Cookie!

Okay, dogs have been asking:  "Where is your blog?".  I decided to add my blog for my latest trip to paradise below.  I will try to keep you up to date.  Have you seen my Momma in the pictures above?  Isn't she great?  I sure do love her! oxoxo

 

12/12/07

(From Cookie as written to her Mother)

I am dictating this to Daddy so he can send an email for me.  Whew boy, this has been a big 24 hours!  I guess I’ll start from the beginning…

Yesterday morning after you left I was pretty disappointed.  I was worried about how you were going to be able to train all of our clients without my help.  Daddy told me you would figure it out, but I was worried.  Then Daddy gave me a bite of his bagel and let me clean his plate and everything was okay. 

Right after I jumped in the truck to go on this adventure I saw Max.  It took me at least 10 minutes to stop shaking.  Once Daddy jumped in I rode on his lap down the hill.  He distracted me and I stopped shaking.  One of these days I’m going to catch that rotten Max.

Anyway, the next two hours or so were pretty boring.  I helped Daddy drive the whole time, but he seemed to have it under control.  We finally stopped so I could pee and, well, you know… the marines…  Anyway, I felt a lot better after that.   I spent the next four couple of hours on Daddy’s lap, then slept on my seat for a little while. 

After Bakersfield Daddy was trying to figure out where we could run.  He was thinking we might detour to run around the trona tuffas near (can you believe it?) Trona, CA.  Then he saw a sign for hiking at the top of Tehachapi pass.  He pulled off and scouted it out.  Sure enough, the Pacific Crest Trail, Desert Section, managed by the BLM was right there!  Daddy changed into running gear (he’s slow), and we took off up the trail.

Well, right away I noticed that there were these yummy looking dark brown piles all around us.  I sniffed one and Daddy said it was a cow pie.  I was going to take a bite, but Daddy told me they aren’t really pies and that I shouldn’t eat them.  Momma, you know how Daddy can be; I think he was just telling me that so that there would be more for him to eat!  Anyway, I’m a good girl and left them alone.

We ran up a very steep hill following switchbacks.  Sometimes I can’t understand why we don’t just run straight up the hill.  It was very steep though and Daddy seemed to be breathing pretty hard.  Did I mention that Daddy can be slow sometimes?

We got to the top of the hill after about 1.25 miles and there were these huge creatures up there.  Their heads were spinning!  I’m not kidding!  Daddy explained that they were giant windmills.  He said they must be 300 feet high – I wasn’t sure because it’s hard to judge those types of things form 12” off the ground.  Anyway, they seemed too big to play with, so I just kept an eye on them and kept running.  After three miles Daddy said it was time to head back.  I wanted to stay and camp with the windmill creatures (oh yeah, and the rabbits and road runners) but Daddy said we weren’t allowed. 

So, we headed back.  Going back along the ridge was a blast!  I scared up some more rabbits and just had a great time going back the way we came.  I was so happy!  When we got to the steep downhill section, I just decided I had enough of the switchbacks and went straight down.  I would go from one switch back to the next and wait for Daddy.  A couple of times I had to run up the trail to find him because he took such a long way around.  I actually thought he might get lost.

After our run, Daddy started driving again.  I was very sleepy until you finally called us.  It sure was great to hear your voice.  I miss you so much!

The drive into DVNP was long.  The last 20 miles or so to the campsite were very twisty.  I had to ride on Daddy’s lap and help him drive.  He would have never made it without me, so I was glad I was there.  We got there at about 7:45 p.m.  We camped at the free campsite above Stovepipe wells.  There were only two other campers there, both in tents.  I was scared at first and barked at them (those tents are scary at night) but then I figured out it was okay.  I greeted everyone, did some business, as Daddy calls it, and jumped into the camper. 

Daddy was very tired and grumpy.  He couldn’t get Mr. Heater Buddy to work.  He was too tired to make me a really fancy meal, so we ate the rest of the lasagna.  It was good.  My kibble was good too.  I was starving because Daddy hadn’t had any snacks all day.

We went to bed at about 9:45.  Daddy was so tired he didn’t know if we would even try to leave DV the next day.

The next morning Daddy woke up at 5:45 a.m. and told me we were leaving.  I was shocked at the change of plans!  We left at 6:05 and drove to Zabriskie point.  At Zabriskie point I got to run around and play for about 20 minutes while Daddy took some photos, then he put me in the warm camper with the heater on.  He went out and shot some more photos and then came back and made us breakfast.

View from Zabriskie Point.

12/13/07

Oh today was pretty boring.  I already wrote about Zabriskie Point.  That turned out to be the highlight for me.  Well, besides sleeping on Daddy’s lap all day. 

We pulled in to our campsite near Loganville (I think that’s what it is called) just before sunset.   Daddy and I went exploring for a little while.  It was fun, but you have to watch the cactus plants.  They bite. 

After our hike, Daddy had to test everything to make sure it works.  It’s not very cold right now, but Daddy says that when it does get cold, everything has to work.  We fired up the generator and the furnace.  Everything worked great – I loved the nice warm camper!  After the camper was warm, we made popcorn but I decided to save mine for later.  I was a bit grumpy and took a nap on the bed while Daddy tested Mr. Heater Buddy’s brother Mr. Heater Buddy.  Mr. Heater Buddy (the new one) works great and it’s quite warm in here tonight.  Then I helped cook dinner.  When I wasn’t watching Daddy burned one of the pieces of bread – I told him that was his piece… 

We had apple sausage, bread, and salad.  It was ALL good.  I was really thirsty after eating my sausage so I drank a gallon of water.  I had been living off my camel reserves which worried Daddy a bit, but had to drink after the salty sausage.  I took the opportunity to replenish my camel reserves too. 

I'm so tired now.  Good night... Daddy says we will be in Paradise tomorrow.  I can't wait!  Maybe Momma will be there...

12/14/07

(As written to her mother...)

Today was quite a day, let me tell you.  We left our campsite at a leisurely 9:30 a.m.  That was great for me because I spent that time being the camp dog.  It was a beautiful sunny morning and about 45 degrees.  I explored the whole area and found some fun stuff in the dirt that I had to try to dig up.  At about the time I had just about buried myself Daddy said it was time to go. 

That’s when the day got boring.   Being the smart kid I am, I passed the time by going to sleep on Daddy’s lap.  About an hour after leaving camp we stopped in the Virgin River Canyon to stretch our legs.  It’s a big canyon and there are rabbits there.  I could smell them and ran around like crazy (so Daddy says, I have a system though) looking for them.  We had to leave before I found them.  Next time.

For a while I thought that was going to be the last highlight of the day.  From there we drove to St. George, got gas, and kept on driving, driving, driving.  We drove through Hurricane (I didn’t know they had hurricanes out here!) and Colorado City. 

That Colorado City is the strangest town I have ever seen.  Half the houses are under construction, though they don’t look like they are being worked on.  The have gaping holes for windows, many don’t have siding or paint, and they look like they have been that way for years.  The ones that have people living in them are huge houses – almost like dormitories.  Daddy says it has something to do with polygamy.  Whatever…there is something wrong with that town.

About an hour later we passed through good ol’ Kanab.  I remember Kanab from last year.  We had a great time here last year, so things were looking up.  Daddy stopped for a permit to South Coyote Buttes and then got groceries.  From there we headed out of town.  I made Daddy roll down the windows so I could sniff the desert air.  It was cold, but oh so wonderful!  A little while later the Cockscomb came into view.  I thought we would turn to go to our old campsite but we kept rolling.  We ended up going a few more miles and then turning north on Cottonwood Canyon Road.

Daddy has always wanted to drive on Cottonwood Canyon Road so he was pretty excited.  He stopped and let me run around in the sage brush for a few minutes and then I was really excited too!  I was bounding around like the rabbits I could smell!

We drove a couple of miles up CCR and then turned on to one of the side roads.  Things usually get fun when we turn off the main roads in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  This road turned out to be in pretty good shape most of the time.  The hard parts were going through the small washes.  We got out and scouted a few of them – well I actually scouted for rabbits but acted like I was looking at the road when Daddy was looking at me.  We even dragged the back of the camper on one wash, but we made it through them all. 

The last big wash we drove into was a really big one.  The road was real narrow, steep, and soft with no shoulder and a big drop off.  It looked like it was going to be fun, but when I looked at Daddy I got really scared.  HE was scared!  We crawled down that part of the road and I thought Daddy was going to jump out and kiss the ground when we leveled out on the bottom of the wash!  I looked back to see what was up, but it didn’t look like any big deal to me.  I could run straight up that baby in nothing flat.

We ended up driving about 15 miles, or so, on these back roads.  We are WAY out here!  Funny thing is, we have cell service so I can send this message tonight. 

Things got really fun after we got to our campsite.  Daddy and I hike-ran down the wash looking for hoodos and rabbits.  We found both!  I’ve attached some photos Daddy took of the hoodoos.  He says we will come back for more tomorrow.

Yep, that's me!                                                       And this is a couple more hoodoos! 

I almost caught one jackrabbit.  I really was gaining on him, but the altitude started to get to me so I let him off the hook when he hid in some brush.  Little does he know:  I’m going to chase him again tomorrow!   

After we got back to camp I took a nap and Daddy warmed everything up.  That generator is the bomb!  Daddy said it will get down around 20 tonight so Mr. Heater Buddy will be working hard.

We had burgers for dinner and they were great!  Now it’s time for me to get some sleep.  Tomorrow will be a big day. 

12/15/07

(As written to her mother...)

Today has been wonderful!....and terrible. Right up until we got back to the camper at sunset, this was the type of day that I dream about when I dream about being on vacation. That said, I’m going to start with the terrible because that’s what I want to do! Sorry, I’ll stop barking.

After our great day living large in the wilderness, things got rough quick. When we got back to the Mothership Daddy noticed that I was picking at my feet and wanted to take a look. He grabbed a rag and started to clean me up. It hurt! I had caked dirt/mud in my paws and it had been driving me crazy for hours. But it hurt when he tried to clean it out. My right front paw is particularly sensitive right now, and I even took a snap at Daddy when he was cleaning that one. Well, I would never bite Daddy, but I gave him my best fake bite! He just hugged me, but I was really mad!

Daddy wasn’t happy with that awful paw cleaning, so he told me we were going to take a bath. He warmed up the water and grabbed me. He gave me a bath, but it was a bit cold since you have to take "Navy" baths in the camper. That warm water sure felt good though. Daddy managed to get most of the mud out of my paws, and we had a fun time drying off. I sure do love that rub-down! :-)  Woof!

After the bath I was checking out my feet. I could tell that there was still some really tenacious (that’s a big word for me! Te…ten…tenacious!) mud in my paws, but no way was I going to let Daddy at it. This is where things got grim… he grabbed me and ripped that nasty dirt right out of my paws! Ouch! He showed it to me afterwards and it really was nasty. Reluctantly I had to approve, but I was in no mood to forgive him after that. Of course, he stuck his big ol’ mug up next to me and apologized and asked for kisses. I gave them to him because I really love him. But then I went back to being mad at him. I sat by my only remaining friend, Mr. Heater Buddy, while Daddy worked on dinner.

I was mad at Daddy all the way up to dinner. We had chicken, salad, and more grilled bread. Daddy gave me the good bread (aka no charred pieces please) and we shared the chicken and salad. It was really great! My Daddy grills chicken better than any man I know.

Okay, that was the bad stuff. Now for the good. Well mostly good… We got up at 6:00 a.m. (that’s bad), and got ready to go back looking for rabbits (good) and hoodoos. It was pitch black when we got up, but Daddy was all excited about photographing the sunrise and I couldn't wait to chase the rabbits!

Being so cold, I can tell you, it was quite a shock going outside after snuggling all night in the down comforter. Daddy tried to put my insulated coat on. Silly him! I’m a much bigger girl now! So, he said I’d just have to keep moving if I was going to stay warm.

The stream going to the rabbits was frozen. That’s how cold it was! It looked really cool (no pun intended!) the way the crystals had formed while it froze. I think we should have stopped to take pictures, but Daddy was intent on getting to the rabbits.

Oh yeah, I was running around on the ice and it broke on me! That water was as cold as ice! I never did figure out why it broke. Not even after the third time, or fourth, or fifth, or …

I can see the rabbits from here!

Ah, the warm sun!

Daddy took this picture.  That big hoodoo is blocking a great view of rabbit (and coyote) country.  Sorry about that.


Do you see me?  I guess I'm what you would call the Director...

So we took a bunch of pictures. In addition to the other great shots, you will see me in the one taken just at sunrise. You have to look closely; I’m helping Daddy get just the right shot. We had to execute a 5.5 climb to get here. It was pretty easy for me once Daddy pointed out the route. It was really a class 4 for me, but definitely a 5.5, maybe 5.6 for Daddy!

After we got that shot, Daddy and I moved around between the various hoodoo communities. There were lots of hoodoos! And lots of rabbits! I chased jackrabbits, cottontails, and my own tail!

Then we heard a dog bark and I thought it might be playtime. Then the dog barked again and I realized that was no playmate. Then he howled and I headed for Daddy. I’m pretty sure any coyote out here is more interested in making a meal out of me than making a friend, so I stayed with Daddy for the next 15 minutes or so.

After Wiley Coyote seemed to have gone off looking for his own rabbits, I went back to hunting mine. I almost caught Peter the cottontail. He made it to his hole just in the nick of time. I’d have given him a good shake if I had caught him.

So anyway, we did the photo/rabbit thing until about 11:00 a.m. Then we hiked back to the camper and had lunch and naps. At about 2:00 p.m. we took off in the other direction. Daddy hasn’t downloaded those photos yet, but maybe he will get it done after we are done with this report. We climbed all over these huge volcanic ash piles, and generally had a great time. It was like hiking to the moon!

The ash/mud is what caked in my feet so bad. At one point I asked Daddy to pick me up because my feet were completely covered with muddy ash. He said it would fall off – I think if he had listened to me then, we wouldn’t have nearly come to bites back at the camper.

Oh yeah, and one last thing. After hiking to the moon, I was shocked to see what looked like the Mothership off in the distance. I knew we left her on Earth, so I was a bit scared. I started woofing at her. I mean, who would have thought that there would be another Mothership? Daddy said it was actually OUR Mothership and not to worry. I was so glad to see her I went dashing off to stand on her back step. I convinced Daddy that we were done for the day and went inside for a big drink of water.

That’s when the day started to turn dark… but you already know about that stuff. Daddy and I are friends again. He’s keeping me safe while I sleep…

12/16/07

Another fantastic day of vacation for me and Daddy!  Well, except that I really miss you Momma.  Daddy is fun, but he just doesn’t understand me as well as you do.  I miss you the most when we get back to camp at night and he cooks and does all the chores.  That’s when I need to be loved the most, but you know how Daddy is…he has to follow his own particular order of business… 1.  Warm up the camper (I approve of this).  2.  Set up the grill (whatever).  3.  Get the generator out (grrr).  4.  Light the grill…. And on and on.  All this time, I just need someone to hold me!  So simple!  Apparently men just don’t get it. 

Daddy says we only have a couple of days to go before we find you.  I sure will be happy when we do!  Life will be so fine again!  It’s good now, but not like it will be!

Sorry to start these notes off with the “bad” stuff, but that’s just how fresh the feelings are when I get around to dictating my thoughts to Daddy.  Of course, eating dinner always makes me fell better.  We had charred kielbasa (don’t ask), bread, and salad.  All turned out to be good again, which is as it should be.

Today was an exploring day for us.  We woke up and packed up.  Daddy wanted to get through the “hairy” driving while the ground was still frozen.  We made it through all the tough stuff with no major problems.  We did drag a bit going through one wash, but Daddy said the bent pieces were only of minor importance.  Worked for me – I spent those stopped times rooting out rabbits.  I’m getting really good at finding them!

While we were driving out of the wilderness we saw a band of antelope.  I don’t know if they are really called a band, but that’s what I am calling them.  They were so graceful gliding across the meadows!  I wish you could have seen them.  Daddy said there were about dozen of them – I’ll have to go with that because I didn’t have time to look at my toes to verify his count.

Just after we saw the antelope we saw a road branching off that we couldn’t resist.  It was pretty decent, and we saw some rocks in the distance that looked interesting.  Well, we didn’t make it down the road very far before we decided we should scout ahead.  The road was just too washed out, so we had to stop.  While on our scouting mission though, we discovered the cabin in the picture! 

 

It was cool!  It even had a box canyon corral!

While our original plan was to go over by Glen Canyon this evening, we decided to change things up a bit.  We noticed that Cottonwood Canyon Road continues on the south side of 89.  It has a different name, Flat Top Road, and it’s not quite as good of a road, but it looked passable.  Daddy studied the maps while I took a spin on the rabbit trails.  He concluded that if there is a road, it must go somewhere – he’s very logical.

We ended up driving for a long time through some pretty rough and sandy stuff.  The picture with me and the Mothership says it all.  We were all game though and the Mothership handled it all in style.  Daddy sure has her dialed in for this backcountry stuff!

 

So, you remember that time we were driving to Egypt and all of the sudden we found ourselves driving along the edge of the grand canyon?  Well, not the Grand Canyon, but a grand canyon!  Well, it happened again today.  We were driving along, just minding our own business, when this grand canyon showed up!  Check out the pictures!  This really is almost the Grand Canyon – in fact Daddy says you can see it off in the distance there.  This was very cool!

 

And so that brings us to our campsite tonight.  We are camped about 100 feet from that canyon, and there is not a soul around.  Unfortunately, we can see Page, AZ and the huge, ugly powerplant in the distance.  That powerplant truly mars one of the most spectacular landscapes you can imagine. 

 

Daddy and I hiked down into the canyon a bit to take some pictures.  While Daddy seemed to struggle as he down-climbed steep walls, I just went vertical.  The technique I use is to get up some speed and then just run straight down the wall.  The steeper it is, the faster you have to go!  My Mamma knows this, but for those of you reading this on my blog, one user’s tip if you decide to try going vertical:  Make sure you look to see how far you have to go before starting your trip.  I find my limit is 10-15 feet depending on the angle.  Too much farther than that, and as Daddy pointed out to me, the trip may be fun but the arrival starts to sting!

Once we got to the real canyon edge, Daddy made me pose with him by the cliff of the canyon.  It dropped off for hundreds of feet right behind us!  It gave me vertigo just looking over that cliff.  I only ran up and looked over the edge about 10 times before I finally got back to sniffing under every ledge for rabbits and mice. 

 

So, after the pictures we hiked back to camp.  I went vertical back up the walls too.  Daddy struggled his way up with encouragement from me. 

Now it’s time to go to sleep on Daddy’s lap.  He’s so warm.  He’s covered me up with one of his sweaters – it’s a bit gamey, but that’s my Daddy!  Life is good!

12/19/07

Yipee!! Yipee!!!! Wooohoooo!  We found Momma!  She just showed up last night.  Daddy took us in to the El Paso Costco to buy salmon and such.  Afterwards he decided to stop by the airport -- He said we should look for Momma there.  Maybe she would show up.

Well, he went inside, and about 30 minutes later he came back to the Mothership with....MOMMA!  I was sooooo happy I thought my spinning tail was going to make me lift off!  I wiggled and kissed and hugged, and generally went crazy telling Momma how much I missed her.  It was wonderful!  It IS wonderful!

Just to catch you up on the last couple of days:  Driving, driving, driving...

On Monday we did do a little more exploring around the canyon we camped by.  Then we drove out of the wilderness.  It took us about an hour to get back to the main road. 

Here I am surveying the land.  This photo looks about NE towards Churchwells and Big Water.

We stopped in Page, which was like a ghost town.  Tons of stores and restaurants, and nobody around.  Daddy stopped at the huge (almost as big as Home Depot) Page Lumber Company to buy something and it was empty except for the employees.  He said it was like his own store.  He bought us a sandwich at the Subway and he said he had to wake up the man working there!

The area around Page was very beautiful.  I really wanted to stop to explore, but Daddy was in a hurry to get moving again.  He said we could come back.

We drove all afternoon and evening.  By about 8:00 p.m. I could tell Daddy was really tired so I got real alert and started watching out for things for him.  We were going to stay in a state park near St. Johns, AZ but we weren't exactly sure how to get there.  We stopped in front of the town park to try to figure it out.  In the mean time I explored the park and did some "bidness".  Daddy cleaned things up and decided we would just stay right there! 

Poaching campsites in the middle of town like that takes some attention.  You want to look like a camper just parked there for the night, not camping there for the night.  So, you have to be quiet, keep the lights down low, put Mr. Heater Buddy's tank in the cab, etc.  I was extra good that night to make it all go smoothly for Daddy.  Daddy turned Mr. Heater Buddy off before we went to bed because he said it wasn't going to get very cold.  Well, it got down to 22 degrees that night (which wasn't very cold by comparison to other nights) and I got cold.  At Midnight I made Daddy get up and turn Mr. Heater Buddy back on.  Much better!  We slept great after that.

Yesterday, Tuesday, was more driving...  Just one quick story and then we have to get ready to do stuff today.

A good place to run.  I chased one really fun rabbit too!

After coming down out of the mountains in eastern NM, we stopped at a forest trail for a quick run.  The trail wasn't marked real well so we had to search a few times.  Finally, I figured out the clues for the trail and lead Daddy by about 150 ft. or so. 

About half way out on the run I looked back to check on Daddy. I noticed that he had stopped... to mark the trail!  Well, I knew that was the right thing to do so I went back and marked the trail right where he did.  That way, if he couldn't find the spot on the way back (humans don't have very good noses), I would be able to find it.  I really thought the trail was pretty easy to find without marking it, but Daddy says that survivors create their own luck by planning for the unplanned... or something like that.  Anyway, on the way back I checked the mark.  We were on the right trail.  Daddy completely missed the mark, so it's a good thing I had marked it too!

This morning, Wednesday, I have been training Momma, and then we are going to go for a run, and then to White Sands.  That should be really cool.  It's a beautiful, warm day today.

I had to make some form adjustments...

Talk with you later I hope!