Next Generation Dachshunds; To the Mountains; Tribute to Two Military Women; Messages of Hope Board Meeting; Okefenokee Swamp; Rudy's Portrait; On the Road Again!

I am happy to announce that our Pack is again complete. After we drove to Louisiana to pick him up, Rusty has joined Nellie, Suzanne and me here in South Carolina. Rusty is a red piebald miniature long-haired Dachshund and is now 6 months old.

 Rusty is quickly learning the ropes in our household, and is a real "moosh". He is growing like a weed, and is now heavier than Nellie. His nickname is Bruiser, but occasionally I call him Tank. He is all boy... and he is also a chick magnet!

                    

Nellie, a gorgeous Irish Cream, is 18 months old, and is happy to have her new brother to chase around the house. She looks very sweet and demure here, but she runs like the wind. She will certainly be a contender when we enter her in a Dachshund race. Her nickname is Nellie Monroe... Nellie loves everyone, especially Tony and Irene Vouvalides, our dear friends and neighbors. Nellie also loves their 80 lb Labradoodle Linus, but Linus runs for cover when Nellie arrives. 

My Lovely Bride decided that I was getting lazy, so had an idea that I should climb the highest points in all 50 states... okay, so I may not climb Denali, Rainier or a couple of the other highly technical mountains, but I spent a few days recently doing South Carolina's Sassafras Mountain (3,354 ft), North Carolina's Mount Mitchell (6,684 ft), and Tennessee's Clingman's Dome (6,644 ft). I made myself a deal that I would at least get a three mile hike in each day. The mountains were beautiful, small compared to the 12,000-14,000 footers out west, heavily forested, and with lots of streams. In Western mountains, trees are much farther apart and there are far fewer year-round streams.

The most important stop in that trip wasn't a mountain. I had spent the first night in Easley, SC, and after reading about the town and its notable citizens, I made a stop to lay flowers at the grave of Captain Kimberly Hampton, US Army, the first woman helicopter pilot killed in combat (2004, Fallujah, Iraq). Our daughter Susan was a Marine Corps helicopter airframes mechanic who was killed in 2006. Both Susan and Kimberly were 27 years old. I could feel Susan watching over my shoulder, knowing that the flowers were for her as well as Kimberly.

While I was in the Appalachian Mountains, Suzanne was having a Messages of Hope Board Members' retreat with Bev Garlipp and Lynette Setzkorn. Bev and Lynette make Suzanne's work possible and her life much easier. In between work discussions, the ladies went to Hilton Head for some sightseeing.

When I returned, I presented small tokens of my appreciation to Bev and Lynette - amethyst crystals that I had found in a rock shop in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.

We are still loving our new home in South Carolina, with its beautiful marsh views just five minutes away. 

There are several other barrier islands in the area; one of our favorite beaches is at Hunting Island State Park. The beach was empty on the weekday we visited, but there were lots of seabirds and lovely vistas.

Many readers may recall Mike and Beth Pasakarnis, our dear friends and Wolf's parents (from Suzanne's book Wolf's Message). They have visited us several times this year, and we have visited them at their beautiful marshside home in Darien, Georgia. Here we are enjoying a day trip to Savannah in April.

We also visited Okefenokee Swamp/National Wildlife Refuge with Mike and Beth. Lots of beautiful bald cypress trees (Taxodium distichum) here, festooned with Spanish moss, and more big alligators (Alligator mississipiensis) than you could shake a stick at. I had kayaked here back in the 70s and wanted to share it with friends and family.

After Rudy passed, we received a beautiful painting of our little boy from Darcy Robinson, an amazing artist who lives in Wyoming. It captured Rudy's essence and personality perfectly. We will be visiting Darcy this summer to thank her in person for such a gracious, loving and thoughtful gift. In this photo, Suzanne is holding flowers sent to us by Chewy.com in memory of Rudy. 

We are on the road again, heading west for five months from South Carolina through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and back through the South to home. Suzanne will be conducting several events - see her web site for details of our Messages of Hope Tour 2021. 

Our first stop was at Strom Thurmond Lake, where there is a military campground. Sharon and Mike Branigan joined us for dinner there... actually, they brought dinner, huge, delicious Black Angus ribeyes and even the sides and salad! (Sharon had attended Suzanne's event in Camarillo, CA, and thought I was part of hotel security - I must have been looking very stern while standing at the back of the room!)

Our next stop was Alpharetta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta, to visit Lynette Setzkorn, Suzanne's Scheduling and Interviews Princess, and to hold a couple of board meetings to plan future activities. Lynette and Suzanne did their Spirited board work while I got familiar with our new-to-us bus.

Finally, here are Suzanne, Nellie and Rusty in a rare quiet moment (for the puppies, anyway). We wish you all much happiness and love. Check in with the blog in a week or two - I hope to get better at posting now that we are underway!

Rudy, the Best Dog Ever

 My Best Friend.

Rudy, the Sailing Wiener Dog, was my Best Friend. In July 2019, vets at UC Davis gave Rudy two months to live... he fooled them by living for another 18 months. He was a strong boy!

For 16 years, he was my constant companion. Rudy slept next to me on our bed, right next to my shoulder. We went on walks together, chased squirrels and rabbits together, sailed across the Atlantic together, admired Italian girls together, walked down boat docks together, and commiserated when things weren't going well. He was my hero. He never complained. He didn't grouse if I didn't share a beer or glass of wine with him. He preferred water (poor guy). 

As a youngster living on our sailboat, he was a real sea dog. He didn't mind rough weather as much as we did, and always maintained a positive outlook.

We called Rudy "The King" and "Elvis"... he had "attitude", and was always totally in charge.

As Rudy aged, he became even more regal. 

Rudy was an avid traveler, on boats, trains, planes and our RV... on trans-Atlantic flights, he had to stay in his travel-kennel, except when we would smuggle him to the rest room...

Occasionally he would look like Einstein, with wild hair...

If I were to reincarnate, it would be as Rudy. I miss him so much. If you are ever fortunate enough to have the love of a dog, I hope your dog is as wonderful as my boy Rudy. If so, you will be the most fortunate Dog Dad/Mom in the world. I am looking forward to seeing Rudy, and his sister Gretchen, whom we lost on Christmas Day 2019, again one day. Gretchen was much more subdued than Rudy, quietly watching the world go by, for the most part. But she thought she was bigger than she was... we called Gretchen "Ten Pounds of Fighting Fury" after she lunged at a 75 lb Rottweiler. They will always be in our hearts.

I am a Luddite; Wish Y'all Were Here!

 To all our Faithful Readers: my most sincere apologies for not posting comments over the past 18 months... tonight I was on the blog site, which was modified in 2019, and found dozens of comments that I had never seen until tonight! Thank you all for your positive comments... for the .0001% that were negative, well, you can't please all of the people all of the time. 😂  But seriously, I am technologically challenged. I am a “Luddite”... the modern definition is one who is opposed to new technology... back in England during the Industrial Revolution, Luddites were a sort of cult that broke into factories and destroyed machinery in mills to protect their jobs. I am not that radical, but am certainly resistant to social media and TV shows. For example, the last series that I watched was "I Love Lucy"... yes, in black and white.

It was so much fun reading your comments from 2019 and this year, as we sit in our home in South Carolina. Suzanne is a few feet away on the couch, a Dachshund sandwich, with Nellie and Rudy beside her. I am so lucky. We are so lucky... to have so many good friends all across the country, in Canada, New Zealand, UK, France, etc... every time we hear from you, we wish that we could beam you all here and enjoy your friendship face to face. I would embrace that technology in a heartbeat! Until then, please know that we truly appreciate your comments, thoughts and friendship, and hope that when we pass through your areas, we can meet up!

Longmont, Colorado; Mutton Mowers; Whose Garage? Oakley, KS; Feeding Frenzy; Always and Furever; Tuscumbia, AL; The Blue Ridge; Home at Last

 

Okay, so I have been somewhat delinquent in getting our final summer trip up, and now we're into November! Mea culpa! For those younger people who might not understand that Latin phrase, it means "through my fault"... today, the typical hipster phrase would be "My bad". We will pick up this month's blog in Colorado. We stayed at St. Vrain State Park in Longmont to visit our dear friends "Colonel Crusty" Cunis and His Lovely Bride Elaine. Unfortunately, due to the Chinese virus, we were unable to enjoy an Army-sponsored dinner this year (Navy won the last Army-Navy Game). Next year, Crusty! Go Navy... Beat Army!

St. Vrain is a favorite campground; we have been there about 6 times. This year we encountered something different... Mutton Mowers. Instead of contracting out to a landscaping/lawn maintenance company to keep the weeds in check, the state park folks hired Emily McMurtrey's goats from Mutton Mowers https://www.facebook.com/MuttonMowers/. I met Emily when I was on a walk, and learned about her goats. She sets up electrified fences around their grazing areas to protect them from coyotes and loose dogs. Emily and many of her family ranch friends were affected by the recent fires in Colorado, and if you're a goat and other livestock fan, you can join me in sending a donation to the Colorado Fire Relief for Livestock GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/mutton-mowers-winter-fund...

On the way east from the Denver area, we stopped for lunch in Deer Trail, CO, home of the world's first rodeo. We parked across from this home down a side street, and were shocked by the sign in the window... "A..hole's Neighbor"! We couldn't understand how someone could display such a nasty sign; it must have been a very serious feud...

... but then, we drove around the corner and what did we find, but "A..hole's Garage".... only in small town America could you find this kind of marketing! And from the cars out front, it looks like he isn't doing much business...

Our next stop for the night was Oakley, Kansas... this is corn country. The corn was as high as, well... an elephant's eye. (If you're under 40, that might not mean much to you...) We took two long walks down this country road looking for a Starbucks or Panera, and didn't see a soul until a guy in a pickup truck pulled alongside and said, "Saw y'all about a half hour ago... you turned around just as you got to my farm... you should have stopped in... I coulda used some help with my fencing." I replied, "Well, sir, you shoulda put a sign on your barn door..." 

Have you ever seen a feeding frenzy? We don't go out to eat a lot, but when we do, it will be for food that we don't make at home, like these delicious ribs at Jack Stack BBQ. Here is a Happy Medium.

Many of you know about the Always and Furever Midwest Animal Sanctuary in Spring Hill, Kansas. This shelter rescues aging dogs (and now also cats) from "kill shelters". They are given a loving home where they can sleep on couches in a living room setting. Jennifer Dulski started the sanctuary in 2017 and has saved over 500 dogs.  It was featured in a recent charity event that Suzanne sponsored. Donations are always appreciated. See their web site at https://alwaysandfurever.love/our-story/

Eastward to Tuscumbia, Alabama... we met our dear friends Judson and Donna Jo Emens and several of their friends for a delicious down home Southern dinner at our campground. The caramel cake was a unique dessert that I immediately fell in love with!

Suzanne has a weekly radio show, and one day one of the callers said, "You are in Tuscumbia; if you are coming through Huntsville, please stop so we can have lunch!" Well, it just so happened that we were passing through there in two days! We had a delightful German meal with Melitta Thorn. One of the best aspects of our summer trips in the coach is the ability to meet fun and interesting people along the way.

Moving farther east, we passed through Knoxville, Tennessee, where we went on a hike to this beautiful waterfall. 

The penultimate stop on our trip was in the Boone/Banner Elk/West Jefferson, North Carolina, area. We were visiting our Villages friends Bill and Gayle Hancock, and Bob and Jessica Hunter, who both have summer homes there. (Unfortunately, our staff photographer failed miserably in getting any photos of us together... sigh.) Hiking opportunities abound along the Blue Ridge Parkway, so we were able to get out for some enjoyable, but challenging, hikes.

We savored our last night before returning home, and enjoyed a nice campfire under the stars. I was a Boy Scout, so knew how to build a fire, but had to struggle with a dull axe - I had forgotten to bring a sharpening stone along... "Note to self...."

We arrived back in Hilton Head and immediately met with our dear friends and neighbors Tony and Irene Vouvalides. They had been taking care of our house while we were away. Tony mentioned that he had saved a few bottles of wine we left behind in our cooler for us. What a guy! Here is Tony and the detritus of one of the wine parties... (He was kidding, of course, having saved up these corks to retaliate ... on the night before we departed, we had dinner at their house, and I had surreptitiously dumped a pile of Hershey's kisses detritus in his recliner.... we share that addiction!) 

 Irene is an amazing gourmet cook, and we have enjoyed several fabulous dinners already since arriving home. Here are Irene and Kayla Truppi with the best baked Ziti on the planet... 

So, wrapping up this edition of the blog, here is My Lovely Bride and our fur babies, Rudy and Nellie, at rest... we had a wonderful four month trip out west, but the old adage is true... there is no place like home. 

Homeward Bound; Pinedale, Wyoming; Casper, Wyoming; Nellie the Wonderful

Leaving Coeur d'Alene marked the turning point in our summer tour, literally; from there we headed east into Montana... with brief stops in Missoula, Butte, Bozeman and West Yellowstone. We would have liked to have spent more time in Montana, but this summer's trip was much abbreviated from previous summers. This photo taken along a stretch of white water on the Gallatin River typifies southeast Montana - the scenery is spectacular.

Our next stop was Pinedale, Wyoming, to visit our friends Gina and Bob. Gina is an old friend of Suzanne's mom, Ruthie. Bob has been a cowboy since leaving the Army and family in Boston about 60 years ago. He is now 81, and still rides his horse every day. He and Gina help in the annual roundup in Pinedale and drive cattle to their summer pasture in the mountains. That "help" pays for their horses' hay for the year. They also volunteer to bring hay up daily in the winter to herds of elk; imagine moving tons of hay with snowmobiles and trailers in 30 below zero weather... 

Pinedale is another one of our "Favorite Places". The town of Pinedale is "located at the base of the Wind River Mountains with unspoiled rivers, wildlife, and all the civilization you need", according to the Chamber of Commerce. The people are very friendly, the scenery unsurpassed, and life moves along at a gentle pace. An example of the scenery is seen here - we hiked along the Sacred Rim Trail, with the "Winds" in the background... 

Part of the backdrop here, two days hike in, is Titcomb Basin, where I backpacked on a 4 day trip a couple of years ago. 16 miles from the trailhead, it is my most favorite place on earth.... you don't see many people here, do you?

 

Another day was spent on tranquil Half Moon Lake near Pinedale. Unlike our paddle on the Great Salt Lake, there were no brine flies here!

Pinedale sits at 7,100 feet, but the mountains in the background rise to 13,810 feet (including Gannet Peak, Wyoming's tallest). They are popular among serious rock climbers and mountaineers, as well as backpackers. Grizzly bears are common there, as are wolves, elk and moose. 

Speaking of moose, this was the view from Suzanne's car when driving back from Gina and Bob's home after a webinar... right at dusk, the cow was leading her calf from the river up across the road into higher ground. The cow crossed, but sensing that her calf was trailing too far behind, she recrossed the road and got her youngster moving.

Next stop was Casper, Wyoming. While on a bike ride along the North Platte River, I stopped to view the Sun Up Ridge Memorial Wall, a tribute to all those Montanans killed on active duty in the service of our nation. It is a very long list. Two quotations accompany the memorial. The first: "These endured all and gave all that honor and justice might prevail and that the world might enjoy freedom and inherit peace." The second, by General George S. Patton, US Army: "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

While Suzanne was doing a webinar, I visited the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, run by the National park Service. It is a splendid museum/interpretive center. Imagine being one of the the pioneers who mostly walked alongside the covered wagons for five months from St Louis to Oregon or who pulled hand carts across the prairie and mountains to Salt Lake. The second photo is an interactive hand cart... you stand on a treadmill and "pull" the cart behind you... even lightly loaded, it was very hard work pulling the cart at a very slow speed! It gave me a new appreciation for those tough, brave pioneers - men, women and children alike.

There were also exhibits honoring the Pony Express riders; the advertisement "Wanted: young, skinny, wiry fellows, not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred. Wages $25 per week."

On the home front, our little Nellie is now almost 10 months old. She is finally housebroken, and actually starting to mature so that she isn't always nipping at Rudy's nose and hip thrusting him... but she's still saucy. Here she is in a quiet moment grabbing twenty winks while resting up against Dog Dad's leg... I had jokingly referred to her as Nellie the Naughty, but MLB chastised me, saying that using that moniker would guarantee that behavior... so we now refer to her as "Nellie the Wonderful". 

Rudy continues to do well. Almost 16 years old, grey around the muzzle, Rudy takes 8 meds a day, sleeps a lot, and walks stiffly because of arthritis. But Nellie is keeping him active... poor Rudy... or is it "Lucky Rudy???"