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.
Camouflaged dog! So naughty peeing - but I'm laughing at your account of the "money-making" ottoman!
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