June 15, 2015

Some Left Over Photos of The Trip & Other Stuff

Rifle Gap SP #86
It's hard to believe a week ago we were sitting in Rifle Gap SP in Colorado. I was outside trying to take some photos of the strangest thing I've seen around here since I've lived here. There was a light rain with the sunshine, but that's not the strange part. It was raining in my front yard but not in the backyard where Sadie stood and Winston was laying evidently in his favorite spot of the yard.

After taking the photos and plugging the camera card into the iMac to download what I thought were going to be just the photos from today, it was telling me I had 41 new photos yet to be downloaded. I looked at some of them, some looked familiar, some didn't. Then I realized the MacBookAir laptop had these same photos and some had been used on my last blog post.

It's confusing at times and I consider myself pretty computer literate. The problem with Apple is, they just assume every customer wants all their devices synchronizing so every device from a computer to an  iPhone or an iPad will have all the same stuff. So they set that as a default. Then users such as myself find out the hard way this is the default and have to track down the settings, change them to stop the synchronizing and if a device doesn't have enough memory, you will need to go back and delete photos or files you didn't want on all your devices in the first place.

To top off the frustration, I found out that Google Chrome was doing the same thing when I used it as a browser on my iMac and then again on the MacBook Air. It would have done again if I had used Google Chrome on my iPad Mini but luckily I don't.

But ... that isn't what I wanted. I wanted my iMac at home to be the "master library" of every thing I had bookmarked or saved to a pdf file over a 5 year period. I wanted the new laptop to be just a travel computer with the only bookmarks dealing with those used while traveling. They would be bookmarks for camping, weather, maps, trailers, etc ... no sports, no basset hound info or bloodhound info, just information you would use when traveling.

I found that when I had set up Google Chrome on my new laptop, I had deleted all the bookmarks I didn't want on that computer ... only to find out when I got home and turned on the home computer, all of those bookmarks I had deleted were also gone on my home computer. Not good!!

Since i have nothing but time on my hands ... I had to import an old file of bookmarks that included all of the ones up to May 13, then I added what I could tell were new ones since that date. I found the place to change those settings so each computer will have their own bookmarks.

Enough of the computer talk ... but it's frustrating when these companies try to force feed you different ways of doing things when you have no desire to do that or a need to do it that way.

I don't know if the lower back is starting to feel the residuals of a lot of seat time while driving those 3,047 miles or was it sleeping on that hard ground in a tent, but sometime yesterday afternoon I started looking for my bottle of ibuprofen. Mowing the front yard today didn't help matters either.

I looked at the temps out in the Green River UT and Moab UT area today ... upper 90's to 102°. We would have had to move anyway a few days days after the storm to either north into Wyoming or south to Northern New Mexico to get away from the heat. Of course here in the "tropics" of Southern Indiana it says it "feels like" 97° with the humidity factor added in.

Besides it raining in the front yard today and not in the backyard, I just thought of a couple of other weird things, I've witnessed lately. One was what I saw on I-70 in Kansas coming home. I would have tried to take a photo from my iPhone while driving but at the time due to the current weather conditions it was best I keep both hands on the wheel.

What was so weird ??  At least to me it was because I would never drive the Smart Car to begin with. I would definitely not drive one 75mph and I would never tow anything with the Smart Car either. This one was in the westbound lanes, and seemed to be keeping up with traffic (75-80mph) towing a small, I'll call it a 3'x3' cart ... to me, that was a little weird as well as a little dangerous.

The next weird thing happened as I visited my local small town post office. You can always count on slow service, no matter what the request is, so you live with it. Today was a little different though. Only one lady working for the post office at the counter.  A line of 6 people including the person being waited on. So being number 3 in line, it took me about 12 minutes to be able to press my fat gut up against the counter and be waited on.

I thought I was there for a pretty simple transaction. I was speaking to the same lady I spoke to on June 3, where I filled out the form for them to hold my mail at the post office while I was gone. We have spoken over 18 years when I have visited my post office in the past but today she didn't remember who I was. I told her in a kind manner when asked, I would like to pick up my mail that was on hold and request them to start delivering mail again at the house. Simple????

I gave her my name, address but began to wonder if she may have walked out the back door to my house two miles away to check my mailbox ... because she was gone long enough to do that. Even though it was only 10am, maybe she took an early lunch break. No matter what ... she was gone a long....looooong time. Can you tell I have a lot of patience for things just like this?

She came back with a small amount of mail, which was expected since I don't get a lot of paper mail due to my whole life being electronic.

But then it got bizarre ... like twilight zone bizarre ... I promise I didn't laugh, nor was I rude ... at least not until I was back outside and inside my car, then I almost lost it.

After she gave me my mail that also included the yellow card I filled out last week requesting the mail to be put on hold, and I was about to walk away, she handed me a large yellow card to be filled out. I asked "do I have to fill out the same card I did the other day to hold my mail, to activate mail delivery?

"No, I thought you wanted to put your mail on hold"

I'm probably not nice to some people reading this by telling that story for many to see and read ... but Sadie, Winston and Heidi have heard it enough today .. they now ignore me and walk away.

Sometimes it really is time for people to retire.

So if you have read this far ... here are a few more photos of last week's trip.

Heidi's Favorite Spot Camping - The Tent

Sorting and Eating the Spilled Kibble From the Rocks ... Winston Refuses to Play That Game

At this time around 1,408 miles worth of smells on that tire rim

It Was Suppose to Happen in Moab .. Not Here


There Really Is A Moon


It Might Be Raining in The Front Yard But Not Here

June 12, 2015

To Moab UT - Floy Wash - Indiana

I’ll warn you this is an extremely long blog post but I decided to write about the trip all in one post. I’m not sure when I will blog again.

Well the trip was short but a success. In 5 days I drove 3,047 miles including those looking for an open BLM campsite around Moab. I had noted a few sites from other bloggers that were in the area within the last month but one was full and the other I did not attempt to find. 

There were a few things I found out during this trip:

  •          If I am going to travel the west and southwestern states whenever I feel the need for canyons,            dry heat or high desert, I CANNOT use my house in Indiana as a basecamp … too far away.
  •        I still LOVE to drive non-stop once I get on the highway, always have.
  •      I don’t need a tv.
  •        I don’t need a lot of internet time.
  •         My iPhone 5S was the best piece of travel equipment I had for information.
  •        The dogs can camp but I need a trailer, not a tent, for stormy weather.
  •        The Toyota FJ is a great vehicle whether on the freeway or on non-maintained roads. It was                 comfortable sitting for a lot of hours of driving.
  •        I need the expensive carrier, I was too cheap to buy, to mount on top of the FJ to free up space in      the back inside for Winston and Sadie to sleep while on the road.
  •        None of my hounds will win the “Field and Stream” Awards.
  •        It’s very humid in Indiana 

The trip started on Saturday morning with an hour and a half drive to Evansville Indiana, the home of a long time friend that survived the “Big C” just last year. His 30 year old son was bike racing in a criterium. I wanted to see the race plus that drive would let me know how the hounds were going to travel.

Watching that race brought back memories of myself around that same age racing bicycles in southern California. It also gave me the urge to ride when I get back home, not to race but for the enjoyment of riding. I have the bikes to do it, the equipment, what about the motivation to do so?

Pre Race Instructions
Joseph's Turn to Lead the Pack
Near the End

All three hounds did great, all 3,047 miles.  They also did great at all the Rest Parks along the way on I-70, so much different than my trip September 2013 to Arkansas.

Nothing to really report on the trip to Evansville. The race was great to watch, a good dinner at a German restaurant with long time friends. We were seated just in time to watch The Belmont Stakes horse race. The hounds stayed in the live in basement back at the house while we were out. Sadie left the blinds alone, Winston did his usual snooping around and Heidi moved all the barriers off the couch to start her sleeping habit. The barriers were on the couch to keep their cats off the couch but Heidi's desire to sleep has no obstacles.

After an extended conversation on Sunday morning over a great breakfast, we hit the road at 10:30am central time headed west with a first stop destination of Rifle Colorado. We didn’t have reservations but from a friends recommendation, the Rifle Gap SP was the plan. That was to be around 1,100 miles. I had traveled those exact miles a few times when living in Oak Harbor Washington. 

Like I said, I love driving non-stop once on the freeway. We stayed at the speed limit, with occasional stops for the hounds to get out and stretch their legs. This time I did a few things different than what we did in 2013 on the way to Arkansas.

I let Heidi ride in the front seat. The back of the FJ was packed but there was enough room for Winston and Sadie to stand, turn around, and lay down. At times they played musical chairs and would change position to sleep.

Heidi Guarding the Food Supply
Heidi's Favorite Sleeping Location
Sadie & Winton Protecting the Water Supply
As always within a couple of miles of taking off down the road, all three hounds were fast to sleep.  Things were different at the rest areas instead of the disasters in September 2013.

All the hounds had 6’ leashes on at all times, for their own safety. Yes, as everyone experiences driving long distances, there are just those 1% that make serious wrong decisions traveling at a high rate of speed where bad things could happen. We had a couple of close calls but my defensive driving awareness kept us from being involved with any bad outcomes.

Once at the rest areas, I let Heidi out and walked her first alone. Then when I opened the back door, unlike before in 2013, Sadie waited for me to say, “lets go” where she immediately jumped out but would stand there waiting for me to grab her leash. In the H3 Hummer two years ago she was petrified of the noise around the rest area that she wouldn’t move. I would have to half drag her out of the Hummer.

Winston as usual would wait for Sadie to get out, gauge his distance and then jump. A ramp would be nice for him in the future. All the rest areas had huge areas for dogs. Some had large areas of grass to get in a pretty lengthy walk for the hounds. We usually walked as far as we could go and then return to the FJ. Once that back door opened, without me saying anything, Sadie would jump back inside … no hesitation.

In all the miles traveled, there were no instances of the hounds having problems in rest areas. Later I started using a splitter for the basset’s leash and then could walk 3 dogs with two leashes. This picture here is at a rest stop in I-70 before the Hwy 191 exit to Moab Utah.

Winston's Thinking it's Pretty Hot Today
While driving straight thru with only a three hour nap in western Kansas from 1am – 4am, we arrived in Rifle Colorado early Monday afternoon. We were held up a few times due to summertime freeway maintenance in Kansas and Colorado. It was hot (90’s) but no humidity that I could feel.

The hounds rode in the comfort of the FJ's air conditioning ... I felt like their limo driver.

We drove through the nice little town of Rifle, ten miles north to the one of two state parks. Luckily we not only got one of the few sites left at Rifle GAP SP but for two nights. The camp host said it was one of the best sites and I had to agree after sitting up camp.

The first process was hooking up each hound to their own 20’ lead. Two of them were attached to my tow hitch and I put Heidi’s on the opposite side of the site to keep three leads being being tangled up. With two leads tangled up from the movement of the hounds, it wasn’t bad. It gave them room to roam.

Of course it was Sadie that found every rock, tree, wheel, anything that she could wrap her lead around. She is not a problem solver so there was no way she was going to reverse her path to get clear.




The Hounds Guzzling Water


Soon after a little snooping and drinking a lot of water, each found the shade for a short nap while I set the tent up. Within minutes after getting the tent set up, Heidi moved in, rearranged things to her way, then took a nap.





Site number 86 was a great spot. I thought it was a really large area for a camp site in a SP. It was quiet. It had a great view of the lake and even though it was near the boat launch, it was still a good site to have. After driving 1,100 miles straight to get there, I slept from 8pm until 6:30am without interruption.

There was an interesting thought after getting the camp site set up … I found myself bored.

The hounds had found shade to sleep. They had no interest in walking anywhere and panted to stay cool just like they do at home. I knew from the start I was going to places that would be in the 90’s but lower humidity than we were use to. It wasn't the heat that bothered me.

I sat there thinking of what it would be like to do this everyday. What I would do? It’s a question I had thought of before and asked other travelers. Most say they hike, they read, they nap, working any RV maintenance, and look at their next travel plan.

I had books but no interest in reading them. I had hiking boots, but the hounds were not interested in walking in 90° heat. They were dragging by the end of the short walk over to see a better view of the lake.

So hiking and reading was out. I still wondered though, what do people do everyday when traveling? I was already finding it hard to just kick back and relax. I had nowhere I needed to be but found myself restless.

I knew I’d be hitting the sleeping bag early that night but I sat and wondered what I would do all day tomorrow. Little did I know that plans would change early Tuesday morning. 

The plan due to the weather forecast was to stay at Rifle Gap for two days while it rained in Moab Utah on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then spend as much time around the NPs in the Moab area, gradually move up to Green River. Then I would decide if I was to go up through Wyoming and head back home the following week.

As I was drinking my coffee Tuesday morning, I had the urge to pack up a day early and head to Moab Utah while the day was going to be full of sunshine. Chinle told me months ago I should go to Moab but in April and May because it would be too hot in June and the following months. Still I wanted to see Moab and those canyons so here I was in 90° with no complaints.

We pulled into Moab around noon on Tuesday.  I drove all the way through the center of town and further south before turning around. I needed lunch, the hounds needed water and we both needed some shade. The town was packed with people, as expected. Side streets had shade though and a good spot to park to catch up on email and any texts I had from friends. I couldn’t find any free Wifi, but my Verizon service was great.

I came up with a plan, hopefully to camp in the Moab area along Hwy 128 on BLM campsites. A couple of the sites had been mentioned as possibilities if the SPs were full. It did not matter to me if I was on the river or not.

After driving 18 miles on Hwy 128 along the river and checking every BLM campground, I found only one spot available. It was great. There was a spot for my tent below the fire pit, picnic table and parking space, plus closer to the river.







 About the time I open the back door to let Winston and Sadie out, a lady is trotting towards me yelling something that sounds like I can’t park there. There was nothing on the site pole showing it was occupied nor reserved like all the other sites had.

They were a couple from Germany, that had rented a large Class C. She said they had just talked to the Ranger and he said they could have that site for just one night. It was their's. The overflow area across the highway was full and by reservation only. That was fine with me because I was looking to stay more than one night, with one night of rain forecasted that night. After that it would be all sunshine for weeks.

The problem was I had not filled the gas tank when arriving in Moab. I drove out another 6-8 miles further looking for a camp site. No luck. Any available sites were full. When the tank was closer to the empty mark than the ¼ mark, I decided to turn around and head back to Moab for fuel and a new plan.

I thought of going south of Moab and check out any BLM land that I was seeing from the DeLorme maps I had. That plus the McNally Atlas fit perfect under my drivers seat, loaded from the side when the door was open. It was like that space had been designed for them.

So I sat under a shade tree down a couple of blocks from the main street thinking of my best plan. I was told when in Green River and in a jam for a place to stay, try the Green River SP.  They had 4 tent spots. I called but no one was around to take a reservation, so I thought, why not … Lets go to Green River.

We can stay up at Green River area because their forecast didn’t show any rain headed their way … then we could bounce back to Moab on Wednesday. Giving myself a tour of Green River I found that I loved the area outside of town but there was nothing showing me I would want to live there like Rifle Colorado did.

I pulled out the maps again. I was needing a place to find somewhere to set up camp and from this rookie's eyes, there was plenty of open land available. It was getting late and the hounds had not been fed yet. In fact since their departure they had not been fed at their normal requested time of 1:30pm eastern time but only when I could find a rest area to stop at or when camp was set up.

I pulled off on Exit 175, “no services” the sign said and to a place called Floy. That is like my last name with the letter D missing … I figured that had to be a good sign.

It was perfect from the time I pulled off the exit and it soon turned into a maintained dirt/gravel road. Exactly what I was looking for. We were on BLM land where you could see for miles and no one was around. I decide the first sign of information to read was a good place to stop to feed the hounds. I also enjoyed the environment.




All the hounds had leashes on. I hooked up just one of the leads and let Sadie be the moving anchor with Winston’s leash sliding along the outstretched lead. Heidi had her leash on but I let her walk free. I had not seen anything in the past couple of years where she would take off running anywhere.


I poured out the food, a big bowl of water and read the information board while they ate and sniffed the area. Sadie had a bonus for dinner. I knocked her filled food bowl over onto the ground, so she not only got a new bowl of food, she didn't miss a piece of kibble when cleaning up the area.

About the time I was reading the policy of “take it in take it out” … Winston laid the classic basset hound dump within 3’ of the sign. I guess he was letting any future ranger that would stop by know … that Winston was in the area.


 I saw that as my first chance to follow the policy of “take it in take it out”, pulled out one of the doggie bags from my pocket (from the Rifle SP) and bagged Winston’s dump to combine with any future trash I might have.

I decided to move down the road to see what I would find. There looked like a million camping spots available with no one around. Later on I pulled off onto a “non-maintained” road. There were a couple of spots of standing water on that road. Nothing major and when I asked myself if we had some unusual flash flood could I get out … I thought so and kept driving.

I came to a spot with a great view and the road had ended. I set up the three leads, pulled out my camping chair and took in the view, the winds and clear skies … all the storm clouds were over Moab. It looked like the weather forecast was going to be accurate.



All Waiting For the Tent
This was my kind of camp site. One that I couldn't wait to get to when back in Indiana reading everyone's blogs. I felt at that time I might stay here and not move anywhere for at least a week or until the hounds would have guzzled the 7 gallons of water we had onboard. We didn’t walk anywhere. They found shade and laid down. It was hot but not humid.

They didn’t want to play fetch. They didn’t chase each other with excitement. They didn't go exploring. The did nothing different than they do at home. They found a spot, laid down and went to sleep. All that retrieving, running in streams, finding new sticks to chew are for labrador retrievers and herding dogs ... not "hound" dogs. They know their limits. For the longest time Sadie followed me everywhere I went and sat next to me when I was seated in my chair. Heidi and Winston tried to sleep near the FJ in the shade since the tent was not set up yet.


 As I sat there enjoying the view, the sight breeze, just how quiet it was … my thoughts once again turned to … what am I going to do to spend my time here? Is there anything I have to do? No, nothing needed to be done and nothing was planned ... just hangout while the storms took place on Wednesday over Moab. 

Why can't I kick back, enjoy the view and relax??

It was similar to sitting outside at home with the hounds laying in the grass yard. There were just enough gnats to bother me. The green land and trees at home had been traded for no trees in sight and land that looked as if I had landed on the moon. To me, it was a perfect place.

The longer I sat there enjoying complete silence I noticed those gray dark clouds over Moab were moving my way. It looked like my forecast might be changing. I checked my Weatherbug app on the phone to see the radar … it now looked ugly for this area. We were surrounded by storms on the radar, that had not arrived.

As the winds started to increase in speed and my sunshine disappeared I thought I’d better get the tent set up or I'm sleeping in the front seat of the FJ or fighting Sadie for space in the back that night. The tent sounded like the best option. Once again within a minute after setting up the tent, Heidi moved inside, picked her spot and was asleep soon afterward.

Sadie and Winston were soon to follow.




I was planning to pull the FJ a little further forward but the way the wind was blowing and the direction, I decided to keep the FJ where it was for a little protection against the strong wind. Yet, the wind is gaining speed, enough speed that it was no longer comfortable sitting outside. I threw the chair inside the back of the FJ and got inside the tent. From the tent reviews and reading camping forums before I bought the tent I knew this tent could stand up to high speed winds and it would keep us dry during any amount of rain.

I had no problems with the change in weather. I just thought we'd wait it out for Wednesday until it passed.

As the tent buffeted with the wind trying to take the tent into the “lift off” mode ... I began to realize that the hounds and I may have something going on, more than we planned on. A full fledged high wind rain storm. I could hear big drops of rain hitting the vestibule. The winds were inflating our tent like a hot air balloon. It was pretty loud but so far the hounds were okay with it.

Winston and Heidi were sound to sleep and Sadie was giving me an uncomfortable look as if to be asking me what I had got her into. She looked nervous. I must admit at this time I was a little concerned what the night might bring. Still, I trusted my equipment and thought there wouldn’t be any problems.

The Weatherbug radar showed we were now right in the middle of the storm with more on the way, when I decided to try to get some sleep. The wind kept me in a half sleep mode most of the time but I finally dozed off. The wind was loud and strong.

Things changed in a big way sometime around 2am.

I was awoken to the most horrible sounds ever coming out of a dog. I wasn’t sure if Sadie had hurt herself but she was freaking out and was trying to get out of the corner of the tent. In all the severe storms and even tornados at home, in the 7 years I've had her, I've never seen her like this. The winds were a lot worse than they were earlier and I thought they were bad then. While she was going ballistic I was trying to get a hold of a 100# bloodhound that was determined to get out of the tent one way or another.

After wrestling her down to the tent floor and calming her down, the other two bassets are awake but not alarmed. The buffeting sound of the tent and wind was extreme and quite a surprise based on previous forecasts. I wasn’t alarmed because I know the weather can change any place any time. I also knew the tent should handle it okay.

Was the wind that scared Sadie? I hadn't seen any lightning, heard no thunder. So even today I am not sure what upset her.

I was back to sleep fairly soon. Sadie had decided to calm down and laid down panting heavily and still somewhat shaken about what had happened. I still don’t know what made her act that way. I turned on my iPhone, that was down to less than 5% battery, to see the time was 2:35am and the radar showed more storms were on the way. In fact we were still in the middle of the storm.

Something woke me around 4am. It was loud. The winds were howling. I decided to get some shoes on, get outside and take a look. Visibility was good enough to see what was going on. Even though we had rain and it sounded like bigger drops than normal … this desert ground soaked it up like a sponge.

The ground was soft with rain but dry.  It was still too windy to sit outside in the dark so I walked a little around the camp site wondering what to do. Wondering what had scared Sadie enough for her to go all out ballistic. She was totally freaked out at something. Checking the forecast for our location had changed for Wednesday from sunny to the same weather storm we were experiencing. 

A light rain came again and I decided I’d get back to sleep, with plans of staying inside the tent on Wednesday until the storm moved through. After all, sunny days were scheduled for a week or more after Wednesday. I knew that before but I thought I was going to be missing the storms camped where I was.

I don’t know why … but when I woke up again as daybreak was trying to start. It was raining and the wind was still strong. I decided in an instant … screw it, I’m getting out of here. Once the rains stopped I’d pack up.

While it rained and all the hounds were awake I knew then I had no desire to sit in this tent all day with them while it continued to rain and the wind howling. It wasn't them, I wasn't happy with the constant wind blasts. There was a Motel 6 back in Green River that allowed pets. We could stay there for a day for the storm to pass through.

That idea didn’t sink in to far.

I had seen the day before what I wanted to see in Moab. It’s a great place and I could feel the energy of the place with it full of people that were interested in being outside … whether on ATVs, rafting the river, mountain biking or taking a jeep 4-wheeling. I liked it but it was too touristy, just like other places I had lived out west.

I didn’t feel good about leaving the hounds in the FJ in 90° weather even with water and the windows cracked. So any paid tour of the five NPs around Moab were not an option. Even when planning this trip I had no intentions of visiting the NP's. I had seen the hounds were not going to win any “Field & Stream” awards like a lab or herding dogs would. They didn’t play in the surrounding areas. They didn’t chase each other for that found stick. I doubted a lake or stream would make a difference to them. 

They did nothing different than their inside house dog nature … they slept, they ate, they slept some more.

Did they like sleeping on the hard ground rather than on a bed or in their soft chair? Was Sadie jumping around every morning excited about going outside and sniffing the area? How was the traveling affecting their diets … well Sadie had not crapped since we left home five days earlier. 

I hear the rain had stopped.  Now was my chance to get the hounds in the FJ, pack the tent and leave before it started raining again. 

Just as I opened the vestibule and tent door, without any kind of warning, Sadie bolted with her leash attached ... she was outside sprinting away from the tent. I put my shoes on as fast as possible yelling her name and got out of the tent with the two bassets still inside. 

There she stood about 50 yards away next to a large mound of dirt ... leash hanging and staring back at me. At least she was in view. Trying to talk to her to come to me, she never moved. I walked the distance while talking to her, reached down and grabbed her leash. She calmly walked by my side back to the tent.

She wasn't going back in the tent though. As I opened the back door to the FJ, she immediately jumped in and sat there waiting for me to get Winston. The wind was blowing so hard it blew the back door shut as I was getting Winston. I put Heidi in the front seat, closed all the doors and started taking the tent down.

I knew with the wind still blowing high speeds, I would have to make an effort to hang on to the tent vestibule once I unsnapped it from the tent. I was planning on rolling the tent footprint and the tent all into one pile due to the winds.

I was right about the vestibule, after getting 2/4 snaps unhooked, the vestibule blew out like a flag. About the time I got 2/4 vestibule snaps undone, the rains started again. The vestibule was fully extend by the wind as I tried to stuff it into the nap sack. The tent was still anchored to the ground.

As I moved into the tent to pull out the dog blankets and their cheap sleeping bag, what do I notice in the corner of the tent where Sadie was attempting to get out ….. A small hole in the mesh, right next to one of their tent connectors. Did she do that or was it the wind?


It was in the corner where at one time the previous night the wind was blowing so hard I thought it had bent a tent pole on that corner. I found out the next morning there were no poles that were bent in any way but the tent was able to flex a lot as it was designed to.

What caused the mesh to have a hole in it?

With the tent jammed into the nap sack, I stuff it behind my driver's seat and closed the door with rain coming down. I started to take off until I saw to curious Antelopes wondering what we were doing on their land. They were 30'-40' away. I had noticed “deer droppings’ at the site when we stopped the day before. Winston did his taste analysis and let me know what they were, before I picked up all the pieces to add to the poop bag. That dog drives me nuts sometimes with what he eats but then I realize he is a dog.

So what now?

I moved down the road noticing a little more standing water than when we came in. I didn’t want to leave but the sky was dark and it was going to rain off an on all day today. I decided the tent was not where I was wanting to spend all day because of the weather. Planning the trip, I knew that might be a possibility.

At the same time I didn't know how or if Sadie would react in a tent all day while it stormed outside. I guess putting her in the FJ for the day was the other option, it was one I never thought about.

I’m not sure what made me do it ... by the time we reached the end of the dirt road, about to enter the concrete portion of the road that would lead us back to the freeway entry ramp … I stopped to think what the next move was ... for some reason we were headed for Indiana.

I only needed to sit through one day of bad weather before having seven days or more of sunshine and some of the greatest land in the USA to see.

Instead I turned onto the entry ramp at Exit 175 and headed east. Skies were overcast, with a light rain as I passed the Hwy 191 exit to Moab. I had seen all I wanted to see of the town the day before. They had a great town park but didn’t allow dogs anywhere. Understandable as it was that nice of a park.

So after I came upon the exit on Hwy 128, my last chance of going back to Moab … I kept driving.  The longer I drove the hard the rain came. Into Colorado it was raining off and on. When I crossed the Colorado state line I almost headed to Grand Junction to Hwy 50 thinking I would take that route, camp a few days and miss the I-70 construction and the busy city of Denver. I had camped in that area before but .... it was raining there also and the weather radar didn't look much better.

I kept driving on I-70.

I almost stopped in Rifle, Glenwood Springs … but something kept me driving 75mph down I-70. When it rained, it was hard to see the freeway. Plus soon after I had taken off I realized in my hast to pack the tent I had left my glasses in one of the small pockets inside the tent. I figured I'd stop at the first sign of no rain to pull the tent out to get my glasses. There was no way I could drive at night and see any road signs without them.

I couldn't believe we were headed home after only a few days.  I guessed I had about a 1,000 miles to think about the why's and why nots.

Somewhere around 9pm I stopped for some coffee I was going to need, plus I had not ate anything but a protein bar for breakfast. I stopped at McDonalds, only because I was sure what the taste of their coffee would be unlike some of the previous gas station coffees I had bought. I knew I wanted to get on the east side of Kansas City and past the freeway delay 77 miles east of the Kansas state line before taking any kind of nap. It was over an hour wait coming the other way.

In the middle of Kansas, heavy rain, a sky with a little green tint and I thought of tornados. I checked Weatherbug but nothing was listed as tornado warnings. I still kept an eye on the sky though while I drove. This photo isn't about the worst sky or rain we drove through, it was just the only one I could take without two hands on the wheel.


I was making good time and I rode into Kansas City at a great time for a lack of traffic, a little past midnight. I had the whole city freeway system to myself. That one hour delay I had 77 miles east of Kansas City on Sunday was nothing at 1:15am. I knew then I had a good chance of driving through St. Louis before the city would wake up.

The FJ continued to drive smoother with only hills instead of mountains and it liked that 91 octane gas to drink.

Once I got to St. Louis, it was only a hop skip and a jump to my house. How many times had I driven to St. Louis and back from my house in Indiana on the same day to see a baseball game? The drive was doable.

We moved from I-70 to I-64 right through downtown around 3:30am. I think I saw less than ten cars as I drove through St. Louis. I stopped at a gas station with over 20 pumps and no one around but me and the person working. The scene almost had a strange feel to it. I was wide awake and thought I could make the drive home with no problems.

The sun was starting to come up and I was nodding out. I had to make a real effort to stay awake. I used a semi-truck to follow in hopes of keeping me awake. The last rest area sign that I passed because I was wide awake, said the next one was 56 miles away. I was pretty sure I could make that one, but it turned out to be kinda hard to keep my eyes open. When you are very sleepy, 56 miles seems like a million miles.

It had been a while since the hounds and I did our walk at that nice area in Kansas. They were fed then. They had water but that was many hours ago.

So with the sun just coming up it was their normal routine to go outside. Not only were they happy for the walk but so was I. All three relieved their kidneys and the walk woke me up. After a fuel stop a few miles down the road, I was 1-1/2 hours from home on the fairly new I-69.

As I drove that last hour, even different times before, I regretted my decision to take off. I never understood why I did that.  Why didn't I find a place to hang out for the day for the bad weather to pass?

I was curious on how I would feel pulling into the driveway. I was also curious how the hounds would react when they saw the house. It was what I expected. As we climbed the drive all three hounds were up and awake. Sadie was barking, then Winston. As I opened the doors all the hounds jumped out and headed straight to the backyard sniffing as if there were a million new smells to attack. Sadie sprinted for the field to do you know what for the first time in 5 days.

As I opened the house door, Sadie sprinted straight to her water bowl, Heidi sprinted to the living room nose diving into the carpet to roll around and scratch her back. As she rolled she barked to herself. Winston whined and sprinted around the house. It had been a while since I had seen that much activity from him.

Sadie finished drinking water, then went bouncing through the house, howling at times … I could tell she was happy to be home. When she is excited she does 360° spins ... she did a lot of them Thursday morning.

For me it was a shock to be back in Indiana. The humidity was thick enough to cut it with a knife, even at 8:30am. I was tired, a little confused and I thought how nice it was with no one around for miles with only a tent, the hounds and the FJ at the Floy Wash.

Still my main thought was sleep. I left everything in the FJ, opened all the windows, clicked on the fans, laid down and slept solid for the next 7 hours.

When I woke up, it felt like a dream.

The trip was shorter than expected but well worth it. I found a lot of the answers I was looking for. I know what adjustments need to be made before I travel again.

I’ll talk about that later.

This looks like ten pages on a word document. I am not sure how long the post will be but I wanted to write about all the trip and not break it up into multiple posts. I don't know if I will blog anymore, even before I left I felt like this blog had run it's course. I am getting tired of blogging. I found out on my short trip that I like spending less time on the internet. I didn't care about any sports scores, or CNN news. As of this writing I still have not looked or had the urge to catch up with online news.

I’m not really sure just how important it really is to write about one’s daily life. Really, who cares what direction you mow the yard? There isn’t really that much to see around the local area unless you are interested in farm equipment. The hounds don’t deviate from their daily routine … as proven on the short trip.

So I am not sure if I am going to continue blogging or not. Even while traveling I wished at times of not taking photos and just enjoy what was being seen at the time and move on. Of course years from now when the memory is shot, photos would be nice ... but then again would I remember who took them?  LOL

I know for sure when traveling I need a trailer. I know that I love that western area. Although the Moab area was nice, some of the Colorado area was familiar from the time I lived in Breckenridge Colorado only for a ski season. It was great seeing the Rocky Mountains again.

There is something about the west that fills you with energy. 

I do know this house is too far away to be a base camp. I love to drive but not enough to be going back and forth every few months or when I have an impulse to pack up and head home.

I think Sadie is pretty happy being home in this photo. So what if she is a big 100# baby, she is a great bloodhound. 



On a side note ... a fellow blogger familiar with the area where I camped, watching the weather from Alaska, sent me an email Wednesday afternoon not knowing by that time I was just getting to the eastern side of Colorado driving home ....

She told me she hoped I had not been flooded out and suggested the Motel 6 in Green River as a place to wait out the storm...the motel allowed dogs.

After talking to her last night by email she said I was lucky to get out when I did. Some time Thursday they closed I-70 for 8 hours, thru Glenwood Canyon due to rockslides. When I drove through there the day before it was a heavy downpour and the Colorado River was raging along the side of the freeway.

I don't have an answer why I packed up and left early ... but I did.

Like I said, I am not sure how often I will be blogging from now on. It takes longer than I like to write plus go through photos finding the right ones to post. There are times I feel this blog has ran its course and it might be time to move on to better things.

Adios

May 15, 2015

It's Always Hazardous To Run Out of Coffee

The hounds woke me at the usual time around 6:25am ... or should I say Winston woke me at 6:25am. He's getting older and when he whines to go outside he means it, but he is also great letting me know that he does have to go outside.
The sky was beautiful so I ran back inside to get my camera. After looking at the photographs I have to say the sky colors were much more dynamic in person than what these photos show.

We proceeded to go back to bed until 9am. Of course Heidi doesn't wake up or go outside with the other two at 6:25am .. she never does.

When I posted yesterday about being "out of the zone" and not knowing why ... well this morning I think I figured out why. When I opened my eyes this morning and felt for any kind of pulse to let me know I was good for another day, I realized I had not had my morning coffee for the last 5 mornings. I had a rare headache Wednesday night but I thought that was more from watching the Cincinnati Reds play bad baseball with a minimum wage of over $400,000 per year, than it was from my lack of caffeine.

The routine is always the same, letting the hounds outside, make coffee while they are outside and then let them back inside after the coffee starts dripping into the pot. That routine was off this week. I was out of coffee.

I wondered if the lack of a good cup of coffee to start my day might be the reason for my lack of productivity and a foul mood that I wrote about yesterday?

Last Monday morning as I was grocery shopping and adapting my shopping to only the produce, meat/fish/poultry isle to fit the new diet ... I missed the coffee isle. I didn't realize the error until I returned home 12 miles later. I was out of coffee. I knew then it might be dangerous for me to proceed without having that morning cup or those two cups in the morning, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

Since I only drink Seattle's Best Coffee and Starbucks, most of the time, it was going to take me 25 miles round trip to pick up a pack of coffee. My local IGA grocery store carried Starbucks at a higher price but it closed at the end of April due to very poor management by a new owner. That new owner was able to destroy a local 40 year grocery business within 4 months after taking ownership. It had carried "my" Starbucks Coffee and was only a mile away.

So it was going to be a 25 mile roundtrip just to get coffee. I knew this morning I needed a cup and was willing to do whatever it took to have a cup before doing a list of things needed to get done. While taking some photos of Winston and Sadie you would have never thought a torrential downpour was just 10 minutes away. It wasn't sunny but storms did not see like a possibility.

After the photos, and telling the hounds I was off to buy coffee, the skies opened up 4 miles away raining so hard I could barely see. A lot of people couldn't see so there were a line of brake lights coming in the traffic ahead of me. When I left it was partially sunny 67° and looking like a great day ... so every window of the house was open.

It rained hard off and on and by the time I got to the Walmart Super Store, it stopped long enough for me to get inside. I felt better just picking the package of coffee off the shelf. I knew this was going to be the solution to my "twilight zone". I grabbed a couple of great tasting cantaloupes, some fresh strawberries and fresh blackberries ... and I walked through a hard rain back to the car.

I thought I might be the idiot of the day for driving 25 miles round trip to pick up some coffee but I was wrong. I was not the idiot of the day. There were more than one winning the idiot award today and that was 6 different golfers, sitting in 3 different golf carts in 3 different places along the fairways that run next to the highway. Why did they win the award? Everyone addicted to golf one time or another has played in the rain but these 6 golfers were sitting in their golf carts UNDER TREES as LIGHTNING was putting on a great sky show.

I might be wrong about that assumption but I think I remember there is something about being around trees when there is lightning going on. Were the rubber tires of the carts enough protection for them? So maybe I was the idiot after all.

One of my readers, Ed Frey, made a very good comment on my weird blog post I made yesterday. It mainly pertained to me but then I starting wondering how many other bloggers fall into the same trap that I sometimes do? We start blogs for our own journal, maybe to keep family and friends updated with traveling or just a document that we can come back to later on as reference. Then unexpectedly we have a few followers that for some reason find what we write or the photos we take, are interesting enough to come back day after day.

Interesting enough, they keep coming back to read your blog even when you are not traveling, blogging regular or even writing a lot about nothing. Without trying to, over the years a feeling of an obligation may develop where the blogger starts thinking they have to write, even when they don't feel like it. The feeling of obligation to their readers finally hits them up the side the head when they post they can't come up with something to blog about. If you were writing to yourself you wouldn't say that. Still it's nice to let your following know that you are taking a day/night off from blogging. Some people may shut their blogs down temporarily, and/or may feel like they don't want to blog anymore and disappear without a word.

With my background of online sales between 2005-2010 I use to analyze my websites traffic. It was a requirement to help maximize your websites visitors, that hopefully turned into an increase in sales. It became a habit, with an eBay Store, an Amazon Store plus a couple of additional websites. So I have always enjoyed looking at the blog traffic stats seeing where people are from, or why I am getting visits from Russia or the Ukraine when they are busy doing other things, plus a curiosity on which posts are the most read by the visitors.

I made a comment wondering if blogging was worth it with a decrease in traffic. Ed pointed it out to me, why would that matter and if that was the reason to blog he would have shut his blog down years ago, due to lack of traffic. I had to agree. Blog traffic numbers were not the reason I started this blog. I never have had nor have plans to monetize it, so traffic numbers don't matter. I guess it may have been the old habit I had of analyzing site traffic that made me think that way.

So with Ed's comment, that made me think on why I really blog. With my 1st cup of coffee in 5 days and headed for a 2nd cup, and thinking on why I like to blog, I feel much better about blogging in the future. Granted when I started this blog in October 2011 I did not think I would be sitting here taking photos and writing about daily life of a single retiree ... and three hounds that keep him sane. I thought I'd be many miles away. Yet, taking photos of my daily life and the hounds is the direction the blog has taken. It will change eventually but it's where it is right now.

I want to write about Heidi's health update and Sadie's experiment of being "off leash" but it would make this post too long. So I'll add another post today covering both of them. Winston is cool and laidback as always. He will have his 11th birthday on May 18.

For those that came back to this blog day after day ... thanks for stopping by and reading.




May 14, 2015

I've Been in The Twilight Zone

This week has been nothing short of weird. It's been great weather with sunshine, cool temps and no humidity. It has also been a time of me having zero motivation to do anything. I have a lack of interest for most things this week and really no reasons for causing it.

Yesterday I grabbed the camera and took off in the Mini Cooper for a drive south. I ended up driving about an hour to I-64, then 40 miles west to I-69 and came home. After a couple of hours of driving, I had taken zero photos, fed the dogs and took a siesta.

I had thought about watching tv each night but there was no interest for that. Picked up a book to read and lasted a few pages before putting the book down not really remembering what I had read.

I see that most of my blog traffic that has decreased 50% in the past few months, is from people searching "Lil Snoozy Trailers". The post that I talk about that trailer in 2013 is the #1 post all time on my blog and 2nd place isn't even close.

Those used trailers for sale are still hard to find.

Looking at the numbers of blog site visits I wonder at times when is it not worth blogging due to lack of interest. I live a pretty quiet, consistent life of boredom to most people. My daily routine does not have much variety. My mood swings are more like a roller coaster thus periods of no blogging.

I even passed up the chance of going up to the Indy 500 track to watch them practice this week with beautiful weather and then rain predicted for the next four days. I was just too lazy to make the trip and it's not bad of a trip from where I live.

I've hit a sudden rut and am now back to analyzing dog food ingredients.

So basically nothing to blog about at this time.

May 11, 2015

Storms Have Finally Passed

It was not as bad as the forecast for Sunday and Monday, but after a full day and night on Sunday of one storm after another it was nice to see Monday have nothing more than an early afternoon rain ... then sunny clear skies as far west as you could see on the map.
With it raining most of the day on Sunday I didn't find a lot of motivation and agreed with all three hounds the best thing to do was sleep. Nothing finer than the windows open with it raining outside. Luckily like a basset hound I had in the past (Harry), none of the three hounds are afraid of thunder or lightning. In fact it doesn't matter how loud or severe the storm is, it just doesn't bother them.





It had rained so much on Saturday and Sunday morning that my backyard was growing exponentially and I didn't see any way that I could wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to mow it. I'd leave the front yard for mid week since I mowed on Friday. So in between rains in the late afternoon on Sunday  there was a period of sunny skies and the grass was dry enough to mow it.

Don't ask me why but I decided to lower my mower a notch and cut it lower. I even pulled out the measuring tape to confirm the height of the grass after making one lap around the yard. Of course with me, any picture I see crooked has to be straightened, therefore I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing the back yard was cut an inch shorter than the front yard ... so I mowed the whole yard at the shorter length. It looks even better when it is cut short.

That's just the way I am wired.

About 10 seconds after I had put all the tools back into the shed along with mower and had latched the door, the skies turned black and the thunderstorms were back on stage with strong SW winds.

Another reason for cutting the grass besides the back yard being tall, I have been trying to apply Scott's Weed and Feed. The hardest part about that is, you don't want to apply before a lot of rain because the seed will wash off the weed. Yet, you need to apply it to wet grass per the website and not have any rain for the next 24-48 hours.

So I was trying to fit that grass feed in at the right time. That time was tonight around 6pm. The grass was still wet from the rains today and the new forecast shows no rain until Thursday.

I know some are asking about the hounds and yard chemicals. I don't feed my yard annually, just on gut feelings. I don't plan on having any hound on the grass for the next 48 hours. How did I come up with that number? How will I do that?

First of all there is a slight problem with answers, so I went with the longest time possible. The sources of information are:

  1. Scott's Lawn website product page
  2. Scott's Lawn FAQ per product type 
  3. The back of the bag
ALL THREE SOURCES SAYS SOMETHING DIFFERENT!!!!

So, I took a little of all the sites and the bag. I set my feeder at 3.5, I applied it to a wet ground with no rain predicted for 48 hours. I will not mow it for 48 hours. The most important thing is I will not let any of the hounds even near the grass for 48 hours.

As per pets, for example ... those 3 sources had the following suggestions for pets getting on the grass after the lawn food was applied:
  1. As soon as the grass with product applied, has dried
  2. Wait 48 hours after the application
  3. No answer
Yet, the Scott's product page for my zip code listed a new or new to me, product ... Scott's Lawn Feed with Pets.  So that tells me the "real" stuff can do damage to pets if directions are not followed. Any chemical engineers out there can tell me different if they choose. They gave different directions ... so I chose the longest suggestion.

I will do that by putting Winston and Sadie on their 6' leashes and keep them in the gravel driveway when they want to go out. That should give us plenty of practice with the leashes as if we were traveling ... I guess. Heidi never goes out when they do and she only goes in two places ...the gravel driveway and the yard in front of the flowers .. where I did not apply any lawn feed.

Sadie will have some real "cabin fever" without our daily walk through the field (non rain days) and the hours she spends tied to her tether patrolling "her" field. Still 48 hours is 48 hours. Maybe it would be easier just to head out on a roadtrip for a couple of days.

Heidi has a vet appointment for tomorrow. Two reasons. One I want the vet to look at her legs before I buy the next 10ml bottle of RESPIT. We are day 97 of treatment and am not suppose to see any final improvement until day 140. There has been improvement but not as good as I would like. Those hocks on her rear legs are nothing short of ugly. She also looks like she has lost a lot of weight.

The second reason is she has decided after the 3+ years I've had her that she doesn't want me to cut her nails. Before she would lay there relaxed, knowing that after 10 snips, she'd get a treat. Yesterday during the 1st of 10 snips, she snapped at me ... then wagged her tail. I'll take her word for it and let someone else cut her nails.

As per the vet's recommendation back in February, Heidi has been eating Taste of the Wild blend of duck, duck meal and sweet potato. I can't say if it has helped with her allergies. I will say that the coats of all three hounds are the best condition they have ever been in as far as softness and very little shedding. Still based on his research into skin problems he feels that her allergies are not food related (3%) but environmental, thus the Immunity Therapy ... RESPIT.

RESPIT has shown a 75%-85% rate of success with no long term damage.

So not much else going on ... even though it's May and hot at times, I've had an urge for beans and cornbread. So the beans soaked for 24 hours then slow cooked starting this morning. It was my last bag of beans so not only did I want to see if beans caused Acid Reflux, I wanted to use the bag instead of throwing them away.

I have had a couple of slips off the diet. No junk food unless you call those waffles junk food. No ice cream (terrible withdrawals), no bread, no sandwiches ... 10 days of no indigestion / acid reflux and NO TUMS.

For an ending to a boring post, I thought I'd include a short story of my very first basset hound with an AKC Name of "Harry Gonso of Indiana". He answered to either Harry or Gonso. He was named after a Quarterback at Indiana that led the Hoosiers to their first and only Rose Bowl against OJ Simpson and Southern Cal in January 1968.

Winston's laidback personality is a lot like Harry's. One big difference, Winston stays home when he is outside and Harry would be gone the second you took your eyes off of him. Harry was a "roamer" that added a lot of funny stories to his life. Luckily Harry died of natural causes instead of running out in front of a car.

After moving to Indiana, I had a neighbor in Bloomington that was a photographer for a local advertising agency. He had a greyhound that use to love to play with Harry, tormented the hell out of him with his speed and quickness .. but Harry never stopped chasing him. Anyway I was asked by this neighbor if "he could borrow Harry for a couple of hours one day this week?" 

I'd heard nothing like that request before so to say the least my curiosity was raised. Come to find out they wanted to borrow Harry for a photo shoot they were doing. Harry was paid with a check at the end of 3 hours, which included a lot of breaks for him and the photographers, different sets, the huge umbrellas for the perfect lighting and was done at a house in one of the richest sections of Bloomington.

Harry was a hit with everyone as he was everywhere he went. He loved getting his picture taken and also loved to attend parties. The girls that lived at the house wanted to keep him, the agency wanted to use him again and I was hoping Harry would share his commission with me.

So here is the final product of that photo shoot. That is not me in the photo but Harry is the basset hound in the photo.