via Mount Rushmore



We took a little detour to the south to see Mount Rushmore, and arrived late in Gillette. Today, on to Missoula, Montana.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Lammas in Sioux Falls

Through the farmlands of southern Wisconsin and Minnesota, rich and green-looking.

Windmills are everywhere. One billboard blares the input that "Wind power is not the answer!" It looks to me as if it is working for some people, anyway.

We made Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the night. On across South Dakota today.


Little Dogs on the Prairie

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

July 31: Madison, Wisconsin via Ripon

We took a detour a bit north to Ripon, Wisconsin, the town where I was born but which I only dimly remember because we moved away then I was three.

The address of the house where we lived is on my birth certificate, and Siri found it with no trouble:


One of my dim memories is that the house was white, but that of course can easily change in 70 years. Also that it was bigger, but it would be me, not the house that has changed in that respect.

There were at least 3 apartments--ours was upstairs and the bow-shaped room was our bedroom. There were kids cut-out pictures in the window, so it is still a kid(s)' bedroom.

July 30: Back to South Bend

A night in South Bend going back the other way. A picnic and walks in the park along the river.

Sunday, July 29, 2018

July 29: DuBois, Pennsylvania


July 28: Cousin Penny's in Rhode Island

A night here to regroup, then with Penny on west to Seattle.

July 27: Last Day in Massachusetts


Bobby and Eloise had a long walk, and Auntie gave them chicken soup for breakfast, and Mom stuffed toys with treats. Now she has to sort, pack, mail boxes. However, it would be a much better idea for her to forget about that and throw the ball.

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

July 25: Mason, New Hampshire

My niece Em and I had lunch with old friends at Pickity Place:

https://www.pickityplace.com/pages/dining-at-pickity-place



I took a picture of my dessert before I ate it. Em officially welcomed me as an honorary millennial.


Doggies had to stay in our friends' kitchen. They were not pleased, but survived.

Now three days of organizing and packing to get ready for the six-day Westward Journey. Cousin Penny is coming along to visit our mutual relations in Seattle. This will be make everything a lot easier.

July 20-23: Nantucket



A weekend on Nantucket for a reunion of Peace Corps friends, after 45 years. (Doggies in South Hadley with my sister, whom they seem to consider an acceptable substitute for mom.)

Re-connecting after so many years, with so much water under the bridge is a complex and many-layered experience. Maybe material for a novel, if I had the time.

Monday, July 16, 2018

In the Berkshires

My sister and I took off for two days of theater at Shakespeare and Company in the Berkshires:

https://www.shakespeare.org/shows

We saw Macbeth, well-acted but with a director's decision to omit the three witches, which really doesn't work.

The program notes mentioned the modern religion of Wicca and not wanting to offend anyone with the negative image of witches.

No Wiccan with half a brain expects our use of the word "Witch" to re-write centuries of cultural history, including Shakespeare. We just capitalize it. Keep the witches in Macbeth, uncapitalized, and produce the play properly.

The best play was a modern one, Morning after Grace, three characters in their seventies on the morning after a funeral. The first half a truly hilarious situation comedy, the second half the heart-warming resolution to everybody's predicaments.

We also saw a good outdoor student production of Love's Labour's Lost, and I went to a concert production of La Boheme at Tanglewood.

Bobby and Louise stayed with my niece Em, and went to the Wrong Groomer (as noted below).

Bad Hair Day


We went to the groomer Cousin Em didn't recommend because the groomer she did recommend was booked through the end of the month.

With only two groomers in town, it's now clear why the other one gets booked up.

Fortunately, hair grows, but our artistic groomer back in California is going to be very upset.

Auntie says well, now we are clean, at least.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Barre, Vermont

We're just back from a few days in Central Vermont, visiting with an old high school friend.

There's a new small-dog park in Barre. Bobby and Eloise met a little poodle mix and had a wonderful time playing.


The next day, cream tea on the lawn at Perennial Pleasures in East Hardwick:

http://perennialpleasures.net




Miss Eloise got a new harness a few weeks ago. She can get out of this one, too.




July 8th Was Bobby's Birthday

15 years old!

We've been together since he was a tiny puppy. Now his kidneys are gradually failing, his vision is limited and his hearing is selective. We take one day at a time. He spends mornings sleeping or acting confused, later in the day rallies, orients himself, and plays.


(with Eloise).

Saturday, July 7, 2018

WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? - Official Trailer [HD] - In Select Theaters J...



We saw this in Amherst last night--very highly recommended, especially if you grew up on Mr. Rogers, or even if you didn't.

Very timely. (He was a lifelong Republican--shows you what they have come to now.)

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Fourth of July in Vernon, Connecticut


Happy Fourth from Eloise!

We went to the lake and met a lot of cousins.

Marty the Corgi is totally cool. They threw sticks for us and we ran around like crazy.

(Bobby stayed home with Auntie because it was so hot.)

We did get pretty hot, so we had to drink a lot of water and take a break in the shade under the picnic table.


Saturday, June 30, 2018

South Hadley: Protesting

Today I went to two vigils, one in North Hampton and then on to Belchertown. Good-sized crowds for small New England towns--around a hundred at the first one, probably about three hundred in Belchertown. But here in the "happy valley," we are preaching to the crowd, with one car out of two beeping with approval as they passed.

Once, a woman near me said in surprise and consternation, "That man just gave us a thumbs down!" Are we in just a bit of a bubble?

I'm feeling very discouraged every time I think about the world outside our bubble.

We are in the middle of a heat wave--it feels hotter here than it did in the southwest. Comparable temperatures and a lot of humidity. Even with the air conditioning on, the dogs enjoy the cool stone floor of the entry way.


Friday, June 29, 2018

Day 23: South Hadley, Massachusetts!

Bobby here.

This morning when it was time to get in the car again, I had just had enough. I lay down and went limp. Mrs. D. picked me up, and I growled at her. She put me in the car, and I growled some more.

All the time, there is Eloise sitting in her car seat, doing that "I'm such a good girl" thing that she does. Well, I wasn't the one who peed on the hotel furniture back in Arizona. Just sayin'.

But finally, here we are at auntie's house, where I know my way around. Whew. Not a day too soon.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Day 22: Victor, New York

We played touch-tag with a rainstorm most of the way from Cleveland to the Rochester area, and now have settled in for the last night on the road--for awhile, anyway. Tomorrow night we will be in western Massachusetts.

Things to bring the next time: 1) Towels to dry off dogs after pit stops in the rain. 2) A compass. Most directions begin with, "Head north on ... " In an unfamiliar town and with clouded skies, who knows which way north is?



Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Day 21: Cleveland, Ohio

Now on that last leg of the cross-country trip, when it takes so much longer than you think it should. My sister has flown to Baltimore to join another friend for further fun.

12 hours from South Bend to westerns Massachusetts. I decided to take three days and not two.

Day 20 in South Bend

Miss Eloise became quite the celeb during our five-night stay, known by name to most of the motel staff as she enjoyed daily meet and greet parades from the room to the lobby and out to the car. The catch, however, is that I had made this reservation without noticing that a) the motel allows one dog, not two, and b) I was paying for all all five nights in advance to get a special reduced rate.

Bobby, therefore, was lying low and quiet in his carrying bag while Eloise entertained the troops.

We got a way with it.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Days 18 and 19 in South Bend


Walks by the river, meals and conversation in our friend's lovely upstairs screened porch that feels like a tree house.

We went to the Tiffany glass exhibit at the history museum.

https://visitsouthbend.com/tiffany-exhibit-shines-history-museum/


Friday, June 22, 2018

Day 17 in South Bend


Big Bobby here. This is one of my favorite places. Mrs. D. and I visit here almost every summer, and this time Eloise is here, too.

We get to go for walks a lot here. Around the neighborhood, along the river. I never want to leave.

Day 16: South Bend, Indiana

What was supposed to be another easy day of driving into South Bend was derailed by some kind of awful accident, or perhaps two of them, causing a freeway closure and re-routing us through Illinois farmland as night came on.

We arrive late and tired.

Day 15: Marion, Illinois

An easy day driving north east, through country that keeps getting greener, trees that keep getting higher.

We crossed the Mississippi near Cairo, a place name from Huckleberry Finn. I'm reminded of a fact about that story that you must know history and geography to understand; Huck and Jim are traveling on the river where it separates the states of Missouri and Illinois. Jim is a runaway slave from Missouri, a slave state; his obvious goal is to get over the river to Illinois, and yet he spends weeks on the river with Huck, apparently to look after him--something Huck's viewpoint doesn't share with us, but which Mark Twain probably intended us to understand.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Day 14: Little Rock, Arkasas

My sister got in very late, after a flight was canceled due to thunderstorms. Then a long day's drive from Houston to Little Rock, through flat, lush green country.

We are into bug country. At a rest stop, we both got stinging bites from something tiny. Fortunately the dogs had their flea and tick medication. I even got the pill down Bobby by coating in cream cheese back in Cleveland.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Day 13: Houston Hobby

Checked in to wait for my sister's arrival from New England later tonight.

An interesting new development:


Miss Eloise has figured out how to wriggle out of her harness. As in, wait, I have the leash, where is Eloise? OMG there she is romping around at the other end of the ... mercifully the hotel corridor and not the parking lot.

I remember the Steinbeck book Travels with Charley. Well, I remember the title, mostly, the rest of it only very dimly, but I don't have the impression that Charley was very much trouble on these travels.

This is travels with two moppets at that intelligence level comparable to a human toddler's--smart enough to figure out how to make something happen, but not nearly smart enough to see why it might be a bad idea.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Day 12: still near Cleveland, TX

Rain and heat, a climate like a sauna.

A lot of food, the Far East comes to Texas, with good results if you know where to look:

umamigrillandsushi.com

Tomorrow, my sister flies from New England to Houston to join us for the next leg of the trip. Making room for everything in the car will be a challenge. 


Days 10 and 11: Cleveland, Texas

Good times, good talk with good friends in their tiny house in the woods.

The beautifully appointed tiny kitchen:


Big Bobby and Eloise were spellbound by another visiting friend who is a professional animal trainer:



Eloise made another big-dog friend:




Friday, June 15, 2018

Day 9: Cleveland, Texas

Another note to self: next time, bring maps. Old-fashioned paper maps from AAA. Last night's ordeal would have been greatly aided by having a complete mental image of Lubbock, Houston and Cleveland on a map of Texas.

Cleveland is a small town near the new little home in the woods that good friends have built for themselves. I somehow had a mistaken impression that Cleveland was further north of Houston than it it is.

I also somehow was thinking of Houston as south of Austin when it is really more east than south.

These mistaken images in my mind caused me to get on route 99 going in the wrong direction, without bothering to check.

 Then, a note to all who travel to Texas: beware toll roads for which you can only pay with passes--no cash option. Google directions provides three ways to get from Lubbock to Cleveland, all involving one of these roads, on which I have run up fines. By that time of night, with only Google as a guide, I just kept driving. I am told that a bill will arrive in the mail.

With a big paper road map, I would have found another route to Cleveland and got on it going in the right direction.

The La Quinta in Cleveland at nearly one in the morning was a welcome sight, with the desk clerk I'd been on the phone with standing outside to flag me down.

Day 8: Austin, Texas

By the time you get to Austin, the landscape has changed from desert to lush green. For the same reason, arthritis pain kicks back in.

Supper, breakfast and a drive around Austin with more cousins. We agreed that another time, it should be at least two nights so that we can make a proper day trip.

Day 7: Lubbock, Texas

Note to self for future journeys: Do not try to spend the night in Lubbock. There are four or five or six Laquintas in Lubbock, lodged like insects in a spider's web of intersecting highways.

Late, after dark, and tired, I roamed from one to the next in growing confusion until I gave up and checked into one, not the one I had already paid for.

There is a nice Best Western right on the highway just south of town. Just stay there. In general, I am learning, choose motels for easy freeway access if all you plan to do in a place is sleep.

Day 6: Coralles, New Mexico

Miss Eloise had a fine old time playing with my cousins' gentle giant of a pit bull mix:


This visit was cut short by waiting until Monday morning to buy a new tire.

A wonderful time was had by all, nonetheless. Big Bobby commandeered one of his cousin's comfy beds and just took it easy. His arthritis, like mine, is greatly helped by the dry weather.




Sunday, June 10, 2018

Days 4 and 5: Holbrook, Arizona

The first mishap of the trip. Long ago, I made a bargain with the Gods that I do not expect never to have car trouble, but that my car will break down at times and places where I can cope. Over the years, this arrangement has consistently worked.

West of Winslow, some unidentifiable but not very large object hit the side of my rear right wheel with a clunk, and the tire started to go flat. I got to a the next freeway exit where there was a Mobil station and some shade, and called AAA. It was mercifully not even too hot, since we were at high altitude and a breeze was blowing. The AAA guy arrived in due time, helped unload the trunk and dig out the donut, and put it on. Bobby and Miss Louise actually enjoyed roaming about in the shade and having drinks of water.

Back on our way, we got to Holbrook as planned on a Saturday night. It doesn't look as though anyplace that sells tires is open on Sunday, though, so we will stay a second night in Holbrook and get the tire Monday morning, cutting short our visit to another cousin in New Mexico.

Both Bobby and I are feeling the salubrious effect of the hot, dry climate on our joints. So much so that a second floor motel room is not much of a trial. I did not think to specify a ground floor room because my Best Western mindset involved elevators, somehow. However, if somebody else schelps our stuff up the stairs, I can get up without too much trouble.

Bobby stood at the bottom of the stairs, either daunted by the climb for his tiny arthritic body, or not being able to clearly see what we were doing. But when I said, "up, up, up," he bounced up ahead of me like a rabbit.

I am coming to understand why so many cousins ended up in the southwest.




Day 3: Goodyear, Arizona

We drove east from San Bernardino to Goodyear, just west of Phoenix, through hot dry desert where interesting rock formations begin.

The necessary rest stops are a bit of ordeal in the blistering heat, and all three of us are glad to do our business and get back into the air conditioned car.

We had dinner and breakfast with cousin Lia, who is several years older than I and whom I haven't seen for many years--perhaps not since her son's wedding forty years ago. She and her husband moved here to retire and let the southwest climate work its magic on the osteoarthritis that plagues us all in our family. Now her husband has passed away, and she herself is facing health challenges.

Eloise matches cousin Lia's living room rug:



Over breakfast we cheerfully discussed illness, aging and death, observing that it was odd to be so cheerful about it all but that not being cheerful won't make it not happen.

Lia luckily had heard on the news about a raging brush fire closing roads on the route I planned to take to Holbrook. So I've readjusted the route to skirt the fire. 

The little dogs stayed in the hotel room while we went out to breakfast. I have been leaving them for short periods. As it turns out, having me gone for ten minutes while I pack the car is OK, for fifteen minutes while I get a freebie motel breakfast in San Bernardino was OK, but for two hours while cousin Lia and I face death with equanimity over our benedicts--that is just too much. Miss Eloise expressed her opinion of the matter by deliberately peeing on an ottoman, and not on the pee pad in the bathroom. I know it was her because Bobby is too arthritic get up on an ottoman to pee.

I reported the damage at check-out and paid an extra $50. This amount suggests cleaning and not furniture replacement. Since there were stain traces on the ottoman to begin with, I wonder if Eloise is not the first dog to decide it smelled like the right place, and perhaps that ottoman has earned the hotel hundreds of dollars.

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Day 2: San Bernardino CA




Greetings from Big Bobby and Miss Eloise--

We spent the day in LA traffic. It was very boring. But now we are at a motel off of  I-10 headed east, and mom put chicken treats in our toys, so everything is OK.

Mrs. Drinkwalter's Diary of the Eastward Journey: Day 1 Kettleman City CA

At a last meeting at Brennan's the night before last, someone suggested I blog this trip to keep everyone informed.

So I have resurrected this blog, with some machinations involving a text message by cell phone with an access code since I couldn't remember very much about how I used to get into it.

But here we are in Kettleman City, or at least the cluster of freeway services by the exit from I-5. We got a late start, so late as to get stuck in rush hour traffic leaving Oakland on I-580.

The two little dogs were freaked out about the packing and preparations, but as I predicted, happier once we were on the move. Old Bobby rides on my lap in the car, and when we get to the motel is happy as long as he has his bed, his food, and can find the water and a place to pee. He is kind of confused on waking, and stands there looking vacant until I get up and go over it all again with him.

Eloise is bored, but she will get a walk after we check out.

Today, an easy three and a half hours to San Bernardino