3,512 miles

Mom says this is my Sound of Music photo. She posted a whole series of me and the mountains and the flowers.

You already know I am the official goodwill ambassador of the trip. Three nights in a row I have been a friend to Germans. Actually, I think one group of them is following me, because tonight is the second night I have greeted them. The man reminds Mom of Jimmy Scruggs, a friend of hers. His wife comes over and goos at me, but she does not pet me. Drives me crazy. Finally she petted me tonight. Mom subtly asked questions to see if they were following us. No, they are going next to Prince Rupert, and from there to Vancouver Island by ferry.

Today I greeted a Husky from Saskatchewan, and boy was he enamored of me. His mom says he gets crazy for girls. Check out the photo of him fawning all over me on our photo site.

And now I have been put in charge of the bear count for the trip. As if I were not busy enough. We have three so far, one in Banff, and two today on the Yellowhead highway. Mom says I must not whimper, but I must let them know when I spot one. This could be a problem with my naps. It is so much easier to find elk. They are everywhere. But black bears do stand out against the meadows. They are all very busy eating grass and not so interested in me at all, but some are very shy and leave before Mom can snap their photos. If Mom insists on putting the bear bell on me, I will never be able to sneak up on them.

Tomorrow is my heartworm dose day, and a good thing. The last two nights, we have started finding mosquitoes. Oh my. That was one thing I was not missing about my back yard.....

3,103 miles

Tonight I am camped at Mosquito Creek. The RV is not more than six feet from the noisy babbling river. Mom had to direct Dad how to carefully back it down here, missing stumps and trees by inches. If Mom succeeds in loading the movie, you will see me dipping my paw in the water. We got here at a respectable time, and I was ready to rumble. I have been left out of all of today's activities, you see.

When we got to Mosquito Creek Camp, in the middle of nowhere about 15 miles north of Lake Louise, I got to chill out in a bed of little bitty pine cones next to the Creek, which looks like a river to me. I attach a photo of what the pine cones did to my butt. You can imagine what happened next. That's right, the dreaded grooming brush. Poor me!

Today Mom and Dad got in an early morning bike ride along the Banff Springs Hotel golf course, which should give you golfing guys greens envy. All the golfers had on those little sweater vests like Englishmen. Dad saw the elk herd cause he was the first to make the loop. Mom was gone forever. It took her almost an hour to go 7 miles. She's talking about that altitude thing again.

Then we took a family photo at the Spray River Falls just below the Banff Hotel, and Mom and Dad took off for yet another dip in the hot springs. Why on earth anyone would want to soak in hot water is beyond me. Give me snow any day.

Waiting in the RV during the Safeway stop, I understand. You should have seen Mom trying to park the RV in that little lot. Wish I could take a video sometime.

We left Banff and 30 minutes later we pulled off the Bow River Parkway at Johnson Canyon. I did not see a single sign that said no pets, but Mom and Dad went on an hour hike into the falls without me. They said they climbed up catwalks and changed elevation 30 meters. That's like a whole football field. I could have pulled! When they came out, they had a girl velcroed to them who was wearing a pink cap that said "I survived brain surgery". She was talking a blue streak about all her after surgery symptoms. Like instead of Deja Vous, she has something like Never vous, where nothing looks familiar. From the way Dad was nodding, it looked like she had total control of the conversation.

I did enjoy when Mom rolled down the window to take pictures of elk by the road. They have the worst winter scraggly coats, and their horns are so funny looking. Not pointed, but round, and all covered in something that looks like velvet. There were so many deer and elk roaming Banff that it got to be almost ho hum. We saw an elk with a tag in its ear and a radio collar going right down the main drag. I supposed they are monitoring him since he is making a nuisance of himself. Three strikes, and he is out of there!

I am the international ambassador of goodwill from our RV. So far I have been petted by people from Japan, India, several provinces in Canada, and Germany. Just since I started counting.

There's been a disconcerting interruption in my nightime hanging out on the longline habits. Rumors of dog eating animals have restricted me to quarters after dark. It started with Bears in Yellowstone and then Coyotes in Fort Mccloud and Banff. Makes a dog worry too much, you know?

I LOVE the night temperatures. Going to get down to freezing tonight again. And tomorrow we drive up the Icefields Parkway. That sounds like my kind of day.

2,779 Miles

After two days of rain, no thank you very much, I got so stir crazy that mom was forced to walk me between showers. She was frequently wet because the breaks were pretty short. I cannot tell you how many times I have been towel dried. No wonder they call the place Great Falls. Nothing but water! Mom said a lady in the bathroom was worried the Missouri River would flood the RV park. Mom thought that with at least three dams downriver, that seemed a little silly. Last time it happened was in 1960.

Then this morning, things improved. I got to go off leash in the dog run, where I encountered both a rabbit and birds. I was streaking from one end to another. Dad fixed the tailpipe, and then the microwave. It was catywompass. He had to fix the windowshade earlier. Seems like there is always maintenance to do on the RV, just like at home. When he finally came back in the RV, he was carrying the shreds of the Obama sticker.

Mom remarked today that the scenery was incredible. The hills were like green moguls, she said. Then she got into taking photos of wheat storage silos. You will need to check out the photo link to see them. She thinks she is Ansel Adams now, or maybe even Steve Babbitt.

I found 89 north from Great Falls to be very winding. In the middle of the day, ponies crossed the road in front of the RV as we came around the bend. I have never seen a herd of ponies, much less free ranging ponies.

Finally, when we arrived at the campground in St Mary just outside of Glacier, in the middle of nowhere, Mom let me escape. First time in almost 3,000 miles. I have been waiting for my chance.

True to form when I escape, I ran the hills. Johnsons just opened for the season today, so thank heavens there was not much traffic. (No one wants to camp yet when it is 41 degrees in the middle of the afternoon. I think we are the only ones here.)I ran up the hill to a new cottage being built and a worker lady caught me and brought me back down. The photo is Dad and me after I was captured. Later this evening, while I was outside on my longline, deer crossed the hills above the RV. I didn't bark, just whimpered.

Mom and Dad went to dinner at the cafe run by the RV camp. The original owners are in their 90's, but they are still here. Tonight's special family style dinner was chicken fried steak. I can't think of two foods I like more, chicken and steak. Mom said she wrote in the guest book that she wants to marry the bread baker.

Somebody at Johnsons has a sense of humor. Here are some of the things Mom read while waiting for dinner.

How far is it?

It is about 55 miles across Going To The Sun Highway.
The Canadian border is about 20 miles.
Calgary is 180 miles north, and Great Falls is south 160 miles.
We don't know how far it is to New York or San Francisco. Go to the bottom of the hill and turn left, ask when you get closer.

Answers to the most frequently asked questions:

No: The wind has never blown like this before.
Yes: The Johnsons live here year round. We usually open in late April and close in late September.
The bathrooms are in the lower dining room, down the stairs to the left.

If you want to read more about Johnsons, Mom linked their website to the title of this section. It's a new blog trick she just learned.

The workers are all bright and chipper and glad to see us. Later on they will be pretty tired of company. The eager worker in the office said that if we go into Glacier early in the morning, we will see a herd of 100 elk. He says the Going to the Sun road is not open all the way yet, not until July, but the first section is open.

After that little jaunt, we are going to cross into Canada and Waterton Lakes. I am so excited about leaving the USA, I am sure I won't sleep. My papers are ready! Hope they don't take away my dog food at the border....these kind of thoughts keep me up nights.

2,179 miles

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OH MY GOSH. My first snow. It happened on May 21, just 11 days after my 6th birthday. I cannot believe I have waited all my life for this, and what happens? Mom puts me on my long line, and I take off into the field. Whoosh. I am sunk down to my hips. I had to hop back to the edge. I always thought snow was white, but this was a little dirty. Mom kept asking me to go potty, but I couldn't figure out where. This was definitely not grass.

My fear of taking care of my business in the snow continued all day. We had more and more snow. When we got to Yellowstone, it was a blizzard, by Texas standards. You can see the stuff on my ears in the photo. Finally, about the third time Mom took me for a walk in it, I made it yellow. No big deal.

Walks in Yellowstone were a bit scary. Right at the edge of our camp, folks had seen a bear that morning. Everyone said I was not to be left outside the RV alone. The Aussie walking back to his RV warned me, in between warm greetings like the poor thing had not seen another dog in weeks.

The next day, when Mom and Dad were driving around the park, I saw buffalo everywhere. Boy did I want a piece of that action. They just wander on the road like they own it, and I want to go right out the windshield. Once, Mom jumped out to photograph some elk walking on the lawn at Mammoth Hotel, and I almost went right out the open window after her. Dad was too quick, or we would have had elk for dinner.

I really like snow now. I sit in it, walk in it and pretty soon I might be rolling in it. I like the wildlife even more. Makes my mouth water.....

Blehhhhh!

I ain't afraid of no bears!

1,688 miles

For two days I have been in Rapid City playing with Jem. I could not have been more surprised that there was dog living here. Mom had told me there was a cat, and I would confined to my dog house and the long line. Imagine my astonishment to drive up and be greeted by the newest Babbitt, Jem. He joins his cat sister Scout.

So, Steve, that's the Dad who said over my dead body is a dog going to live in this house, said Daisy can sleep in the house and the cat won't mind. But I couldn't help myself. I could not overcome my desire to get the cat.

So I have been pretty much restricted to my dog house, the garage, the downstairs guest area with the stairs closed off, and my long line. If only I could control myself!

Jem loves to play with me....over and over and over again! Since I am older than he is, I am quite the tolerant one, but he does bring out the puppy in me.

AND, there are deer and turkeys in my back yard. Oh to run free!

Before we left this morning, I got to help train Jem about his invisible fence. I got to run outside it while he learned not to break the barrier. For once I was the one with the freedom!

1,140 Miles

Today we stopped in Cassoday, Kansas, self-proclaimed prairie chicken capital of the world. I looked and looked, and no prairie chickens. So disapointing. I LOVE chickens.

But I did bark this morning at a calico cat in Wichita, not much of a cat, a bit scroungy, and this evening at a squirrel in Lincoln Nebraska.

Now you may want to know why there was no blogging yesterday. We had a little oops with the RV. Dad kinda scraped the side of the RV on a guardrail. Stuff flew out everywhere. Scared me to death. I thought it was the end of the world. Dad was more upset than mom, cause he felt responsible, but she said everybody is okay, so why get upset? Good thing she wasn't driving, or she would have flipped the RV instead of controlling it like Dad did.

The door, which got scraped so that it wouldn't stay closed, caused us to go back to Wichita to find an RV service place. 30 minutes later after Dad borrowed their vice, he straightened the hinge so it closes just fine. We have a few pieces of plastic that don't look so nice now that they have duct tape on them. Gives Teregram some character.

Dad ordered a new hinge to be shipped to Yellowstone, and we'll replace it then, just so the seal is better.

The silliest part of the whole incident happened when we were exiting the Kansas toll road and the attendant said, don't come through here. Your steps are out and you are going to take them off. We had no idea we had driven 50 miles with the steps out. We were just really lucky.

We found out at the RV place that the reason they did not retract was Dad took off the screen door since he couldn't straighten the hinge enough to close it. There's a magnet in the screen door that causes the steps to retract.

That was sure silly!

Don't worry I'm fine! Mom's fine! Dad's fine! We're about four hours behind our original schedule, but since we don't know how long we are going to be gone anyway, who cares?

550 Miles

We are in Cushing Oklahoma, the crossroads of the USA. What they mean is about five major pipelines cross in the town. After 9 11 they were on orange terror alert.

Here I am with my dog cousin Maya. She is a very young bouncy boxer. When I first arrived there were FIVE dogs there and that was too much for me. I headed for cover! Then Aunt Katie took me inside where there was only Chloe, a bossy Boston terrior. She calmed down after a while. And you know what? She snores.


Aunt Katie was VERY nice to me. Fed me kibbles and bits, told me I could sleep in the house. I like her and her family a lot. Uncle Kurt rubbed my tummy. Andrea is a dog person too.....she's getting married next month, and I like her too, but I don't know how to describe her. Is she a second cousin? I think so. It's nice to meet cousins.

283 Miles

We're off! I am in Denton tonight. Tonight my grandma and grandpa came over with Onslow, my brother, and Hannah. Hannah is a rescue Samoyed who excels in Obedience Trials. She's part something else. See her blue eyes?

I like to go to Denton because my grandma ooohs and ahhs over me. She says I have such an exquisite face, that I could stop a thousand Iambs trucks. She says I am just perfect. She came to see me even though she had a big sinus infection. Mom has a brand new cold, so they were quite the sickly pair.

For more doggie photos, see my album at on Mom's photo albums. There's a link on the right.

I am happy to report that mom and dad did pack my dog food and my puppy cookies. Unfortunately they also packed the bitter apples spray and they keep spraying my paw and telling me not to chew on it. What can I do? I can't get to the toilet paper to chew....should I chew my pages instead?

Tomorrow night I will be near Stillwater, and there will be dog cousins to meet. I hear one is a puppy who can be quite irritating....

Stressed Out

Oyi! So much to do to get ready for the big trip. Have to pack my dog food, my puppy cookies, my heartworm pills, my food bowl.

Most important is to get enough sleep in before the trip. I just don't sleep well not in my own bed, and besides, we are going to the land of the midnight sun. What's a dog to do about my required 20 hours of beauty sleep.?

This trip is a big deal. I have been hearing about snow and my ancestors and sled dogs since I was a pup. So much pressure!

I can hardly sleep!