Bootless in San Diego

Yay!!!  I'm bootless!  It's a little unofficially, though.  Let me explain.  I went to the orthopedist yesterday, Monday, to get a new ex-ray.  I told the doctor my foot didn't hurt and asked if I could drive and walk without the boot.  He was very cautious and said to wean myself off the boot as long as it didn't hurt.  So I tried to clarify and asked that if it didn't hurt, that meant I could walk on it.  He replied that I should use common sense.  What does that mean?   He said I should get it re-ex-rayed in San Fran after 6 weeks had gone by.  It is 6 weeks!!  So I left the doctor's office very confused.  Then after discussing it with Don, I figured out that I wrote on the intake forms that I broke it 7/15 instead of 6/15, so the doctor thought I broke it only two weeks ago.  So, I'm going to walk on it and drive as long as it doesn't hurt.  And I'll wear only hard soled shoes for the support.  Unfortunately, I brought around 50 sandles and only 2 pairs of hard soled shoes.  Guess I'll have to go buy more!!

We found the "cove" here.  It's a small beach area that the dogs can go play.  Don was using the chuck-it and threw the ball out a little too far out the first time, but Missy got it anyway.  Bailey had a great time playing on the beach.

Okay, I can't see Bailey in these pictures.  Probably because he was running around so fast, I couldn't keep up with him.  But you can see Missy in the water.

I haven't been doing too much since we got here.  Don is at a conference so he's away all day and I've been confined to the house until yesterday.  But this morning I went for a 30 minute walk and I'm driving today.  So there is no limit to what I can do today.

I do want to mention some of the fauna we have in our communal back yard:

Looks kind of like a pine tree, right?

Wrong

Notice the leaves (I'm using that term loosely)

Kind of succulently.  Then there are these:

These are the flowers they make leis out of in Hawaii.

This is a little shrub that has daisy like flowers blooming on it.  

There is some interesting plant life here.  And the weather is absolutely beautiful!  This might be a candidate for retirement.  Not in Ocean Beach (reminds me of Myrtle Beach), but some of the other areas.  We'll see.

Saturday in San Diego

We arrived in San Diego yesterday afternoon.  I haven't been writing here for a while because I'm tired of traveling.  I sit in the car and read or whatever, we stop to let the dogs out, then go again.  We're not eating right (hamburgers or whatever we can find) and I'm tired of traveling.  The dogs are driving me crazy.  We pulled over at an exit, opened the doors to let the dogs out and Bailey wouldn't come back.  We were in the desert in the middle of nowhere and he wouldn't come back to the car!  It was 113 degrees out there and I'm like "really?".  I don't care how much progress he's making, I almost left him there.  But I didn't.

Okay, enough whining.

We stopped at the Grand Canyon:

These are only three of the hundreds of pictures I took here.  It is an incredible place.  All across the US, I've been amazed at the landscape.  It's awe inspiring.  

But since I can't hike, we didn't spend a ton of time at the GC.  We drove around and pulled off at the various stops and I took pictures.

Then off to Phoenix.  Miri was right, it's hot there. You can feel the heat of the sun just baking.  There's no humidity, though so it's kind of tolerable.  But that's where I decided I'm done with driving cross country.  So we only spent one night there and really didn't see anything of Phoenix other than where we ate dinner.  Speaking of dinner, I had the most amazing salad there.  I don't know if it's because I've not had enough greens in my diet or if it was really an exceptional salad.  But it doesn't matter, I loved it!

But we left the next morning headed for San Diego.  I couldn't believe some of the things we saw out the window:

Okay, I was bored.  But it is pretty incredible.  The pictures don't do it justice.

But we're here in San Diego for a whole week.  The place we got was through VRBO and it's a cute little cottage.  One bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom.  There are 6 other cottages in this complex that all have a fenced in communal back yard.  There are 2 other dogs here so far and they all have access to the yard.  Bailey has so far gotten along with one of the other dogs but the other one is probably worse behaved than he is.  (It's nice that there is another dog that's worse than Bailey is!).  Missy has been great.  She really likes the dog that Bailey gets along with.  It's fun watching them play.

We're off to explore San Diego and to find the dog beach.  I'm sure there will be more pictures coming!

Wednesday leaving Santa Fe

I have to talk about Bailey for a while.  I didn't mention the immense strides he has made.  When we were in Estes Park the other day, he began playing with some of the smaller dogs.  I mean butt up in the air, tail wagging play.  Of course I didn't get any of it on camera, but I was absolutely impressed with watching him!  So, I decided that he needs to be around smaller dogs.  At the next dog park, his hackles got up when the large dogs were around but the smaller ones didn't seem to bother him at all.  Interesting.  Maybe by the time we get to San Francisco, we'll have figured him out.  Keep up the good work, Bailey!

So on to Santa Fe:

Given Bailey's improvements, we felt confident and took the dogs to the Plaza in Santa Fe.  There were tons of people around and quite a few dogs.  We thought Bailey was ready for this.  But then...

 There was a man making critters out of balloons but kept popping the balloons.  Every time a balloon popped, Bailey tucked his tail between his legs, looked around wildly and kept trying to back away.  He managed to get out of his collar and took off running.  Well, I'm not about to go running after him with this boot still on my leg so Missy and I sat on a park bench while Don went after him.  Don said he kept asking people if they saw a white dog and they would point Don in the right direction.  He ended up back where our car was parked, about 4 blocks away!  Bailey ran all the way back through the throngs of people and cars right to where our car was parked.  I thought he was a "special needs" dog, but there must be something inside there to get him back to where we were parked.  I mean, we had meandered through the streets looking in shop windows.  How did he know where the car was?  Amazing.

So we went to a sidewalk cafe for a glass of refreshment and to think about what to do next.  The dogs needed to rest a while (as did I after a glass of wine in the middle of the afternoon) so we went back to the hotel for a siesta.  Well, Don and the dogs took a siesta, I just read for a while.

After Don woke up, I decided I wanted to buy something in Santa Fe.  You know when you want to buy something, but it seems everything is too expensive or too cheap and you can't find the perfect thing?  I start panicking trying to look harder which just back fires and I can't find anything.  Well, that happened yesterday.  I tried to buy something, but I couldn't  Sad. So we went back to get the dogs and took them to dinner.

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Then guess who decided to misbehave?  We're in this nice 3 star restaurant eating wonderful food and drinking great wine when someone decided to start barking at phantoms. Who?  Not Bailey, but Missy!  She has a very deep bark and she just started barking at nothing.  Well, I didn't see anything, but I know she thought she did.  So, just like a 2 year old having a temper tantrum, I had to take her out to the car while Don paid the bill.  Geesh!

So nothing too exciting in Santa Fe.  It's a neat town, but I don't think I'd like to live there.  Even though the temperature was very comfortable, we'll go on to the next town, after the Grand Canyon that is.

BTW, the dogs have developed a great routine; they sit very quietly in the back seat when we're driving.  Bailey sleeps, mostly, and Missy stares out of the window.  I write this blog and look for a place to stay that night, and Don drives and drives.

And guess what?  I ran a brush trough my hair this morning and ... no frizz!

Leaving Boulder Monday

We got into Boulder late Saturday night so we decided to meet Chrissy Sunday morning.  Don and I went to Zolo's for some southwest food.  It was a really good upscale Mexican restaurant.  I had some fish tacos and Don had a chicken burrito with a fried egg on top.  He eats a lot of fried eggs on top of food; hamburgers, pizza, whatever.  Not me, thank you.  I like a good fried egg, but not on top of other food, except maybe some hash.

We went back to the hotel and just watched television for a while and decompressed.  We really needed that.

Then Sunday morning we met Chrissy, Miri and Wendy for some breakfast to plan the day.

Did we want to go hiking for the day, or shopping.  I opted for shopping, just because of my broken foot...

So down to Pearl St we went.  It was a lovely day.  Miri bought a beautiful necklace and Wendy talked me out of buying a chocolate bar.  It was a dark chocolate salted almond.  I'm still sorry I didn't get it.  I could have eaten it before it melted!  So I had to console myself by buying a great new purse.  

Chrissy had to get back to her dogs so they left mid afternoon.  Gracie, her newly adopted bulldog has separation issues.  If she's left alone too long she eats light bulbs and couches and things.  So I understand that they had to leave.

Don and I drove up to Estes Park for a while.  It was a beautiful area.  Driving through Lyons I thought for a brief moment that I'd like to retire there.  But people were wearing jackets in July.  I can't imagine what it would be like in January.  That and it's a little too remote for me.

Anyway, we stopped and had a beer and an app then drove up to Rocky Mountain park.  Great views.

The forest was awfully nice, too.

We got back to the hotel just in time to watch the Next Foodnetwork star.  I'm glad Justin won but felt bad for Martie.  I guess I should have voted.  I'll watch Justin's show, though.

Don and I went back and forth about staying another night in Boulder.  We finally stopped at the front desk this morning to find out about staying one more night and the rate they quoted was a bit higher than we had paid before.  Apparently weeknights are more than weekends.  So we jumped in the car, drove to Denver to meet Chrissy and got some business done and are off to Santa Fe.  This is what I thought the drive would be like.  Jumping in the car and just going somewhere!

So, we'll be in Santa Fe tonight, and might stay for a second night, we'll see.  How fun!!

BTW, I would absolutely retire in Boulder.  I don't care how cold it gets there.  The thought of waking up to those gorgeous mountains everyday would be so worth dealing with a little cold.  I just have to get the kids to move out there as well.  That might be a little harder.  But we have time.

What do you think, Maggie?

To Boulder on Saturday

We're driving to Boulder today so I thought I'd catch up on what we've been doing.  We've taken the dogs to that great dog park everyday we were in Rapid City.  Today we took them there on our way out and we think we've figured Bailey out.  He tries to herd the other dogs and when they don't go where he wants them to, he nips at them.  He actually started playing with some of the other dogs at the dog park this morning!  Of course I didn't get any pictures of it, but he was actually having fun!  Yay!!!

Last Thursday we went downtown and visited some art galleries. particularly one owned by Don's brother-in-law's brother.  Got that?   And to have a nice lunch.  Then back to the house to take a nap.  Poor Don has been a little tired lately, can't imagine why...

After nap, Don got to play some guitar accompanied by Maya and Frank (probably the other way around) before we went to the Chuckwagon. They serve an authentic chuckwagon dinner, which was pretty good.  But we went there for the show:

Maya Van Nuys.  Remember that name.  Did I mention that she's going to be a sophomore next year?  In high school?

Okay, that video took so long to upload, I forgot where I was.

Yesterday we went to Mt Rushmore:

We spent the day with the Van Nuys family.

It was a fun day.


It was Frank's birthday (Don's bother-in-law) so his family came over for dinner, and afterward we headed over to a restaurant (I don't remember the name) to watch Maya play again.  She was playing with her uncle James and in walked Randy McAllister.  He's a hottie!!  He stepped in and played harmonica while Maya played Violin and James played a super guitar.  Don thinks James should get together with our friend Mark, they're both fantastic guitar players.

Off to bed so that we could get an early start.  We never get an early start, but we're almost to Boulder now, 6:20 pm after what should be a 6 hour drive.    We found a state park in Wyoming that was so deserted we could let the dogs off leash.  They had a great time.  Bailey had so much fun that I didn't think he was going to come back, but he did.

We'll see my sister tomorrow in Boulder.  Sure to be another great day!

Thursday

I'm having trouble keeping my days straight.  Maybe I should just say what day it is, instead of numbering them.  We left last Saturday, so that's day one and yesterday was Thursday making that day six.  So from now I'm just saying what day it is instead of what number.

We had a great day in Rapid City yesterday.  Jan took us to a great dog park:

Okay, we have to go to the store so I'm saving this one but will come back to finish.

Day Six

We drove from Omaha to Rapid City yesterday.

Iowa

Missy

Bailey

It's nice that we can pull into a rest area with no facilities, open the door and let the dogs go.  They can run and run.  But we have to be careful, it's very hot out here and Missy's a black lab so must absorb more heat.

We visited the corn palace, although we had to go in one at a time so the other one of us could stay with the dogs.  Then we went to Wall Drug and again had to go in one at a time.  Bailey snapped at someone walking by and just patted his head.  Arg.  Wall Drug is HUGE!  I think that must be where Mast General store got started?  I don't know that to be true, but I was struck by the similarities of the two stores.

I did drive for a bit yesterday.  I haven't driven a car in 5 weeks and have been itching to.  So we thought driving down the interstate wouldn't be a problem.  But, I couldn't feel the pedals beneath my feet, so it probably wasn't a good idea.  At least I got that out of my system.

Then we drove to Rapid City to Don's sister and her family.  The dogs saw a deer walking through their neighborhood and went crazy!  We're not at home anymore, Toto.

We got out of the car with such relief that we're with familiar people.  The dogs jumped out of the car and were so excited.  There's a backyard for them to play in and a dog park with a stream in it that's just down the road.  We'll be going there in a little while.  

We're going to dinner tonight where Don's niece will be playing in a band.  Mind you, she's only a freshman in high school (rising sophomore).  I'll post a tape of her tomorrow, if I can manage that.  Then you tell me that you believe she's a freshman in high school.  She's very talented.  But, you decide for yourself tomorrow.

Day Five

Day five was a much better day.  We drove from Columbia heading toward Sioux City which was around 7 hours away.  The car top carrier was giving us (Don) some trouble.  It was shaking like crazy and passing motorists have signaled that we should check it.  We did the bungie cords, duct tape (after all duct tape fixes everything, right?  Not this time) and some cords that tighten somehow.  I don't know what they're called, but Don finally got the thing to tighten down so that we can actually go over 70 mph without the thing shaking.  So, traveling 80 mph, we finally made some progress.  The dogs have settled into a rhythm of  sleeping while driving then jumping out when we stop.

We found LC's Barbecue in Kansas City.  We got some to go and took it to a dog park so the dogs could run while we ate.  Of course Missy didn't have any interest in chasing the ball when there was bbq near by, so it kind of back fired on us.  That and the fact that there was a huge hole in the fence that Bailey kept going through.  But it was otherwise a nice park with benches and lots of trees.  And the bbq was really, really good.

We decided to stop early.  We stopped in Omaha around 4:30 and found a great hotel.  It's Hawthorne's and it is a much better place than we've been so far.  No more 2 star places, only 3 stars from here on!  (Rated in the AAA book)

After Don took a short nap, we had dinner at a great restaurant, Spezia that was right around the corner leaving the dogs behind.  It was a little more expensive than I thought I wanted.  The more expensive the bigger chance that I actually have to change clothes and put on make-up.  The later of which I vowed not to do until we get to Rapid City.  But I'm glad we went.  It was good food and a relaxing dinner, something we really needed.

So today we'll drive the rest of the way to Rapid City to see Don's sister and family.  It's quite a ways away and there will probably be nothing to see on the way.  The landscape yesterday was quite flat and I'm sure it'll stay that way until we get closer to Denver and my sister, just dryer.

Omaha looks like a nice city, but again probably too cold to retire to, so I'm going to stop considering any town as a retirement city until we start heading south.

Day 4

Okay, yesterday wasn't a good day.  It started out great, had good coffee, took the dogs to a dog part, went and saw the Grand Old Opry:

Then it was a race for South Dakota.  Don said we spent 11 hours in and out of the car.  Looking for another dog park, stabilizing the car top carrier, etc.  It's not been the slow meandering trip I had expected.  We flew by the Arch:

We didn't even stop for lunch.  Don had leftover chicken wings while driving and I had some fruit.  Arg!

Then we got to Columbia.  Columbia seems like a nice enough town.  Since we left home I've been calling ahead looking for a pet friendly hotel to stay that night.  So far, we've been pretty lucky.  Then...

Good news?  Plenty of parking lot to throw the ball to Missy, and it's only $59/night.  I wasn't surprised.

Okay, I'll stop complaining.  We'll stop in South Dakota for 3 or 4 days to see Don's sister.  Hopefully that'll be a little break from the car.  Maybe after we leave South Dakota we can go a little slower.  I'm not sure where we'll stop tonight.  But it's sure to be a 7 hour car trip.

Oh, I thought I might like to retire here, it's a nice college town.  We went to dinner last night and were able to park across the street.  But it might be a little too small for me, I mean we went to dinner last night and we were able to park across the street.  And I hear it gets cold here in the winter, I'm not sure I'm up to living somewhere that gets too cold.  I'll keep looking.

Day Three

Well, we didn't make it to Paducah or Clarksville; we stopped in Nashville.  I really wanted to have some good barbecue before we left this area.  Which isn't to say Paducah or Clarksville don't have good barbecue, but the chances of finding it here I thought would be better.  The Neely's have a new restaurant here but it got bad reviews on Yelp so we stopped at South Street Restaurant which did get good reviews.  Don got the ribs were good (though he said not better than D's, a restaurant at home) and I got the pulled pork was also good.  We had a corn and kielbasa soup which was probably the highlight of the meal.  The wine was just okay, but what do you expect at a barbecue place.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, went straight to the food, of course.

We left Ashville yesterday (which I've decided not to retire to, too many one way streets) and stopped at a great dog park.  It was the Azaela dog park which I found on my dog app.  Bailey jumped out of the car and ran and ran.  He was very happy to be free.  Missy was also very happy chasing after the tennis ball.  There was a pond there, which Missy eventually jumped in.  She was a little damp when getting back into the car, but she was happy.

Then an uneventful day driving, or riding in the car since I can't drive yet.  The most eventful thing was stopping in the rest area and letting the dogs walk around.  Then deciding to stop in Nashville, which is a very nice city.  I can't retire here, though, 'cause it's Tennessee.  I'm sure Tennessee is a wonderful state, but we're in the SEC I and can't bring myself to move to an orange state.  That leaves Florida out as well.  But it's too hot in Florida so they've been out of the running.

On to St Louis today.  After we finally find some good coffee.  Okay, I'm a coffee snob.  But I like my coffee and there are so few high points riding in the car.  Other than the scenery, which Missy liked as well:

She almost went to sleep sitting up staring out of the window.

More later.

Day two

We made it to Ashville yesterday given our 3 1/2 hour delayed start.  We stayed at a Days Inn, and were lucky to get that.  The dogs are a little confused, but Bailey is very happy to have his crate, it's a little familiar to him.

Had dinner at an Irish pub.  The food was so-so, and the band was a country/blue grass band.  Makes, sense, huh??  Ashville was very busy, a lot of pedestrians.  A lot of them older like us.  Maybe we could retire here?  It's a little too busy for my tastes.  The views here are wonderful though.  The Appalachian mountains are in the background and are very pretty.  I drove through here a year or so ago with my daughter and have forgotten how pretty it is.


We just came from breakfast (not real healthy but hopefully it'll last a while, but what do you expect?) and are soon headed to a dog park I found on my dog park app, doggone.  It finds dog parks anywhere you specify.  It shows pictures of the park, gives reviews and other pertinent info.  I found one a couple miles from here that got fairly good reviews.  I'm still a little nervous about the dogs.  Individually they're great, but put them together and they feed off each other and bark at anything.  I hope that after more socialization, they'll get better.


Don wants to drive to Paducah Ky today.  I think that's a little ambitious, it's 7 hours away.  What happened to going slowly and taking our time?  I vote for Clarksville.  We'll see what the dogs have to say about this.

Leaving

The cars packed up the dogs are packed up and we're heading out, 3 hours late. Heading toward Knoxville.