NL 24

April 20-23 '99

Folks,

Last newsletter I left off as Lynn arrived on the bus.  Bogie, Lynn, and the rig had all come through their respective surgeries with flying colors. 

When I asked Lynn how the bus trip went, she told me that it had been too long and more of an adventure than she expected.  At every station where her bus stopped, the terminal master had warned her not to go one inch outside the station doors - they couldn't guarantee her safety outside! 

They also warned her to keep her purse secured at all times in the terminal, and to stay in view of security at all times too!  The terminals were all in the worst part of their cities!  Lynn said that some of the folks she saw in the terminals reinforced the warnings.  So following the warnings, and feeling insecure to say the least, she made it through the 16-hour trip in one piece, with no sleep.

Lynn caught a second wind when she saw the rig.  She absolutely loved the new carpet!  (Whew!  I had to pick the color without her. )  The rig did look 100% better inside and out.   As a bonus, there was no evidence of the "christening" Bogart had given it. (Whew again!)  She was also amazed that it had been relatively inexpensive and commented that "we would even have some money left over for some luxuries, like food and clothing"!  

Our fears of the cost of repairs stopping our travels were gone!  We were back in business!  The G.A.s were still working overtime.

We decided to spend a few more days in Chanute before we started our trip to Alaska because the whole of the North was still having blizzards and freezing temperatures.  So we went to our favorite place to eat the next night with Bob and Gloria, and Lyle and M'Lee. 

Gene and The Fireside Inn were just as good as before.  Gene cooked us up some great steaks, which were also as good as ever.  As was the entertainment.  He surprised us when he asked me if I was RV Roadie.  For those of you who get this newsletter only and haven't visited the website, that's my pseudonym for the site.  I asked him how he found that out? 

He told me that he was having a lot more RV's stopping in than before.  A friend of his had found the website and told him it might have been because of my review in the newsletters. 

Gene even had a copy of it.  Boy was I embarrassed!  And surprised that so many folks have visited the website and checked it out.  I explained that the newsletters had gotten a lot more attention than we had originally expected, so when I was offered sponsorship of a site for them, I accepted Jeri's offer gratefully.  (Jeri is the president of Baby Boomers International on the web). 

Since then, I've gotten an enormous amount of positive feedback from people who came upon the site on the web.  I'm somewhat chagrined that there has been such enthusiasm about our missives from the road, and will keep em coming as regularly as I can.  Anyway, I'm glad some other RVrs have discovered his place too.

On Sunday afternoon we had another spontaneous gathering of a bunch of the folks we met in the park at our picnic table.  The ladies all made their snack specialties and we all relaxed with gourmet dips, cheeses, and wines - YUM! 

Since all parks have a leash law on animals, we were surprised when a dog walked over to our table from across the golf course, with no collar or leash.  She was obviously a little thin but she had a beautiful black coat and a face that was exactly like the dog with the big eyes in the advantage commercial on TV (you know, the white dog that winks?) except she was black.  She hung around and turned out to be a pretty sharp pup but obviously very lonely.  I petted her and she shyly just leaned up against me and soaked in the attention.  We fed her a little snack and she wolfed it down, but didn't beg or make a nuisance of herself. 

She was medium sized and apparently had excellent health albeit just starting to get to the point of showing her lack of meals of late.  All of us were taken with her manners and her expressive face.  We felt that she would be OK to feed at the picnic table since she didn't know which trailers were ours.  So we decided to get her some dog food from our rigs and help her make it for a few days more. 

If I didn't already have Bogart, she'd have had a home.  Bogart is not friendly with other animals, and we have to be very careful when walking him to avoid other dogs. 

We all regretted leaving her after the social wound down, but as we couldn't give her a home, at least we helped her survive a few more days.  

Lynn and I discussed finding her a home, but could find no one who wanted a dog.  So we headed home and wished her luck.  Later that night I took Bogart for his last walk of the day.  As we passed Bob's truck next door, a dog darted out from under it and approached us.  Bogart went bonkers as usual - barking and lunging at the intruding animal.  It was the stray!  I was afraid that Bogie would bite her or be bitten by her!  She stayed on the periphery of Bogart's leash and unlike every other dog, neither returned his aggression, nor cowered away. 

I tried to shoo her off before I had a fight on my hands.  She surprised us both by darting between my legs!  Now a dogfight between my legs was the last thing I wanted!  Bogart just stood there and was acting as surprised as me.  No other dog had ever stuck around when he shooed em off before! 

The stray came out to Bogart slowly and tried to make friends with him.  It was funny in hindsight but at the time I was just trying to move away before they got into a fight.  She approached Bogart gently and he just stared at her as she bowed down in front of him.  Bogie did a few sniffs and then just turned around to continue his walk.  She followed and kept trying to make friends with him and he'd just growl her off.  But he stopped being aggressive as if to say she could walk with us if she liked, but he wasn't gonna tolerate her touching him.  I couldn't believe it. 

So I just continued the walk to see what happened next.  She stayed with us and followed us home.  I opened the door to the trailer and let Bogie in and told Lynn to watch this.  I told the stray to come in and she walked in and looked around as if it was a normal thing for another dog to be in the same space with Bogart and live through it. 

After Lynn got over her shock at this she turned to me and just said "No."  I said not to worry, I knew we couldn't have two dogs in our rig, but I had an idea.  She could spend the night (it was frosty outside) and in the morning I'd take her to Doc LaRue and offer to pay for her shots if he'd find her a good home. 

Lynn gave me that look.  All husbands know the look I'm referring to.  It's genetically imprinted in all significant harassments.  It's the look we get when we bring home the great deal we got on the classic car that only needs a little restoration . . . and all they can see is the broken windows and the rust holes in the floorboards. 

But since enough of my "projects" have actually worked out, I just get the "look" and the list of conditions I must follow if I am to be allowed to keep both my project, and my significant harassment under the same roof . (The W.P.A. - Wimmins Pertective Association, supplies a list of alternatives to the word "project" to all of their members with substitutes like "hair brained scheme", "junker", "eyesore" etc.)  So I had to swear that I would clean up any "messes" (a polite word for doggie doo doo, doggie wee wee, and anything that is regurgitated Sheesh!  As an adult I can use the clinical terminology!) and that I would then bring her to the clinic first thing in the morning. 

Boy, were we in for an entertaining evening.  This pup was determined to make Bogart her buddy.  She would creep up to him on her belly and touch him, wanting to play and the old grouch would just growl at her and go lay down elsewhere.  Then she'd lay next to him just a little closer and creep up until he growled her off again.  Then exasperated she'd get in front of him and bark at him to play with her tail wagging and he'd just turn his head and pretend she wasn't there.  Until she crept up on him again and he growled her off.  Finally he decided to eat something and went to his bowl.  She joined him and he actually let her eat from the same bowl - with no growl!  LOL! 

Finally to get away from her he went to his bed and . . . she joined him.  He jumped up and went to the other end of the rig.  She had found a nice warm bed and decided to stay there.  Bogie just looked at us pitifully and we made him another bed.  Bogart was all bark and no bite!  LOL! 

Now all he could do was act like he was going to tolerate her presence-but that's all . . . no touching allowed.  His bluff had been called.

The next morning I went to the clinic and made my offer.  Dr. LaRue's aide said that he normally didn't place strays, but she'd ask.  I had told her what had occurred the night before and it turned out that she was intrigued and after meeting the stray decided that, indeed, the stray was a very unique pup.  She adopted her on the spot! 

In hindsight, do I feel I wasted 40 bucks on the stray and her shots?  No way!  I've spent more in an evening and gotten less entertainment value.  Lynn and I were in tears we were laughing so hard at Bogart trying unsuccessfully to play the ol' grump.  He liked the pup too, but would never admit it.  And she refused to give up on him.  She saw right through him.  LOL!  It was worth twice the price.  We're gonna check up on her when we go back on the return trip.

We met many folks in Chanute this time, and all were as down home and wonderful as before.  Bogart has a new vet in Dr. LaRue.  He is indeed a new dog.  All of his scratching is gone.  He is, for the first time in six years, relaxed and not miserable from his skin problems.  We have never visited Chanute without gaining more than we ever expected. 

We began to plan the Alaska trip with Bob and Gloria.  Bob agreed to let me take the lead position.  We decided that it was still too cold up north to go to Alaska yet, so we decided to hit I-40 in Oklahoma City, then do the Grand Canyon and Vegas enroute.  That should give the northern area a chance to thaw before we got there.  

We left Chanute on the 23rd and went to Oklahoma City in building storm fronts all the way.  Our destination was Tinker AFB FamCamp.  We got there at about 4 PM, having taken twice as long due to weather than it should have taken.  We pulled into the base and got directions to the FamCamp from the gate guard.  We found it easily and  . . . it was closed!  They were adding sewage hookups to the electric and water.  So we tried to find a turn around to get back off base and find a park for the night. 

We were exhausted from fighting the weather all day, and, being unfamiliar with the base, found that we were about to drive our rigs onto the flightline!  We took a left and stopped to get our bearings.  We decided that the Oklahoma City east KOA was our best bet for the apparently building storms, because it was just four miles away.  We had gone barely a block when Bob called a stop.  I went back to see what the problem was.  They had gone into their rig to use the bathroom during our stop and had forgotten to put up their stairs.  The steps dragged over a curb and bent.  We had to force them to fold up.  They had just been replaced the week before at the factory and were brand new!!  Accck!

We decided to go to the KOA and deal with it later.  We didn't realize the intensity of the storms that were about to hit us.  We finally found our way; they had a couple of spaces for us, so we made camp as the storms built up over us.  We had no idea what we were in for.

Derek, Lynn, and Bogart The (exposed) Wonder Dog

Next newsletters:

Oklahoma City and the storms 23& 24 April

Run to Amarillo West Park 25 April

Santa Rosa Blue Hole!

Albuquerque a rest!

Sandia crest!

The rims, tires, and the dually valve stem extenders!

The Pueblos, and the Bandalier cliff dwellings  2 May

Los Alamos

Santa FE

The dealership and the rims

The winds

Oops turned 47!

Cinco de Mayo Gordunos

Bob the trip planner and Balloon Pilot.

The new radio and antenna