Hello everyone!  Did you miss me?  I know I have not blogged in a while, but “the Jack is back”!!  While my parents are busy starting up again with Amazon, I thought I would recap my summer vacation.

Keeping my peeps informed!

I know my parents had several posts regarding their adventures in Yellowstone National Park, but I have nothing to add, as I never went into the park.  It is really not a dog friendly park.  Dogs are only allowed where cars can go, and I know what parking lots look like!  I guess the rangers don’t want us little dogs to be appetizers for the bears.

However there is plenty of US Forest Service land in West Yellowstone, so I was able to go on plenty of walks in the woods.  As a matter of fact, I even lost over 1/2 pound this summer (unlike my parents).  My doctor would be proud of me, as he was concerned about my weight during my last visit!  Yes, I am back to a “lean, mean, playing machine!”

ready to play

Homeroom at Madison Crossing, the place where my parents worked this summer, was very dog friendly, and I quickly learned where the treats were located behind the counter.  I visited several times, during our walks around town.

Thanks Pam!

For those that have been following me for a while now, you may remember my parents purchased a 16 squeaker stuffed squirrel for me.

I diligently worked on destroying the squirrel this summer.  My parents were thrilled that this toy lasted over 6 months, but then decided the “dead” squirrel would make a good wig for me.  I was not amused!

feeling groovy!

Once they finished up their summer jobs, we started heading east, and we stopped at a nice rest area in Montana, which had the best pet area I have ever seen. It was all fenced in, and had a fire hydrant right in the middle of the area.  Lot’s of good smells!  Too bad all rest areas can’t be like this!

wayside pet area

We stopped at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota for a night.  My parents drove around the park loop, and I was able to check out (from the comfort of the truck) the prairie dogs.  My parents said I was not allowed outside of the car (another unfriendly dog park), so I could only view the hundreds of “park dogs” from the window.  I barked and squealed a lot, just to let them know I was in the area.

let me out!

acres of prairie dogs

prairie dog

After a nice stop in MN visiting with Dan’s brother Gary and Julia at Camp Anderson West, we made it back to “Camp Meyer” (Dan’s sisters Linda and Doug).  It’s my favorite place, because I can run around off leash, and get plenty of treats and attention.  Since my parents were going to be busy with dentist/doctor and other appointments, my grandparents came down to take me to their place and spoil me for several days.  I was so excited to see them, that I fell down the stairs of our 5th wheel, and got a big cut above my eye.  So I was put on a “time out” for a little bit with an ice pack on my head.

ouch!

Time went by so fast, and now my parents are starting their 3rd year at Amazon, this time in Jeffersonville, IN.  I’m sure my mom will be posting soon about that.  So I’m back to being in the camper for long days. Hopefully I can get some more treats and toys from this!

Take care everyone, and thanks for following along on my journey.  I’m starting year three on the road, and I am one lucky dog!

Quote for the day:  “Scratch a dog and you will find a permanent job.” – Franklin P Jones

Hello everyone, it’s me again!  And now that everything has quieted down, I thought I would give you a little update from the dog’s point of view.

Keeping my peeps informed!

The last few days have been super noisy here in West Yellowstone.  Apparently there are no laws regarding who can shoot off fireworks in Montana, and it seems everyone in town had a pretty good supply of noisemakers.  Saturday was the worst.  My parents had to work, so I was left alone with all the noise for most of the night. People were shooting off fireworks and firecrackers all over town. It takes awhile before it gets dark, so the town-sponsored fireworks did not start until 10:30pm, so my parents were home by then.  They took me out to try to get me to go potty, but as you can see by the photo below, I was so scared from all the prior noise that my tail was stuck between my legs!

I want in!!!

What made this night extra scary for me is that we were parked right in the “blast zone!” The launch area for the fireworks was about 100 yards from our RV, right across from the US Forest Service land that I like to take my walks on.  We walked past to check out the area on my early morning walk on the 4th.

the launch site

Here is a closer view of all the shells…way too many for my taste!

a lot of shells

To put this in perspective, here is a view of our RV from the launch site.

our place from launch site

Too close for comfort, in my opinion!  But I did get some visitors, which briefly made me happy!  My parents co-workers, Tom and Ellen came by to watch.  Diane and Jerry, another work camping couple that my parents met, also stopped by later, to join in the “VIP viewing section”.  That’s what they called it…..I called it the scary, frightening section!  Notice how no one else is around on the sidewalk?  The entire street was blocked off, so only the few people living here could be in this area.

Dan, Ellen & Tom

My mom took a lot of photos of the fireworks.  One misfired and landed about 75 feet away, which scared her.  She went into “fire marshal” detail to make sure the burning embers were out.  They said the show was quite spectacular, especially considering this is a town of 1200 people (during the off-season).  I will have to take their word for it, as I refused to come out of the RV until after 1:00am.  That’s how long it took before everyone in the area stopped shooting off more fireworks after the town’s show ended.

Enjoy the photos!

the beginning

red, white & blue

the finale

Thanks for following along everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful, and less scary, 4th of July!  Until next time!

Quote for the day:  “The United States is the only country with a known birthday.” – James G Blaine

Hi everyone, it’s me again, Makena.  For the new followers, I like to occasionally steal my parents blog and write about living in an RV from a dog’s perspective.

After my mom’s last post about Amazon, I heard her comment that was post #99.  Since 100 is a pretty big number, I knew it was time for me to post again, since I managed to steal the 50th post.

My turn to post!

I have been enjoying my time in Florida.  It has been full of presents, sunshine, and best of all, visitors!  And it is nice not having that  alarm clock scaring me half to death at 5am.  A perfectly good night of sleep is ruined by that screeching ‘beep, beep’ noise, followed by my mom’s grumbling.

My Christmas wishes came true – I had some really nice presents to open.  Nice to see my parents use those gift cards on things other than gas and groceries!  I really enjoy opening presents.  My parents made me sit patiently staring at my package for a while.  Oh, the suspense!

Patiently waiting

I finally received the ‘okay’ command, and it was off to the races!

where is it?

And much to my delight, I received a squirrel with sixteen squeakers!!!!!  Best gift ever!

16 squeakers of joy!

Take a good look at the squirrels head…he was beheaded about 30 minutes later!  I was able to get three squeakers out, before I decided to take a nap.

time for a nap!

My social calendar has been pretty full as well.  Unfortunately, I still have not figured out how to take photos, and my parents seem to forget as well, so I don’t have photos of everyone that has stopped over.  But I was very excited when Fred and Donna stopped over.  We first met them the day after we picked up our 5th wheel, at a Heartland Owners Rally.  They, along with George, Iris, Gary and Pam took my parents under their wing and they had a fun and educational week together.  It was nice catching up with them, and my parents had a nice BBQ dinner with them – no doggie bag for me though 😦

My pals Steve and Joan, from Crazy Horse also stopped by.  They were home for Christmas to visit their family, and are now back in Lake Mead for the winter, where they do some volunteer work.

Steve and Joan

Tom and Ellen, co-workers from Amazon, also stopped over. They were also kind enough to invite my parents over to Ellen’s daughters house for a fantastic Christmas dinner.  Again, no doggie bags for me.  I think my cousins Rudy and Reagan need to teach me the fine art of stealing people food from the counter!  They also got together at a Tiki Bar near Clermont to watch the sunset together.  But it was a cloudy day, so not much of a sunset (serves them right for not bringing me along!)

Tiki lounge

Karen and Al, also fellow Amazon workers, stopped by as well for lunch, and Disney planning.  We will all be going to Disney the first week of February, so they dropped off some DVD’s for my parents to watch.  My mom is pretty clueless about all these Disney characters so she has a lot of homework to do.

The park we are in now has a fenced in dog area, so I have been able to get out and play almost every day!!  It’s not a pretty dog park, but it’s a great use of space right along the fence.  I wish more parks would do this, as I have a lot of energy to burn off.

play time!

And when I am not busy playing outside, I watch these super noisy sandhill cranes go by every day.  They are bigger than me, so I keep a safe distance!

safe viewing distance

Well that pretty much brings you up to date with my social life.  Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!

Quote for the day: “Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.” – Dave Barry