EPIC Road Trip 2022-2023 Sofy's experience

She learned to push the button 5 miles from home on our return

We got back on Friday January 13th from an epic road trip.  Murg collected the statistics on the trip and posted on FB:

"Epic roadtrip complete

Sat 11/19/22 thru 1/13/23

54 Nights in 2 houses, 8 hotels, 3 AirBnB

21 States (one new one for me - Michigan)

8,080 miles

19 families with 45 individuals visited

Sofy lost count of the number of dog parks visited but did learn to open the car window herself during the last three days on the road."

The biggest reason we drove to Tucson was because of Sofy. OK, not the biggest reason but a huge factor.

Our car was a Tetris puzzle and Sofy's block was right behind the passenger seat. Before you start to even feel sorry for her for one single minute, trust me, she had plenty of space. She could not have the window opened on the highway but we opened it a crack or a few inches when on non-highway traveling.

We had her water dish and food dish readily accessible and a few toys to play with which she ignored and looked at disdainfully: 

"You want me to play with that thing AND keep track of every truck, car, RV and squirrel on the horizon?"

On our VERY LAST DAY we found a marrow bone at a truck stop, bought it on a whim and she gnawed at that for the entire day. Why did we not buy her a bone before that? As an aside, truck stop convenience stores are the BEST, and change depending on the part of the country you are in. We could have wasted a lot more time browsing them if we did not have a destination for that evening.  

DOG PARKS: Our most common search on Maps was "Dog parks close to me". We found some terrific ones. The best one was the dog park combined with a Disk golf course. I cannot understand who thought that was a good idea. Sofy only chased and stole one disk from a dog owning player. When we pulled up to this particular course, it was not fenced in like many of the others, and Sofy took off like a bat our of hell across a ravine. She usually kept an eye on us, because who wants to be left in the middle of Oklahoma or Minnesota? Rescue dogs in general worry about being left and apparently Australian cattle dogs are attached to a single family member. Truth be told Sofy kept her eye out for Rod, and if he was not in view she looked for me (chopped liver). As long as we got her a long dog park run, she was tired enough to sleep for an average of 23 minutes in a day of driving. Someone in the car had to keep their eye out for those squirrels.

SLEEPING: Every hotel we booked had a king size bed. The first few nights we brought her dog bed in from the car and gave up after that. She slept some where around us on the king size bed more often than not on Rod's side leaving him about 9 inches of space for his legs.

The very best hotel for Sofy in the entire trip was Magnolia in St Louis. They have a person with a job description of PET CONCIERGE and they do not charge for pets. Sofy got a bag of dog biscuits upon arrival and because she is so special she got some when we left. We had a 20 minute chatty conversation with the pet concierge. They hand out a list of pet friendly restaurants, close dog parks, vets, doggie day care facilities, pet stores etc. Take note all of you hotel owners (usually chains) who charged us $75 as a non-refundable pet cleaning fee. Part of my search for the nightly least expensive hotel, was their pet charge. In a pinch we had to pay $75.

Once we got to Tucson we discovered that our AIRBNB was .5 miles from a really nice dog park. We met a lot of snowbirds, and their dogs. For 6 weeks Sofy was a regular there.

EATING: on our westbound trip Sofy ate one bowl of food for the entire 4.5 day trip. Even at home she is not food driven and does not gobble her food. Eastbound she averaged one bowl per day on the 10 day trip. She did finish ice cubes from drinks and I bought her Slim Jims as her treat.

Trip to Maine to visit Susan and her family of dogs

There is nothing like an old friend, and visiting them to relive old memories and create new ones.  They knew you when you were still making silly life mistakes, were not quite as wise and old, and in some cases were wild and crazy.

I just returned from a quick trip to Maine to visit a friend who I have know since Chris was 3 months old, so 33.5 years.  She moved there 2 months ago from upstate NY where she has lived for a long time.   It was great to be in her house, see her dogs and to sit on couches in front of a wonderful view or marshes and the ocean.




There are a few people in my life who I really enjoy shopping with and she is one of them.  Otherwise I HATE shopping.  I bought a wonderful new shirt, some stocking stuffers, greeting cards and a present for my soon to be retired husband.  It was not just any shirt, it was one I have been looking for forever, but finally found what I want.  BTW, I did not know I was looking for this shirt until I found it.

One wonderful thing about Susan is her love of dogs.  She has two pugs and two labs.  I re-met the pugs last January when I visited her in Florida, but had not seen the labs for 5-6 years since I visited her old house in NY.  They energetically and warmly greet you as soon as you open the front door.  One of the pugs sat on my lap for a lot of the visit.

We walked twice on the beach with the labs.  I love to watch labs in the water.  Both of hers are pretty old so Susan does not want them to chase things except sticks and balls in the water while swimming.  Yesterday morning we walked at low tide out to some rocks which at high tide are not reachable.  It was not quite low tide so at times I did walk through 6 inches of water and my feet were pretty wet.  We reached the rocks, and some cairns that people built.  It was an amazing walk.

We ate a picnic this lunchtime on some rocks in Biddeford Pool, along with a seagull who sat watching us for a pretty long time.

It is really wonderful to know someone for this much of my adult life.  Susan knows a lot of my history, and remembers details that I don't.  I remember details that she does not remember.  There have been periods of time when we are not in contact, but with each visit we agree to make the time for each other.  We like to spend time together and I for one feel better about myself after a visit with her.  That to me is the definition of a good friend.

She is only 90 minutes away now, so I anticipate more frequent visits to see her, and the dogs and for walks on the beach.  I realized that life is too short to not make time for quick visits like this and for longer ones too.  We almost were on our way to NYC tomorrow for a quick trip but thought better of that.  Soon though, a trip to NYC!

Whatever gives you hope!

Friday morning, at 6:30am I got a call from Bee, that Shakes had escaped from her third floor apartment in Somerville.  Shakes, the Wonder Cat, has mobility issues since his mother had distemper in her last trimester.  The vision of him getting down the three stories of stairs, boggles the mind, since the two stairs outside our house are a challenge to him.

As soon as I was awake enough, my mothering instinct kicked in and I got dressed and drove into Somerville.  It actually took a request from Bee, that she would like it if I came in, to jump start my mothering instinct.

We walked around the block, and looked under cars, porches and inside bushes and the Wonder Cat was no where to be found.  I had very little hope of seeing him alive, and probably conveyed a bit of that to Bee.

We got coffee and a bagel, and she went off to work and I came home.  In the middle of the day, she accepted by text, my offer to come search for him after work.  I arrived and starting circling her apartment, asking everyone if they had seen a cat.  The side benefit, is that I know a lot more about her neighborhood and neighbors.

As dusk set in, and as 2 room mates, her boyfriend and Rod, joined our search Bee made a poster and she went off to get photo copies made.

The back story, is that when we first moved to Lexington we lost her stuffed elephant on a trip back from the play ground.  We made a poster at that time as well, and again, I thought there was very little chance of finding him.  Someone did call and we raced over to retrieve him with the reward in hand.  He now wears and ID tag with telephone information in case he gets lost again, and that was 19 years ago.

As she made the poster on Friday night, I though about hope.  Putting them up on every telephone post and sign, gave me a little bit of hope, but not a lot.  It seemed like an activity to keep us occupied as darkness settled in, and the temperatures reached freezing.

Saturday morning, I received this text "City cat just ate a whole cup of food, little rascal! He is fed and happy, but dirty."  PHEW!

So even though I proclaim myself a Pollyanna and eternal optimist, I did not have a lot of hope of finding the Wonder Cat.  Making the posters was a shot in the dark, and an activity.  Shakes just spent one of his lives by being outside for 36 hours out on an adventure in the city.  His return renews my faith a bit that things do work out in the end, even though we were prepared for the worst.