Boothill

Date: Sunday May 27
Day: 16
RV Miles: 1,585
Location: Huachuca City, AZ
Elevation: 4,412

Well not much happened Saturday. I think the humans decided to take a day off and take a vacation from the vacation. The standoff between Larry and Sasha is over – Sasha won. Saturday, Sasha went off at 5AM on schedule, Larry let her out of her cage and went back to bed. Sounds OK right? Wrong. When Larry slept in it crimped our morning patrol time. When that happened Sasha got wild and went pretty much out of control. Today Larry bounced out of bed at 5AM WITH Sasha and he then told me that we were going on patrol and that we wouldn’t come back until Sasha dropped from exhaustion. She pulled at her leash for two full miles before she settled down. We covered somewhere between 2.5 to 3 miles before she really got tired.

I told you that the humans might go back to Tombstone and they did. As it turns out every year over Memorial Day they have Wyatt Earp Days where the whole town turns out in period costumes and they have gunfights in the street and everything.

According to Larry, the highlight was Boot Hill, a cemetery with probably 200 to 300 graves. In the 1880 to 1882 period, (the peak of the Tombstone silver rush boom time) there was a noticeable spike in the number of violent deaths.

Don’t know what is on for tomorrow, but they are talking about taking Sasha and I to a national park up by Tucson. We’ll see.

Tombstone - The town to tough to die

Date: Friday May 27
Day: 14
RV Miles: 1,585
Location: Huachuca City, AZ
Elevation: 4,412

Larry and Marsha headed off into tombstone leaving me to baby sit Sasha. They were gone a really long time because both of them are history buffs and when they came back Larry said, “Other than the souvenir shops the whole town is a museum.

It’s a different type of town; population about 1,000, only apparent industry is tourism and if it weren’t for Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral it would probably be gone. Anyway, Larry and Marsha said they didn’t get a chance to see everything so they might head back that way before we leave here.

The Sasha-Larry standoff took an unexpected turn this morning and it has me a bit confused and miffed. Right on queue about 5AM Sasha woke me up and we went to work on getting Larry up. Sasha was in her cage, Larry got up, let her out of the cage and put Sasha up on the bed. Sasha immediately curled up on a pillow and settled down. There I was left holding the bag making as much noise with my tail as I could and Sasha was on her way back to slumber land. Inside of five minutes we were all back to sleep.

Well, now Sasha is on my list and Larry’s. I told you she was going to be trouble.

Arizona Wine Country

Date: Thursday May 27
Day: 13
RV Miles: 1,585
Location: Huachuca City, AZ
Elevation: 4,412

For the life if me, I still don’t know where Hauchuca City is, but I met a Mexican Chihuahua and he told me how to pronounce it. Wa – Chew – Ka. The emphasis is on the “chew” and when you say the name it should almost sound like you are sneezing.

The battle of wills and intellects continues between the human camp and Sasha. I told you earlier that she thinks she is running the show, well she still is. The anti-Shasha-counter-measures Larry and Marsha dreamt up didn’t work. What they tried was putting Shasha in her cage and covering it with blankets in the hope of blocking out the sun in the morning. It didn’t work. We drug Larry’s sorry butt out of Bed at precisely 4:57 AM today. He is very none-to-happy and has vowed to figure out a way to get to sleep in. My money is on Sasha.

It was a pretty good day today. Marsha did laundry and a few domestic chores, Larry worked on some exterior storage and holding tank problems and I stood guard duty. Sasha kept trying to find a way to be in the way.

Mid-afternoon Larry and Marsha took off towards Arizona wine country about 30 miles west of here and left me to baby-sit Sasha. They must have had a good time cause they came back half-lit (Larry said they were wine tasting. ) had some crazy tee shirts and about a dozen bottles of wine.

The first picture above is what Larry says the Arizona wine country looks like and the second picture is of the Sonoita Winery. Larry and Marsha have bestowed upon the Sonoita Winery the distinction of being the second most remote place they have ever been. It is about 3 miles outside of Elgin, Arizona. If you wonder what Elgin Arizona looks like, look at the first picture again. That’s it. It’s not just a wide spot in the road; it is a “T” in the road.

I asked Larry what’s up for tomorrow and he told me: First, I am going to sleep in (I doubt it) and second Marsha and I are going into Tombstone to see the re-enactment of the gunfight at the OK corral.

Sasha's in Deep Trouble and the Drive to Tombstone

Date: May 26
Day: 12
RV Miles: 1,585
Location: Huachuca City, AZ
Elevation: 4,412

If you don’t know where Huachuca City is located don’t worry, I’m there and I don’t know where it is either. Larry says it’s about ten miles from Tombstone, which from the look of the land around here is about 60 miles outside of Nowhere.

I think this morning Sasha pushed her luck a bit too far. Sasha is really into this vacation and she is always going, ‘Like awesome way cool’ and stuff like that. Well every morning at first light, which has been running 5:00 AM to 5:30 AM local time, she wakes up and is ready to party. As she puts it, “Like come-on dude, its awesome, the sun’s up. Like daylight a-wastin’. – Let’s PARTY!. Time to like get Larry up.” (She knows getting Marsha up is a lost cause.)

Normally, I do everything in my power to ignore her, but with this one rare exception I cooperate with her because getting Larry up is followed rapidly by going outside and getting fed in that order, both of which I am in favor of. So while Sasha whines and yips, I stand up and wag my tail so it hits the walls and cabinets in the bedroom: whomp – whap – boom – wack – twack etc. It makes a hell of an annoying noise that is impossible for humans to ignore.

Well Larry thinks he is on vacation and has a right to sleep in and not get up at first light. The commotion Sasha and I make eventually convinces Larry he is not going to get anymore sleep and persuades him to get up, which is rapidly followed by going out and getting fed. Normally this is neat, but . . .

This morning she pushed the envelope a bit too far. It was not 5:00 or 5:30 it was more like 4:00 AM as in Oh-dark-hundred in military time. I refused to help her get Larry up and told her it would be best to reconsider, but she went ahead anyway. I think Larry was already at the end of his get-up-time rope and to say that he was none to pleased would be putting it mildly. I heard Larry and Marsha talking this afternoon about strong anti-Sasha-countermeasures. We will have to see what happens.

Anyway, we had a nice pleasant drive to where ever we are and I guess we plan on staying here until after the Memorial Day weekend. They are also going to use this stop to let their mail catch up with them. I think tomorrow is going to be a day of chores for Larry and Marsha – laundry, cleaning etc.

Mechanical Troubles on The Way to Deming, NM

Date: May 25
Day: 11
RV Miles: 1,585
Location: Deming, NM
Elevation: 4,426

Not much to say today. We moved West about 200 miles to Deming, New Mexico. Heading in here the highway was lined with signs saying “Discover Deming” or “Visit Deming” so we looked on the internet to see what there was to do in Deming. On the internet we found three things: Visit a Rock Museum, Visit the town museum to see some rocks on loan from the Rock Museum or go see City of Rocks State Park. (The state park is 40 miles away and that is where Marsha and Larry started their vacation 3 years ago.) So for normal folks about all there is to do in Deming is watch the tumble-weeds blow by.

Had two mechanical problems today. When Marsha was checking the car tow dolly she noticed that the tow dolly lights weren’t working so Larry found an RV place to take the rig to have it checked. Seemed that somewhere the tow dolly bottomed-out and tore the wiring for the lights loose. Got that fixed in about a half hour.

About half way across the White Sands Missile Range the air conditioner stopped blowing. Larry fiddled with it for a while and discovered that the fan only works in “High.” He said he will get that fixed later and just hope “high” doesn’t go out in the meantime.

Marsha’s getting dinner ready and I need to go help her. That’s all for today.

Space Museum and a New Hat for Marsha

Date: May 24
Day: 10
RV Miles: 1,448
Location: Alamogordo, NM
Elevation: 4,214

Like, hey this is Sasha. Like Max is so totally punked-out I get to blog today, awesome.

This vacation is so way cool to the max. Like all the new places and smells and stuff and Larry is so rad. Like every morning after breakfast he like takes me on a promenade. Only thing to like make it better is if he would like totally leave ditch Max – oh please he so totally cramps my style but whatever. Problem with the desert, is like the dust has totally turned my pretty white feet grayish. Oh gag me with a dog bone!

I like got to catch up on my beauty sleep today while Marsha and Larry went to some space place or where ever. That’s why Max is so totally punked-out, he had to stay behind to baby-sit me. Whatever ya know.

Well, like the only thing interesting today was Marsha came back with a new way cool hat, that like stays on her head. No pics yet stay tuned.

Think we’re moving on tomorrow. Larry and Marsha been like talking and talking for hours about where to go next. Talking about like five different cool places. They can’t make up their mind, it’s like so totally dumb. Just like face West and get going, duh.

Alamogordo to the Clouds to the Valley of Fire

Date: May 23
Day: 9
RV Miles: 1,448
Location: Alamogordo, NM
Elevation: 4,214

Before I tell you about today’s happenings, I have to catch you up on a few things that will be relevant later on. First, I need to tell you about Sasha’s pre-occupation with stones. At home, individual stones are rather rare and when Sasha finds one she gets so full of herself with her special discovery she starts prancing around like she is something special while clicking the stone in her teeth so you know she has one. This is normally followed by Larry or Marsha chasing her butt all over hell’s half-acre so as to catch her and take the stone away from her.

Out here, grass is rare, trees are rarer and stones are everywhere. The first time I took Larry and Sasha on patrol (a walk) I took them straight to a GRAVEL road. I suspected Sasha would go into a glorious meltdown of glee in having found all of those stones. Sure enough, as soon as we had reached her field of dreams she reached down and grabbed not one but two or three stones and started rattling them in her teeth. (Didn’t I tell you this brat was going to be trouble?) She was barely though her first prance-step when she stopped dead in her tracks and looked around. She was surrounded by stones, anyone could be knee-deep in stones if they so desired. Then the realization hit her that stones were no longer special and styling over having found one would make you look really really stupid, so she spit the stones out and walked on like nothing happened. Since then she has taken up picking up twigs and leaves – something actually rare in these parts.

Next, you might want to know that Marsha purchased a walking stick. Those of you who know Marsha know she picked one that was pretty and not necessarily functional. It was pretty and long enough there was only one way to put it in the car without it being in everyone’s way. It took Larry about 5 minutes to figure it out – it goes in like a Chinese cipher and you have to know the combination to get it out.

Next subject – I think in some of the pictures you have seen Marsha’s new sun hat. Such things are necessary for humans in this desert sun, but . . . Marsha picked a hat that was pretty, not necessarily functional especially in this New Mexico wind. (The locals refer to the 20 to 30 MPH winds as the desert breeze.) Well when Marsha has this hat on she has more sail area than the flying nun – the brim is either flapped down in front of her eyes so she can’t see or is trying to blow off her head – and the chin strap doesn’t help. Just park these last two thoughts for a while, while I tell you what we did today.

Now that we are on the West side of the Sacramento Mountains here in Alamogordo the temperature seems a little lower (today’s high was about 90) and the humidity seems lower (about 3%). This makes things quite pleasant if you stay in the shade. Which is what I wanted to do so I could catch up on my naptime.

Larry and Marsha had different ideas. We all piled into the car and headed up toward White Mountain to a little town called Cloudcroft up at an elevation of about 8500 feet.
Cloudcroft is a neat little burg that registers at least 7 or 8 on the quaint meter with all kinds of interesting shops – sorta like Nashville, Indiana. We stopped there and I took Larry and Sasha on patrol while Marsha went grazing through the shops. The change in altitude lowered the temperature a good 15 degrees and it was nice and pleasant up there near the clouds.

Continuing our journey, we drove North though some spectacular alpine vistas in the Sacramento Mountains and finally joined up with what is known as the Billy the Kid trail. We are now in Lincoln County site of the Lincoln War, which made Billy the Kid famous. Once on the trail we headed West again to the gravesite of Smokey the Bear. From there we kept going West until we got to the Valley of Fire.


The Valley of Fire, a National Recreation Area, is located on a huge and very young lava field stuck right out in the middle of the desert. We decided to take one of the trails that would let us walk right out over the lava field. Here is where things got interesting.

Marsha donned her pretty hat and walked around to the rear of the car to get her pretty walking stick. Try as she might, the walking stick, despite its beauty, would not come out of the car. Part of the problem was she didn’t know the combination and the other part of the problem was that the desert breeze was having all kinds of fun with her hat. Without a word, Larry did something very stupid and dangerous, he – trying to be helpful – reached in and deftly retrieved her very pretty walking stick just has her very pretty hat brim flapped down over her eyes.

When Marsha pulled the hat brim back up off her face, the look on that face told the world that a much-feared Very-Special-Marsha-Meltdown was pending. Larry, being none too bright asked, “Is something wrong?”

Except for the wind, his question was met with a very long ominous silence until Marsh replied, “I don’t know whether to wear this hat or leave it.”

“Well if it is bothering you, just leave it here,” replied Larry. At which time, Marsha immediately turned and marched off toward the trail: One hand on her hat; one hand on her walking stick and my lead in the other hand. Needless to say, she had her hands full.

The trail was interesting but uneventful unless you count the fact that Sasha whimped out about half way through the hike. See the picture. The sun was quite hot and the walk quite long and “Princess Sasha” decided she had had enough, found a spot of shade, petulantly lay down, and refused to move. For a while, I was afraid Larry was going to have to carry her back to the car. I told you that little brat was going to be a hand full.


All in all, it was a really nice day – unless you count the female problems.

Carlsbad to Alamogordo

Date: May 22
Day: 8
RV Miles: 1,448
Location: Alamogordo, NM
Elevation: 4,214

Broke camp and headed to Alamogordo, about 180 miles away. We could have taken a much shorter route through Cloudcroft. Cloudcroft is at an elevation of about 9,000 feet and the decent into Alamogordo is a steep winding 6% grade that they do not let trucks use. So rather than tempt fate and have the brakes go out, we took a longer and much safer route. Seems Larry is an experienced RV-mountain-navigator and bought a book that lists all of the steep hills in the Western United States. There is hope for Larry yet.

One of the major industries around Carlsbad, other than oil, is cattle. Ever since we got off the expressway near Amarillo, we have found the countryside dotted with cattle feedlots. These are usually huge operations (some taking up as much as a square mile) with grain silos for feed and huge piles of manure covered in plastic. It looks like after the manure has “aged” they sell it for fertilizer. Normally you can smell the feedlots long before you can see them. I generally ignore the smell, but Sasha puts her nose in overload.

Larry and I agree and do not consider feedlots particularly photogenic or the type of thing one would like to put in their photo album. Marsha, on the other hand wanted a picture of a feedlot. Why? Only Marsha knows, so I included a one third of a panorama of a feedlot North of Carlsbad that Larry took; This is just the South end of the feedlot; there are two more pictures north of this one that are just as long. Larry commented that his camera can record sound and it was too bad it couldn’t record smells to add some realism to the photograph.

On the drive to Alamogordo, the wind was blowing hard and as we were coming down the side of the mountains towards town, you could see the White Sands Dunes stretching for miles in a narrow strip running North-South. The winds had whipped up huge white clouds of sand that rose hundreds of feet in the air.

Anyway, we got settled into a campground in Alamogordo about 3PM . After I had sniffed out our campsite to make sure it was OK, Marsha suggested we pack dinner and head out to White Sands National Monument. Larry “rented” a snow disk to sled down the dunes. Here’s where Larry lost his atta-boy for mountain-navigation.

Remember the comment about the wind? Well, the wind was blowing across the top of, and down the side of the dune carrying with it a substantial amount of sand. Sorta like a natural sand blasting machine. So in order to get to the top of the dune, Larry had to climb up facing right into this sandstorm spitting sand out of his mouth every step of the way.

Being of superior intellect, I refused to climb the dune as did Marsha. She petulantly commented to Larry, “I don’t want sand everyplace sand isn’t supposed to be.”

Initially there was hope for Sasha since she didn’t want to climb the dune, but the exuberance of youth prevailed and she went up the dune with Larry. She’ll learn. Larry won’t.


Well, Larry and Sasha had a nice little sled ride back down the dune and that was that. What you can’t see in the picture is that by the time he got off the dune he was caked in sand, had sand in his hair, in his eyes, in his ears and every other place sand shouldn’t be. The first thing he did when he got back to camp was to go to the camp shower room and stand under the faucet for about 30 minutes.

The dune area is quite impressive, it looks very much like a world that has just experienced a huge blizzard – everything is white no matter where you look.

Roswell and the X-files

Date: Friday, May 21
Day: 8
RV Miles: 1,278
Location: Carlsbad
Elevation: 3,295 Feet

Well, today was an easy day. Marsha wanted to go to Roswell to learn about UFO’s. So we traveled North about an hour and visited the UFO research center. Had lunch in a park and then made a surprise discovery.

Artesia, which is a little town about half way between Carlsbad and Roswell, has street sculptures commemorating their cowboy and “oil patch” history and culture. The Artesia main street would be called quaint by western standards and the sculptures were the finishing touch.

Today was HOT. The low for the day was 48 with the high being over 100 and the wind was a blowing across the desert – made things feel like you were standing outside a blast furnace. The refrigerator had trouble keeping up and the inside cabinets got so hot it melted some lunch bars we had stored there.

Our campground is next to Brantly State Park and Brantly Lake which was formed by a dam across the Pecos river. When they dammed the river the flooded out a town called Seven Rivers which was the hometown of Billy the Kid. Lots of western history and lore in these parts.

Larry’s has an itch and feels like we’ve been sitting still too long. So, even though we planned to stay until Monday there is a good chance we will be on the road tomorrow.

The Cavern and the Road to NOWHERE

5/19/10

Things are starting to happen now. We started the day by going to the caverns. Bummer, they put Sasha and I in a kennel while they had all the fun going through the cavern. After that they decided to go see Sitting Bull Falls in the Lincoln National Forest which turned out to be a long drive. On the way there is what Larry told me about the Caverns.

There are two overwhelming impressions of the Cavern: First, the entrance is steep. The way he put it is that it starts out steep; then it gets really steep; then it gets damned steep and then gets steeper. You go down about 800 feet in a about a mile. Take a look at the picture of the switchback path at the entrance to the cavern above. Second, the cavern is not just big it is huge. Take a look at the other photos above taken inside the cavern. Wow!

The best part of the afternoon (I jest) was the decision to see Sitting Bull Falls. To get there all you have to do is turn off the main road about halfway back to the town of Carlsbad from the National Park. Let me set the stage for this. Between the National Park and Carlsbad there is NOTHING but desert. The jackrabbits don’t even come out this far. So here you are in the middle of nowhere and you turn off of the main road and head off into the deep deep desert looking for a waterfall. And humans call us dogs dumb animals.

Well the road was twisty, turn-y, tarmac road which should have been a hint as to what was going to happen. Well after crossing 38 cattle guards and driving 36 miles you come to a stop sign (in the middle of the freeking desert) where you turn right. This is where the road takes you into the really remote desolate part of the desert for another 12 miles. Then low and behold you come upon this little oasis where you can get out and walk to see the falls. See the picture of the falls below.


Larry was really bummed out ‘cause everyone in town told them how spectacular it was. (Message to Larry: It’s the middle of the desert! Duh! What did you expect, Niagara falls?)

The trip was some 90 miles and took over 2 hours. During that time we did not see one other vehicle or another human being, which proves there is hope for the human race. We did see one cow and we were followed by 4 vultures.

On the way back to camp Marsha and Larry chatted about out of the way places they had been and agreed that Sitting Bull Falls was at the top of the list. They also agreed that they should remove the word “Sitting” from the name and just call it “BULL Falls.”

Tomorrow’s gonna be an domestic day; do laundry, get groceries and stuff. That’s good because Sasha and I need to catch up on our nap time.

Way cool!

Oh, my gosh, this trip is like going to be so awesome. Max is totally passed out on the couch, Marsha’s like, actually driving this big rig ya know. Indiana is totally history and we are like rolling South out of Roswell New Mexico for sure. Max is so totally way unsophisticated and he thinks he can write this blog by himself - duh! He like really needs some help, so here I am.

I like read what Max said about me, OK, and well, as if. Totally what do you expect from a dufas who is like half bird dog! For sure, he would get stoked by like slogging around is a muddy marsh with a dead bird in his mouth or whatever . Revolting, like gag me with a spoon ya know. Ya gotta be like totally brain dead to like believe anything he said about me. So totally unspeakable, as if. Anyway, whatever.

Like ya gotta know me: I am really radical awesome princess, outrageous gorgeous, and so way cool. Like a belle princesse, adored by everyone. This trip is about me, not Larry and Marsha, duh. Like, I am a débutante, and this trip so coming-out for me. But wow, enough about me ya know.

Like Larry is driving and when he isn’t he is so totally anti-social and won’t let me in his lap. He and Max are so yesterday and duh he doesn’t get it that lap time is so totally rad ‘cause it like makes adoring me so much easier. So far this trip has been way Rad, like I’m getting lots of lap time with Marsha and interesting stuff is happening.

Like the back roads are so cool. Went through Hereford Texas, and they had this big sign bragging like they were the meat packing capital of the world, for sure. Saw thousands of acres of feed lot cattle ya know, more than I would ever be able to bark down, but like I tried and like the air was full of the smell of fourteen types of cow poop. I so totally wore my whiffer out.

Like South of Roswell they had this awesome storm, rad winds, lightening and rain, so totally scary. Marsha so completely freaked out when she saw six or seven storm chaser teams with neat antennas, radars and gizmos on their car/truck roofs going the other way. Larry was like, “Whatever, we’re safe they are going the other way. Like I’d be worried if they were going the same way we are for sure.”

Larry and Marsha told me they were tired and tomorrow would be a quite do-nothing day. Come on, its party time for sure and they want me to chill, as if. Oh whatever, duh.

Big Bunch of Nothing - Shamrock TX

Date 5/16/10
Day 2
Miles 436 Today, Total RV miles 925
Above Sea Level: Yes

Sunday’s drive was much better than yesterday’s. Marsha drove about half the time to Sasha’s dismay. Larry’s lap is not a comfortable as Marsha’s. Things got exciting going through Oklahoma City.

Marsha was driving and you could see this huge big black storm cell heading for us from the North West. The sky was clear and bright to the South and those two humans couldn’t figure out whether to wear their sunglasses or their regular glasses. Well at one point the front of the storm hit us and pushed the RV all over the road. Marsha told me later that at that point she pegged her excitement meter. Luckily, Larry spotted a Flying J truck stop and they pulled over till the weather cleared.

Shamrock, Texas is right on the old route 66 and the original “concrete ribbon” still exists. We had to drive down it to get to our campground. Other than that and a historic gas station there ain’t much to, or in Shamrock. Although we did find a resident, (not that easy - population density here abouts is less then 5 humans per square mile) that proudly told us about the “Devil’s Rope Museum (Barbed Wire)” that was only 20 miles down the road from here. Follow the link to read the history of the gas station and the U-drop Inn.
http://www.oldgas.com/info/towerconoco.html

A Dead End in St. Louis

Springfield Missouri
Day: 1
Miles: 483
Above Sea Level 1487 feet

Wouldn’t you know something changed. They just kept packing and about noon on Saturday they were done so they left - 12:35 Bargersville Standard Time. As expected Sasha is loving this because she got over eight hours of lap time. Marsha wasn’t felling 100% so Larry drove the entire way.

Two interesting things of note. At almost exactly four hours into the trip Marsha remembered the first (and certainly not the last) thing she forgot. Something about an insulated mug that would fit the cup holder in the RV.

But the real fun began in St. Louis - the GPS system melted down coming into the city and wouldn’t give turn directions until about 15 seconds late and we missed a turn. No problem right? The GPS has a “back on track” feature that tells you how to get back on the road going the right way. Well it took us of the expressway and promptly took us down a dead end street. No problem, right? Wrong! When you are towing a car you can’t back up. Well when that happened Larry let loose some language that curled the chrome right off my choke chain collar. Wow!

They had to unhook the car and the dolly, get everything turned around and hooked back up again. Took an hour and one Marsha meltdown to get it done.

They had dinner at Lamberts the home of the throw’d rolls. Sounds interesting and I was disappointed I didn’t get to go ‘cause I’m a real good catch.

Headed for Texas today. Gotta go, Larry is getting ready to drag Marsha’s sorry butt out of bed and hit the road again. It just before 9AM central standard time.

D-Day Minus 3

It’s Friday May 14th and it looks like this thing is going to happen. Larry pulled the RV out front for the final load-out. They have been using the dining room table as a staging area for stuff to go in the RV and it looks like it is about ready to collapse under the weight. Last weekend Larry finished packing the storage compartments underneath the RV and he said several things were going to have to stay home because the storage areas are full. The stuff on the table is going inside the RV and my bet is that some of it will also have the opportunity to “stay home” as well. Mind you none of this makes any difference to me as long as my food bowl, my lead and my bed get to go.

Sasha, on the other hand is in therapy. She sees the RV out front and she is doing her imitation of a pin-ball off the walls and furniture. I told her not to sweat it: As long as the coffee pot is on the counter Larry and Marsha aren’t leaving. Then, watch for the food bowls, beds and leads. When they go out, then it is time to panic - you never know when they might just forget to let you out so you can get in the RV.

Departure is set for 8AM Monday and by that time, between supervising the load-out and having to put up with Sasha, I will be exhausted. Sasha wants to write some blog stuff so I told her she could make the blog entry Monday while I catch up on my sleep. This is your forewarning: Sasha could keep a whole office of physiatrists employed for years. First, she’s at that age where she fashions herself as a valley-girl. Second, she has this princess complex thing going. Third, from her viewpoint the world is all about her, and finally she comes down somewhere between, spoiled brat and diva -- both suffering from hyperactive attention deficient disorder.

More Monday.