Hello, I’m Mason (the handsome devil with his tongue out) and I’m Murphy, the smaller of the two.
We are West Highland Terriers that went on a camping adventure with our humans, Jim and Joyce, and the humans Jim (another Jim!), Liz, Jamie, and Anthony. Anthony is our humans’ grandson. He’s 9, and we are used to him, but we took to the new humans right away. We got along famously.
Now, before anyone gets rumpled up, let us say that we dogs plus Maggie had a nose to tail discussion about the camping trip, and it was decided by all of us that since Maggie has terrible motion sickness and does not do well in confined spaces, plus the fact that Erik moved back home and needed guarding, well, we all came to the conclusion that we wee ones would go and Maggie would stay home with Erik, and have snuggles and Laurel time. So no barking at us, please!
The humans put a lot of time and effort into this trip. Our set of humans researched the campers and site, and Uncle Jim, Aunt Liz, and Jamie collected cookware, camp recipes, flashlights, lanterns, and things of that nature. So did our parents. Everyone got their things together, and met at our house.
It was agreed upon the size of the RV and the price. Everything seemed well. We all trundled with our bundles to the RV location to rent the vehicle. First, the humans had to watch a movie about how to operate the different features. In the movie, everything worked smoothly. It was decided that Uncle Jim would be the Driver, and Aunt Liz would be the Co-pilot. We would stay in the back with our humans and the boys.
(Snicker, Woof!) Like we said, everything looked great in the movie but in real life, our humans were dismayed to find that the RV they were given looked like a rollling Rent-A-Wreck instead of Luxurious RV Heaven. It was tiny inside and still dirty from the last use. There wasn’t any water filled in the tanks, and the propane was half gone. The picnic table in the back was broken. Desperate, the humans took the vehicle since there were no others, and set out on the road.
(Rolls over, shows bellies) Right? With all deference to those old Car-X commercials, the RV went, “Rattle, rattle, thunder, clatter, boom boom boom!” The entire time. There was a bed in the back and two fold-away beds. One was supposedly operated by lifting the kitchen table and pulling out the bed. The other two spaces to sleep were over the front seats near the roof. Like we said, everything looked great and worked smoothly in the movie. Reality would prove vastly different!
Anyway, there we were, clattering down the interstate, when the Co-pilot suddenly said, “There’s a storm ahead and we’re driving right into it!” Uncle Jim white-knuckled it on the expressway (boom! boom! boom!) while the lighting flashed and the wind rocked the camper from side to side. Our dad didn’t seem to mind, though, and got up to get something to drink out of the fridge. He told Uncle Jim, “You’re doing a great job!” and Uncle Jim said, “Everyone needs to be buckled in their seats while I am driving!”
We took a peek out the window, couldn’t see a thing, and crawled back for snuggles with Jamie and Anthony. Here’s me, Murphy, on Jamie’s pillow:
Meanwhile, Aunt Liz texted the human Erik and said, “If we die out here, this is where the insurance policies are…” Somehow, we don’t think she was kidding!
After we’d made it through the storm (there had been no where to pull over on the expressway, since apparently every one is Under Construction), we headed off toward camp. It took 6 hours. It was a long time.
While I, Murphy, snoozed on Jamie’s pillow, tucked between Jamie and Anthony, I, Mason, jumped into Aunt Liz’ lap and took my usual seat as Co-co-pilot. Soon, I was sprawled out asleep and she was saying, “Mason, Mason, move, my arm is asleep!” But I didn’t listen one bit. We stopped at a Rest Area, and I gave Aunt Liz her arm back. The humans went for some food and we dogs ate in the RV. Time for a potty break, so far, so good.
Back on the road, Uncle Jim got another surprise as our Dad told him, “About the rental car we have to pick up. They didn’t have any rental cars. They had a transport bus, you know, like an Airport Shuttle. It seats about 15. You shouldn’t have any problems driving it.” Uncle Jim looked grave. Mom and Aunt Liz laughed and laughed.
However, we stopped, picked up “the bus”, and our Dad took Jamie and Anthony with him, and they all followed Uncle Jim and us to the campground.
Finally, a while later, we pulled into the campground. Here is a tiki bar hut Jamie found while exploring:
So, we’d finally made it. If you want to hear the rest of the story, you’ll have to tune in to Part II!
Woof! Woof! Mason and Murphy
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