It's been a month so I figure it must be time to write again.  Since my last post, I've transformed from a Kentucky dog to a Washington dog and so far, I like it.  The packers came and put stickers on everything important presumably so ensure that everything made it to the new house.  The bosses seem to think that it wasn't a fool proof system because they say some stuff is unaccounted for but as far as I can tell, my food, toys, treats and favorite lounging spots all arrived so I'm not too worried.  Then the loaders came to put our stuff in the truck.  Three guys plus the driver moved an estimated 15 thousand pounds from our home to the truck over the course of 12 hours.  They seemed to be having a good time but with each averaging about 3500 pounds each, they certainly earned their kibble that day.  Anyway, about 8:45 pm, we finally said goodbye to Lexington, KY and headed for St. Louis, MO.  As you might have guessed, there was a bit of tension starting out but eventually we made it to the Doubletree Hotel and they made things right with warm chocolate chip cookies.  We should stay at Doubletree Hotels every night.

The next day we stopped in Kansas City, MO to have lunch and a walk with the boss man's sister, youngest nephew and Judy (sister's mom-in-law).  The boss's sister greeted us with cookies (a nice trend), biscuits (we ate the whole package in about 5 minutes worth of obedience) and then we had lunch on the porch at an awesome cafe.  The waitress even gave us licks of water.  Afterward, we loaded back up to go visit Star, Winnie and Tim in Lincoln, NE.  It was great sniffing them through the doors (Mr. Crankypants wasn't being a very gracious guest) and their folks took really great care of us.  Really, really great care in fact.

The next day brought us to Cheyenne, WY and our last foreseeable Culvers.  We should probably have a moment of silence for that...

Along the way we stopped to visit Wild Bill's ranch.  Let me just say that the lunch that Star, Winnie and Tim sent ahead (or more accurately Harry sent ahead) didn't have any competition for being the best part of that particular stop.  Now if we could have had a moment or two with the bison, well that might have been a different story.  Anyway, after lunch we made it to Cheyenne, had Culvers and settled in for the night.

The next leg brought us to Twin Falls, ID by way of the Bear Creek State Park.  Another shot with the bison.   Another delicious Harry lunch (it was big enough to enjoy over two days) followed by the last of Lisa's delicious cinnamon rolls.  Our walk was super fun and I got to eat a little bison fur (Mmm, bison fur)  before the boss man realized that I had it in my mouth. 

From Twin Falls, we went to a park in Bosie for a little wander (funny, I can't remember any food at that stop) and then we went to our new home.  It is light green.  Plus there is no grass.

The next day was nice but we didn't have most of our toys and treats yet.  The following day they arrived with wasn't really much fun.  In fact, being locked up all day was kind of lousy.  Plus the bosses were cranky. 

Anyway, after our stuff got here, things started looking up.  We started taking great dog walks to explore our new home.  The wetlands area behind our house has miles of trails although calling it a wetland is really kind of relative.  It has a few small spring fed ponds and a creek at the far end but it still is mostly desert to my eye.  It is full of fun things like pheasants, quail, jackrabbits, lizards, swallows, magpies, crows, dogs and people.  Supposedly it has snakes too but I've yet to see one. 

To mix it up a bit, we started a new tradition that Lyle dubbed Super Saturday.  For the last two Saturdays we loaded up in the truck and went for a super fun walk.  Last week it was to hike up Badger Mountain.  The top of the hill (at something like 1759 feet is seems decidedly un-mountain like) the view of the Tri-Cities area is quite nice.  Today's walk was in the Howard Amon Park along the Columbia River in downtown Richland.  They were having a bit of a show for the hydrofoils so we got a peak at what they look like up close.  Afterward we FINALLY made our first stop at Dairy Queen. 

Well, it's getting late so that's it for now.  Happy Father's Day to all of you Dads out there!

Spring