8/21/15 Guest Bloggers: Mason and Murphy – The Camping Trip Epilogue

Hello, Friends!

Maggie wants her blog back and so we are going to quickly wrap up the rest of the trip for you.

We left off with the humans deciding to use the public facilities at the campground. While showering in there, Aunt Liz got stung by a hornet – twice. She was all alone and said it was good luck and a blessing that she turned out not to be allergic! Later, Mom saw the same hornet and shooed it out on her bath towel. Jamie reported seeing it in the Men’s Shower not long afterwards.

During one of our visits to town, our Mom slipped, fell, or somehow twisted her bad knee (making it worse) getting out of “the bus” that was the rental car. We must repeat, this “bus” could seat 15 humans and was at least a foot and a half, two feet off the ground (from the step to get in). So Mom was sidelined for most of the day after that. Poor Mom! Murphy and I did our best to comfort her.

We visited a famous restaurant that had a herd of goats on the roof! They had delicious Swedish pancakes. Here is a picture:

Later, all the boys (except for us) went go-carting. It was a fun evening.

After passing several days with no hot water, Aunt Liz stated to the entire company that another storm was due to hit the area Monday. We were supposed to be back at the rental place in Illinois early Tuesday. What was to be done? Stay squished inside the camper while the rain fell, and try to pack up in the mud, or make a break for it while it was still dry? Aunt Liz voiced the opinion that she didn’t like the idea of Uncle Jim driving straight through again, especially in the rain after the last storm, and Mom swiftly agreed. She was in the kitchen packing up before you could say, “thunderbolt”. Aunt Liz joined her in a frenzy of activity.

We have never seen humans break camp so fast. They spent one last night in the RV and then, in the morning, hit the road. They took “the bus” back to the rental place where the lady argued that it was short one (1) gallon of gas. We watched from the window at all the eye-rolling. Then the humans piled back into the RV and hot-footed it Milwaukee, where Uncle Jim had used his phone app to arrange for a pet-friendly overnight visit.

Aaah! Civilization! My brother and I got baths from Mom, and clean, new neck scarves. The humans swam in the hotel pool and laughed at their misadventures. My Mom and Dad told Uncle Jim and Aunt Liz they were good sports. Jamie and Anthony had had a blast, and somewhere during the week, Jamie turned 15.

So, our tail comes to an end. It was a fairly quick ride home (about 3 hours, Human Standard Time) and we unpacked, cleaned, washed the RV, and then returned it.

Next vacation – ??? Probably will be a week at a pet-friendly hotel.

Thanks so much for reading and letting us share Maggie’s blog.

Woof! Woof! Mason and Murphy

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8/19/15 Guest bloggers: Mason and Murphy, “The Camping Trip” Part I

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