Hello once again, fans, and welcome back! It is I, KADY!, your intrepid reporter of all things dog-camping.
We have been so many places in the last couple of months that you just wouldn't believe it. We went almost all of the way across the whole United States and back! Dad kept telling Mom that it wasn't such a good idea based on the time of year, but Mom said that we had to go anyway.
When I last posted we were in Raton, New Mexico and it was winter again. We had to go find summer some more so we drove to Colorado which kind of seemed like the wrong direction. But pretty soon we got out of the snow and we stopped for the night at Kit Carson County Fairgrounds in Burlington Colorado.
There was lots of room for dogs to walk there.
And there was so much cool green grass and we rolled and rolled. We spend so much time in the desert and grass is so nice!
Then the next day we went all the way to another state: Kansas!
We stayed in a KOA in Salina and there is a dog yard there but it didn't have much grass in it.
There was a little pond and you could buy food to feed ducks but there weren't many ducks there and Mom didn't even let Dodah go swimming this time.
Mom always picks up our poop but she appreciates it when other people are told to do so too.
The next day we went to even another state: Misery! I didn't know at first why it was called Misery because when we stopped at the KOA just east of Kansas City it was really pretty and green and had a first class dog-yard.
Actually it was more than one and there were two really big dog yards right next to each other!
I didn't know that we were going to be in Misery for such a long time until we got to this place and there were so many Cardigans there and even Uncle-Dad Pilot and our Cousin-Brother Spot and even some other dogs too.
This is at Purina Farms. See all of the RV's of the other dogs!
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It was mostly a really boring time for us dogs. Mom had to put on a badge and go work at the dog show, first in tracking and then stewarding obedience and then posting results and conformation and stuff. We hung out in the RV with dad and then at night Uncle-Daddy Pilot came and stayed with us too.
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Let me tell you: the weather isn't always very good there. The air is so wet that you can see it. When it looks like that back in our old house it is cold but here it was not cold except inside of the big building where the dog show was.
It should have been a clue to us when stuff like this is posted on the walls and they hand it out at the booth too:
And then you are trying to have a quiet evening at home but you can't because every few minutes the radio in the house is turning itself on REALLY LOUD and Dad keeps watching the weather on his computer and saying stuff to Mom about we shouldn't be in Misery in May.
Someone drove around the RV's and honked a few times but we didn't hear any sirens or anything like that. So Mom had her shoes off and was laying on the bed petting me and Dodah and talking to Aunt Mandy on the phone and then there was a BIG BANGING on the door and Dad opened it and it was Dr Barb and she said "You. Dogs. To the Building!" so Mom hung up on Mandy. And Dad took Huxley and Mom took me and Dodah and Pilot and we all ran through the buckets of rain and up the steps to the building.
We were really wet and lots of our friends were in the building and they were wet too.
And we all had to sit there in the hall and wait until they said we could go home again.
It ended up there wasn't any tornado there so after a little while we got to go back to our house. There was lots of thunder and it was hard to sleep though.
Mom changed badges but she still had to work. We played with our brother Rip in the dog yard at Purina one time before he went home.
After a long time we got in our crates and the RV moved for a couple of hours and we went to another place that was still in Misery. The first day the weather was really pretty. The park didn't have very many people or other dogs in it and it was quiet and green and we liked it a whole bunch. This is Mark Twain Cave Campground.
It has a creek for bunny-hunting and everything.
But then the next day the Misery Rains came back. Dodah was very disappointed.
So then we got back in our crates and Dad drove our house through another whole state out of Misery and that was through Ill-annoy but we didn't stop there and went to Iowa where our brother Rip lives but we didn't see him this time.
We found a really pretty county park called West Lake Park. There are lots of places for dogs to walk even though there is no dog yard.
By this time I am getting a little tired of traveling all of the time.
After a day we left Iowa and went to Minisoda. We stayed at a Fairgrounds for free in a town called Blue Earth and I don't know why it's called that because it's all green and not blue at all.
A funny thing happened and some people pulled into the drive way next to us nose in and then wondered why they didn't have any hookups. And Dad told them that but instead of unhooking their toad so that they could back up and then go into the empty campsite next to them like they were supposed to they drove off down the path that is for dogs and bicycles and not for RVs.
In a little while the RV came back down the path going the other way and went into a campsite like they were supposed to. Just in case anybody has any questions:
The next morning me and Dodah and Mom went for a walk and we looked to see if we could tell where the RV had turned around on the wet grass without getting stuck but we couldn't. We saw a big green person in the distance though so we would walk and go to look at him.
It turned out that he wasn't real.
The fairgrounds had these areas that they called "Rain Gardens" but they mostly looked like soggy weed patches to me and Mom and Dodah.
Mom didn't let us roll in them just in the grass.
This is a picture of Dodah and Huxley when Dodah wants the crate but Huxley is in it.
The next state that we went to was South Dakota. We stayed in Dakota Campground where we had stayed four years ago when Dodah was a baby and the grumpy grandma Alice was still with us.
It was ok when we first got there but then it filled up with whole bunches of human children and other dogs and stuff and was really noisy. I guess sometimes people in South Dakota go to the RV park for camping on the weekends instead of going out into the mountains or anything cool like that.
So we didn't stay there very long and then we went to visit our family in Murdo South Dakota and Mom and Dad were too busy visiting to remember to take pictures. We saw my old sister-cousin Audie who used to live with us and we played and played with her. There was another dog Shadow and he was jealous that Audie played with us.
We stayed at American RV Park and Kamp which had lots of grass for dogs to walk on but we mostly just went to Audie's house and played. Audie was getting ducks of her own the very next day but we didn't get to stay longer to play with them.
Audie's real dad is Huxley, did you remember that? Huxley is starting to get old and slow now. We have a ramp that he has been using to get up and down into and out of the house now because he is so lazy. Me and Dodah think that is real fun to sit right at the top and block the door so that he can't get back in. It's especially fun to lean down and give him a kiss as he is trying to get his lazy butt in.
We had other ramps before but this one is much lighter and better. Its brand is Gen7 Pets if any other old lazy dogs need one. Mom and Dad bought it at Camping World. They like to shop there.
Anyway then we left Murdo and we went to a really neat place with a dog yard that we really liked and mom liked it too she said it was a "dog yard with a view." This is at Devil's Tower KOA in Wyoming. We really like Wyoming and we went there last year too but this time we didn't see any bison or grizzly bears which is good.
Mom says that's Devil's Tower in the background. But I didn't see any Devil and neither did Dodah but then Hux says there isn't Devils there but that aliens from outer space landed there once and that people thought they were devils so that's how it got the name. Then he hummed five notes and laughed at us.
Then we kept heading west and a little bit north and we went to Montana. We were going to stay in the first KOA ever in Billings just because it was the first but we pulled in there and they tried to say that it was something like $95 for one night so Dad said something to the man that was probably something kind of rude and we turned around and went back on the freeway some more.
It's Mom's job to read RVParkreviews while Dad is driving so then Mom found a listing for a city park in Columbus Montana called Itch-Kep-Pe Park right on the Yellowstone River and it is FREE! Well, it is by "donation" so Dad donated.
It was a very good park and they had just mowed the grass and there is plenty of room for big RV's. There isn't any hookups but we had plenty of water and empty tanks and our batteries were all charged and everything and so we were just fine.
Just look how quiet and empty it is. This is the best kind of camping!
But then we had to go some more and we drove a long day because the next free campsite that we were going to wasn't open for the season yet because it wasn't really summer in Montana yet. So we went to Campground St Regis. It was very nice. They have lots of carved wood stuff.
They have a path for walking dogs plus this big area here. Mom didn't let us off leash but she probably could have. We would have been good.
Here's Dodah on the Dog Path.
Dodah thought this might have been a real bear she's so dumb.
But then the next morning Huxley thought it might be a real bear too. They are both dumb.
Then we had a very short day drive and we went to Idaho and we stayed a few days at Blackwell Island. I reviewed it last year for you. It is a good place to stay with a lake and Dodah took a dip and it has a fenced dog yard and we have relatives there who come to visit us. Our other-mom Hannah lives there but we didn't see her this time and Daddy-Uncle Pilot lives there. Pilot had just had an operation on this big thing that was hanging out under his tail by his butt and he was wearing the donut of shame.
Aunt Mandy didn't want to leave him alone while she worked in case he got the donut off and bited his stitches so he came to be babysitted at our house. He likes it at our house except for Huxley but him and Huxley don't bark at each other too much now because Huxley got too old and lazy I think.
And we met a new fun puppy who visited us who lives with Mandy and her name is Mae and she really likes the RV and jumped on the dashboard like us.
This is Mae just after she had her bath. She had her first dog show and Mom went and watched her.
So we stayed there in Idaho a few days and then we went to Umatilla Marina and we've been there a few times too. We will go back there some more in a few months.
And then we took the RV to the Carrier RV shop in Eugene so that we could get the RV window fixed that flew off as we were driving last year and so Mom could get her TV hooked up to the satellite dish right. This is important because in the evenings mom goes into the bedroom to watch TV with me and Dodah so that she can give us our corgi massages while she watches. We don't all fit on the couch very good so the bed is better. And Dad had them look at the slide to make sure it was still working and Tony told him it was still good but there is some dog hair in the rollers and Dad said that Mom needs to vacuum better. And we went to work for a while and stayed in crates at Norwest Safety while Dad and Mom did other stuff and then next day we waited while new big batteries got put in the house so that we can stay easier at some of the free places without hookups.
So then we came back to one of our usual places where we have come a bunch of times that is Portland-Woodburn RV park. I've told you about it before too. We stay here because it is close to our grandma Feebee and our brother and sister Hiro and Delta and to Jamie and Catherine and to . . . . . . . .
Right after we got there Jamie and Catherine came over and they have this with them. Her name is Nora and she is a baby human. I know she is a baby human and I like baby humans a lot. Dodah is not so sure about them.
We went over and played with Delta and with Hiro one day which was fun. Grandma Feebee doesn't play too much any more and she is almost fifteen years old. And the baby Nora was there too so I guess that they are keeping her.
Nora likes to play with phones just like all of the grownups do and she can swipe and she can take selfies. She can't talk yet but she can sit up pretty good and she is learning to blow bubbles with her spit. I tried that but dogs don't have the right lips I guess.
Nora-baby likes dogs and isn't afraid of us probably because she lives with Hiro and Delta and Feebee.
Do you notice something about Huxley?
He is wearing a donut of shame now too. Mom gave us all a bath and the shampoo must have made Huxley itchy or something because he ate off all of his hair on one of his hips. It is getting better now because he can't chew on it when he is wearing the donut and Mom put Gold Bond powder on it so it doesn't itch.
Mom and Dad got us two new smaller crates for our jeep and me and Dodah went for a ride and Dodah got a rabies shot from the mobile vet van.
The new crates are red and both fit on the back seat and are Coleman and are on sale at Camping World. They look like this:
It made us happy because we like going on rides in the jeep but Dad gets upset when we leave dog hair all over the back seat. We have other crates but they are too big for the back seat.
Tomorrow we are going to a brand new park so I will have more to write about soon. Mom is going to fly to Kentucky so it will just be Dad and us dogs for a few days.
