August 17: Home!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

https://www.travelingmom.com/family-vacation-destinations/northeast-destinations/5-reasons-to-choose-the-nantucket-hotel/

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.

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.

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).