Arkansas Attack

Our favorite way to travel is our RV. 35 foot, sleeps 8, though there are only enough seatbelts to drive with 6. Why only 6 – I have no idea, but there are only 5 of us, so it works. At least it did until we adopted our new family members.

Heidi the German shorthaired pointed, and Pagosa, the wolf dog, huge camping fans. They love the smells, the freedom to roam – I think Pagosa is even starting his own star gazing blog. He’s young though, so he may not have the attention span to finish it. Either way, they love being there and we love having them with us. What they don’t love is getting there. The gentle swaying of our boat across America’s roads are enough to put them to sleep for a few hours, but when we travel we have a couple of long days. Our pups don’t get the chance to expend their energy, and they get a little cagey.

“Cagey” – it’s a word I use a lot. I have had a couple of friends (younger people), look at me like I am insane saying it. I’ve always used it to mean the feeling of trapped. Though Google disagrees. They see it as more evasive – the English language is apparently constantly changing or I didn’t understand the directions when I was learning it.

But I digress –

The trip to Arkansas was a chance to spend some time with our beloved neighbors and close friends. Wayne, Rebecca and their dog Oscar. They traveled with us earlier in the year to Montana – Rebecca officiated at our wedding, we are a pretty close group, and thrilled we found a weekend to get away, let the dogs play while we told camp fire stories and enjoyed the outdoors.

We had camp food, a campfire that we ran morning to night as there was a chill in the air that would just not go away. I think we saw the sun for a total of 15 minutes the whole trip. It was a glorious 15 minutes though, we took the chance to run to a nearby state park – Snake Creek Recreation area. Walked along some “river” shores – and then directly back to the campground. it was a nice lazy getaway.

Unfortunately, Heidi was not having it. I don’t know if it was the long trip – or just a bad general attitude, but one afternoon, after a short walk in the forest, we let the dogs have some free time in the dog play area. Within minutes, Oscar and Heidi started fighting. Heidi play fights with Pagosa all the time – so we were all thrown back when it turned aggressive. Of course, this put a damper on the day – but the weekend was saved when we discovered there are aliens in Arkansas. But that’s a story for another day.