So Many Places, So Many Smells

Back on Friday May 7^th, me and my mommy and my daddy started another journey.

We woke up really early in the morning and left Stephen and Sherry’s house, where we had been for over three weeks.  I like going to Stephen and Sherry’s house.  They have a neat trail behind their house and lots of hills for me and daddy to walk on.

When we’re at Stephen and Sherry’s house Lizze and Alex love being around me.  Lizze goes on walks with me and mommy and daddy.  If mommy and daddy go to see some friends then Alex will feed me and give me treats and one time he even came out to our house on wheels and hung out with me and did his homework.  It was really fun.  I like Alex.  He’s really nice to me.

Anyway, back to our last moving day.  It was really an exciting moving day for us.

After we got up early, we took mommy to get a blood test.  None of us even ate breakfast.  We just woke up, went potty and got the house rolling down the road.

Once we got to the place where mommy had to get her blood test, I don’t like blood tests, and daddy really doesn’t like blood tests.  Mommy doesn’t seem to mind them because she’ll even go donate blood sometimes.  One time when she donated blood, we got tickets to the Florida Strawberry Festival.  That was really fun too.  We slept right there at the festival for a couple of days.

Sorry, I get distracted easily, so back to moving day…

When we got to the place where mommy had to get her blood test, that’s when daddy and me both got to eat our breakfast.  When mommy came out, then she ate her breakfast too.  She wasn’t allowed to eat all night long because of her blood test.  I don’t like when I don’t get to eat, that’s another reason why I don’t like getting blood tests.

After we all had breakfast, we then drove down to Redner’s because we had to get Aunt Sally some Lebanon Bologna, Unique Pretzels and Dieffenbach’s Chips because she can’t get that stuff in Florida.  Aunt Sally and Uncle Randy really like Lebanon Bologna, Unique Pretzels and Dieffenbach’s Chips so we just had to make sure that we brought some down to them.

After Redner’s, it was time for a self-care day for me and mommy and daddy.

First, mommy and daddy went to get a massage and be adjusted by the chiropractor.  After that it was time for me to get a haircut.  Mommy and daddy stopped to get lunch to eat in the house on wheels while I was getting my haircut.

I get my haircut right next to Donnie and Erin’s house.  Donnie and Erin are mommy and daddy’s nephew and niece-in-law.  They really love me too; I mean who doesn’t love me.  They have a dog named Charlie who makes really funny noises.  I don’t really like Charlie, it’s nothing personal, it’s just that he’s another dog and I don’t like other dogs.  The only other dogs that I ever liked were Buddy, Tucker, and Cheyenne.  I loved those dogs.  They taught me everything I know about being a good dog and how to take care of mommy and daddy.  I miss all them so much every day.

After mommy and daddy ate their lunch, Donnie came home and they visited with him while I was still getting my haircut.  A little later, Erin came home too and then they visited with her, but not for too long because we had to get to Aunt Cheryl’s house.  That’s where we were going to stay for the next two nights before we started another moving day to head to Florida.

When we got to Aunt Cheryl’s house, I got to go inside again.  That’s why I like Aunt Cheryl’s house so much, because I get to go inside and there are no other dogs at her house.  I make Aunt Cheryl smile a lot when I’m at her house too.

On Saturday night, mommy and daddy and Aunt Cheryl went to Kelly’s house to celebrate Mother’s Day.  Then on Sunday, mommy and daddy and Aunt Cheryl went to take Mom-Mom for dinner for Mother’s Day.  I miss Mom-Mom, I haven’t seen her in a long time.  I hope that I get to go see her this summer because I love her and I make her smile too.

Then Monday came!  It was time to start moving again!  Moving days are always so exciting, but also a little sad too.  Daddy made his breakfast special for everyone.  I got some eggs and bacon too.  I love eggs and bacon; eggs and bacon are delicious.

After breakfast, mommy and Aunt Cheryl went to Benchwarmers donuts to get a dozen donuts for their friend Chuck Balsamo, who we were going to see that afternoon in Virginia.  Man, when they brought those donuts home, they smelled so good!  I just wanted to eat every donut that was in that box.  Mommy and daddy started loading everything up into the house on wheels and we were getting ready to go.  Mommy and daddy even put those donuts in the house on wheels and I had to smell them for the whole five hours that we were driving.  It drove me crazy!

Our moving day was a nice drive down Route 30 through Lancaster and York before getting into Gettysburg and heading south on Route 15.  About 4:30 we got to Chuck and Emily’s house in Virginia.  They have two goldendoodles who greeted us in the driveway.  They were yelling to me, “Hi new friend! We want to play with you!”

But I was yelling back at them saying, “No, I don’t want to play! I don’t like other dogs and I don’t want you to smell my mommy and daddy!”

Well, they did smell my mommy and daddy and I stayed in the house on wheels until the girls went inside.  Then I got to come out and talk to Chuck and Emily.  They are really nice people.  Chuck has a big old beard that puts my daddy’s beard to shame.  I don’t know how mommy and daddy get to know all of these neat people all over the country, but I sure am glad that they do.  Daddy says it’s because God puts just the right people in our lives at just the right times.

We left Chuck and Emily’s house and followed them to a place for mommy and daddy to have dinner with them.  After dinner, we drove again for awhile until we found a Cracker Barrel to sleep at for the night.

The next day, we got up early again and drove to Mabry Mill.  Mabry Mill is a place that mommy and daddy love to go.  They get to eat good food and I get to walk around the park with them afterwards.  I guess we all really love Mabry Mill, so it was awesome that we got to stop there again.

After breakfast and our walk, we drove to Mt. Airy, North Carolina.  Mt. Airy is also called “Mayberry” because that’s where Andy Griffith grew up and it’s the town that Mayberry was based on in his show.  It was a neat place.  Mommy and daddy spent most of the day there checking out the Mayberry stuff.

That night we went to Mt. Airy High School to see North Stokes play Mt. Airy in baseball.  Daddy’s one old friend and former player, Stephen Sauer is now the coach for North Stokes and they just happened to be playing in Mt. Airy that night.  Isn’t that neat how God worked that out for my daddy and his friend?  God does nice things like that.  I guess it’s like daddy says, God puts just the right people in our paths at just the right times.

I got to watch the baseball game too.  I love baseball!  I even cheered for North Stokes a few times.  North Stokes won the game and daddy’s friend was blown away that we stopped by to watch them play.  My daddy didn’t tell him that we were coming, so he was really surprised when he saw my daddy walk up to his dugout before the game.

We slept at another Cracker Barrel in Mt. Airy that night.  Mommy and daddy went in to eat breakfast in the morning and then we drove to North Stokes High School so that daddy could do a podcast with his old friend.

The drive to the school was really neat.  That school is in the middle of nowhere and the roads had a lot of hills and curves in them. When we got there, daddy said that he’d be about one and a half hours, mommy said she expected him to be in there for about two hours.  Well, they were both wrong because daddy was in there with his friend for over three hours!  I guess that they had a lot to talk about after not seeing each other for over 25 years!

After we left the high school, we started to drive to Rock Hill, South Carolina.  Daddy was going to meet another friend of his, Anna Kimbrell, to do another podcast.  Anna is a baseball player.  She plays on the US Women’s National Baseball Team and has traveled all over the world playing baseball and representing the USA.  I got to meet her too.  She really liked me, I mean, I should be used to this by now because I am quite the charmer.  She stood and petted me for a long time while talking to my daddy.  I liked Anna; she was cool.  Some people don’t think that girls should play baseball.  They think that girls should only be allowed to play softball.  I say phewy to that.  If a girl wants to play baseball, she should be able to play baseball.  As a matter of fact, whatever a girl wants to do, she should be able to do it.

After we left Anna, we drove to the Georgia Welcome Center just outside of Augusta and slept there for the night.

The next day, mommy and daddy stopped at a laundromat to do some laundry in the morning and then we checked in at Heritage RV Park in Augusta.  It was a quiet place and a really nice spot for us to stay for just one night.  Me and mommy and daddy went for a nice walk down the street from the park.  I love walking with mommy and daddy.  We stayed there because daddy wanted to empty our poop tank because he didn’t want go too long without emptying it before our next campground.  We were going to be staying at Harvest Hosts the next two nights so he wanted a nice fresh tank for the next two days.

The next morning, we got up and drove to our next spot, which was Lane Southern Orchards in Fort Valley, Georgia.  It was about a 2-1/2-hour drive for us.  It was an awesome place!  It smelled so good!  There were peaches and pecans and strawberries there.  Mommy and daddy picked a bunch of strawberries and they were some of the best strawberries that I ever tasted.  I love strawberries!  They taste so good!  These strawberries were amazing!  I love when mommy and daddy share strawberries with me!

We had to get up really early the next day because we were driving all the way to Jacksonville, Florida to stay at out next Harvest Host and daddy wanted to get there before 10 AM.  We got up at 4:30 in the morning, which was before the sun got up on that day.  It was neat to see the sunrise as we were driving down the highway.  We got up so early that we didn’t even eat breakfast until 7:30, which was after we had already drove for 2-1/2 hours.

We got to Celestial Farms just before 10 AM, just like daddy wanted to.  We had to get there before 10 so that we could get parked before they got too busy that day.  It was another really cool place.  They would rescue all kinds of animals.  Some that were abused and some that people would get and then just not want them anymore.  I don’t know how anyone could do that to an animal, but I guess that there are people out there that do.  I’m glad that there are places like Celestial Farms and the Delaware Valley Golden Retriever Rescue (DVGRR).  DVGRR is the place in Pennsylvania that rescued my birth-mommy from a puppy mill while I was still in her belly.  I was born at DVGRR.  I know how important places like this are, so I knew how grateful all of the animals where that had been rescued.  I’m so grateful that my birth-mommy was rescued because that’s how my mommy and daddy now were able to find me.  I’m glad that we stayed there.

The next day was Sunday, and we were headed to our last stop before getting to Melbourne.  We were going to St. Augustine!  I love St. Augustine!  We stopped there right before we got to Melbourne back in November.  We ended up staying at the exact same campground that we did then too.  It was the St. Augustine Beach – KOA Holiday.  It’s a really neat place.  I got to go on walks with my mommy and daddy everyday that we were there.  They even have a dog park that my mommy threw the tennis ball to me in.  We were there until Wednesday, May 19^th and it was really fun for me!  We had to get back to Melbourne on May 19^th because our temporary Florida license plate expired on that day and our new “POLLY2” Save the Manatees license plate was waiting for us at Aunt Sally’s house.

Wednesday morning, we took our time getting ready to move again and the house on wheels rolled out of the KOA right at the 11 AM checkout time.  We decided to go down A1A instead of I-95 so that we could enjoy the journey.  It was a beautiful drive.  Mommy and daddy had the windows down and I could smell the ocean air as we went down the road.  There were some spots that we were really close to the ocean on this drive.  It was awesome!  We stopped to eat lunch and mommy and daddy had to get some cereal from Winn-Dixie and canned air from Staples so that daddy could blow is hair clippers out when he gave himself a haircut in Aunt Sally’s yard.

We got to Aunt Sally and Uncle Randy’s house a little after 4 PM and mommy and daddy had to unload some stuff from the house on wheels into their house because we were going to sleep in Aunt Sally’s house for a few days because the house on wheels had to get some warranty stuff done to it the next day.

As it turned out, we got the house on wheels back the same day that we dropped it off, so we only stayed in Aunt Sally and Uncle Randy’s house for one night.  That one night was a lot of fun though.  I love Aunt Sally and Uncle Randy.  I’m really glad that they have all of the hook-ups for us and we can use their yard as our Florida home.

Finally on Friday, I got to go to Wickham Park to walk again!  I love Wickham Park!  That is the park that we walk at almost everyday when we’re at Aunt Sally and Uncle Randy’s house.  I also got to see Alice and Pat on our walk on Friday too!  I love Alice and Pat!  They are friends of Aunt Sally’s and they both really love me too!

We’ll be back in Florida for about a month.  I’m going to really enjoy being here, especially the rides to Wickham Park so that we can walk there.  That’s the best of both worlds.  I get to ride in Aunt Sally’s van and then I get walk around Wickham Park and make all of the nice people smile!

We’ll be moving again after a while, but for now, I’m going to enjoy Florida.