Tag Archives: Ft Kearney State Park

The Last Leg

For those that have just joined us on Jackson’s blog (he took over my blog here months ago) I am adding this note. We are back from a month-long road trip visiting the desert canyons in the American west. I enjoy traveling, but I always regret my best buddy can’t go on a lot of my adventures. This was one of two we have planned this year centered around Jackson joining in on the grand adventure. Jackson is going to be doing all of the blog posts. We will be posting our photographs on our Facebook pages (and a few here also!)
– Matt

Woof, woof, I meant the title to be a pun, no it is not my last leg! We got back a week ago my human tells me, I have a hard time figuring out how long a week is and I just rely on my human keeping track of non-important stuff like that. I guess it is time for my account of the last part of our trip. Ruff, of course I will write more about what we did, but Matt told me to do a chronological account when I started this. Woof, I had to say stop right there and tell me what “chronolococal” was. That is a new word for me and I didn’t understand. He told me it meant to write the story in the order it happened, or that is what I understood from his explanation.

The view from our campsite in Nebraska at Ft. Kearney State Park.
The view from our campsite in Nebraska at Ft. Kearney State Park.

Ruff, back to my story. In Nebraska we watched some birds he called Sandhill cranes, there were so many I could not even think about trying to count them. Later that morning my human met some friends. After seeing my friends Bob and Paulette Matt said we needed to go because the weather was going to get colder and we might as well start the trip home. We only drove four hours that day so we did not get far. I think Matt said we were in Springsomething Missouri. The next day we were supposed to get up early and leave because my human said we were going to drive for a long time. Well that did not happen, when that thing my human calls a phone (you know that thing you humans look at and talk to all the time) made and irritating sound when it was still dark, he turned it off.  We left later then we were supposed to and then drove, and drove, and drove and kept on driving. I think we drove through three states. We went over big rivers and saw mountains again late that evening. Finally we drove up to a house made of logs where a cat lives and I got to meet my Facebook friend Aunt Marlene, my human said we were in southeastern Tennessee. She was real nice to me and gave me fried chicken (without bones) and other good treats. Hobo, the cat, was not too happy with me at first, but he got better before I left.

Aunt Marlene's back yard.
Aunt Marlene’s back yard.
Aunt Marlene giving me some love.
Aunt Marlene giving me some love.

After the long drive we stayed at Aunt Marlene’s place. It was in a quiet valley on a farm near a river called Ocoee. Once again I did not get to swim, ruff! It is a lot smaller than the other rivers, but my human said it was a dangerous one because it flowed so fast. After resting (and getting treats) for a day we got back in the truck after my human packed it back up. We made one more long drive, I got excited because it started smelling like places I knew and had been before. Then I started smelling places close to home and finally we got home in the afternoon so we had time to unpack. Well my human had time to unpack, I watched, woof!

Now that I have I finished my account of our trip I am still going to have more to say about what we did. I tried to let you know what we were doing as we did it. Maybe that is what that “choro” word means, ruff! I still have photographs and videos we have not looked at or edited, so I haven’t had the last word yet, ruff!

The Rock Garden & Nebraska

For those that have just joined us on Jackson’s blog I am adding this note. We are on our way back from a month-long road trip visiting the desert canyons in the American west. I enjoy traveling, but I always regret my best buddy can’t go on a lot of my adventures. This is one of two we have planned this year centered around Jackson joining in on the grand adventure. Jackson is going to be doing all of the blog posts. We will be posting our photographs on our Facebook pages (and a few here also!)
– Matt

Woof! My human changed his mind and we went one more in Colorado. Ruff, if you remember, our Colorado part… I think that is a state. My human keeps telling me we are in a new state. Most of these things he calls states he has been in before he says. But he did say he did go to a new one on this trip. Woof, back to Colorado: My human was upset because the big snow storm messed up his plans for us. We were going to camp near some waterfalls, but that is where we tried to get away from that storm my human friend Nancy called a blizzard. That place was called Rifle Waterfall State park. When we got there it was snowing so we did not do anything there. Then we tried to beat the big snow storm, ruff, I mean blizzard, but it beat us. Then the next day driving over the high places on the road my human called passes was slow and my human was tense the whole time. I could tell he was worried and really concentrating. When we got away from the snow he kept driving, he said he did not want to worry about the road closing again.

Me hiking at Garden of the Gods.
Me hiking at Garden of the Gods.

When we found a place to stay out of the bad wind, wind like I am not used to, wind blowing all the time hard, I was glad. I could not smell things like I am used to and I didn’t like that. After resting my human said he felt we were cheated out of enjoying Colorado and the last part of out west. He said I did not get to hike much in Colorado also, so he went to a place called the Garden of the Gods. My human said we were going to backtrack some, but it would be worth it, and woof, it was! We went all over looking at the big rocks and big views. I even shot video and still photos. I liked the humans and other dogs there, it was a dog friendly place to go, woof!

On my hike at Garden of the Gods.
On my hike at Garden of the Gods.

Then the next morning we got up early while it was still cold. The water inside the camper had frozen. Matt packed up and started the truck up and said we were going to Nebraska. We drove and drove, late that afternoon we came to a place with a lot of big strange birds. They were flying all over the place, sometimes there were so many they looked like a dark cloud, ruff. We found a nice campground at Ft. Kearney State Park, ruff, I think that is what Matt called it. The next morning we watched the birds land a field land and fly, there were a lot of them. My human said the were Sandhill cranes and were flying to their summer homes. Ruff, can you imagine that?

Our campsite at Ft. Kearney State Park.
Our campsite at Ft. Kearney State Park.

Well, we will probably be in Tennessee soon, so I will try to write from there, woof, woof!