So, there we were in the Cracker Barrel in Chambersburg, PA on Sunday, August 1.  When I first woke up in the morning, I had to bite my own tail a little bit to make sure that we were really headed west and I wasn’t dreaming.

We were!

We left the Cracker Barrel and headed west on Route 30.  It was a really pretty drive.  The mountains in Central and Western Pennsylvania are really beautiful.

We drove for about 2-1/2 hours and then we stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA.

It was a really pretty place, but something terrible happened there back in 2001 before I was even born.  Some really bad people hijacked a plane and were going to fly it into the capital in Washington, DC.  Some of those bad people’s other friends had already crashed planes into the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC that same day.  There were some brave people on that plane, and they forced it down and made it crash into this field that we were at instead of the capital.  Those brave people would never get to see their families or puppies ever again.  I couldn’t understand why people would want to hurt people that they don’t even know.

Mommy and daddy seemed sad at times when we walked around.  I wasn’t able to go inside the buildings, but I was able to walk around the outside trails with mommy and daddy.  I helped to keep them happy if they started to get too sad.  A lot of people would come up to pet me and I helped them from getting too sad as well.

My daddy’s mommy helped in the recovery of the place in New York where the planes crashed, it was called Ground Zero.  My daddy thinks about his mommy a lot when he goes to places that refer to 9/11.  Daddy says that she was a great human.  Daddy doesn’t know this, but I have met his mommy.  You see us dogs have a sixth sense that humans don’t have, so I actually talk to my daddy’s mommy quite a bit.  She’s a cool spirit now.

I heard that there were some golden retriever’s that helped at Ground Zero too, I could have been one of those dogs for sure.  I would have been really good at that.

After the memorial, we went to what mommy and daddy called a yucky campground in the middle of nowhere because there were no Cracker Barrel’s nearby.  We were there one night, so it served its purpose, but I think that we all would have preferred a Cracker Barrel.

On Monday, we were still in Pennsylvania and went to a really cool state park called Ohiopyle State Park.  It was awesome!  There were waterfalls there and a river.  I was able to dip my toes in the water and we walked around the little town too.  We walked over this really neat bridge on the one trail too.  I loved this state park.  Mainly because mommy and daddy were with me the whole time, but it really was an awesome place.  When we got back to the house on wheels, mommy and daddy ate lunch before we started up the road to our next stop.

This next place was called Falling Water, but I wasn’t allowed in it.  That bummed me out a little bit, but I also didn’t mind just staying in the air conditioning in the house on wheels to nap either.  I was kind of tired anyway.

I still think that daddy should buy me one of those vests that service dogs wear and a pair of dark sunglasses for him to wear so that I could go inside all of these places with him and mommy.  Truth be told, I really am mommy and daddy’s service dog anyway.  If they’re feeling down, I know just how to lift them up.  Maybe I’ll just jump on daddy’s Amazon account and get me one of those vests.  Daddy would have to let me wear it if he ended up paying for it.  He never returns anything that he gets from Amazon, even if it’s wrong.  Mommy wishes he would though.

When mommy and daddy came back and woke me up from my nap, mommy had this big stick that she got at that place.  She said that she would be able to use it when we go on hikes.

After Falling Water, it was back to a Cracker Barrel in New Stanton, Pennsylvania.

The next day, we drove into Pittsburgh.  Homestead to be exact, but it might as well be Pittsburgh.  Mommy and daddy were going to have dinner with their friends Ryan and Brian.  Daddy was going to do a podcast with Ryan in the house on wheels after dinner and I was going to help!

We went to a place called The Waterfront.  That’s where mommy and daddy were having dinner, but we went there really early so that me and mommy and daddy could walk along the trail that was on the banks of the river.

To get to the river trail, we had to walk through a place that had all kinds of stores in it. This seemed to make mommy happy.  Mommy likes stores.  We stopped by the security office and daddy told them that we had our house on wheels parked in the lot until after dinner.  All of those security people loved me.  There were three of them and I just walked back and forth between them all so that they could pet me and be happy.  It worked.

We then started walking on the trail.  We crossed a bridge first.  Once we were on the trail there were some goats and a donkey that lived on the river banks.  I said hi to them, but they smelled kind of funny.

Once we got back from our walk, mommy and daddy showered and daddy took a nap before dinner.

I stayed in the A/C again when mommy and daddy went to dinner.  I tried to order that vest, but couldn’t get into daddy’s computer.

After dinner, I met Ryan.  He was cool.  He loved me.  He was petting me the whole time that he and daddy were doing the podcast.

After the podcast, mommy and Brian came back from walking around the stores and mommy and daddy gave them a tour of the house on wheels.  House on wheels tours don’t take too long, but Brian was absolutely fascinated by our house on wheels.  He couldn’t believe all of the stuff that we had in it.

After dinner, we drove another 3-1/2 hours that night to Chillicothe, Ohio.  I was still doubting whether or not we were really leaving Pennsylvania at times, but we did!

We stayed in a Sam’s Club parking lot that night and the next day, we were going to see where daddy went to school at.

We got up on Wednesday morning and drove to daddy’s old school.  It was called The Recording Workshop when daddy went there, but now they just call it The Rec W.  Daddy wanted to be a record producer or live sound engineer, but he decided to help kids instead.  Daddy says that he is using some of the stuff he learned back then to produce his podcasts and videos though, so that’s good.

Mommy and daddy took a tour and I stayed in the house on wheels.  If daddy would have asked, I bet that I could have walked around the school with them too.  I did walk around the campus outside with mommy and daddy and everyone loved me, so I just know that if daddy would have just asked, I would have been allowed inside the school too.

After that, we drove north to Kent State University.  This was another kind of sad stop for us.  It wasn’t too sad for me though because I could walk all around with mommy and daddy, but I could tell that they were sad at times while we were there.  We went to the May 4th Memorial.  It was sad because four young students lost their lives there on May 4th, 1970 for peacefully protesting the Vietnam War.  This is another one of those things that I will never understand about humans.

People should be more like dogs.

Another Cracker Barrel on Wednesday night and then we were off to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on Thursday.  Mommy and daddy were really looking forward to that, I was just thinking to myself, “I need to figure out how to get that vest ordered!”

We got there in the morning and mommy and daddy went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  At least daddy put some really good music on for me while I napped in the A/C in the house on wheels.  Mommy and daddy did come out and had lunch with me before they went back to finish their tour.

When they were done, then the fun began for me!

We went up the road to a place called Edgewater Park.  It was like heaven for me!  All kinds of walking paths and people to stop and pet me and tell me how cute I am.  Mommy dipped her toes in Lake Erie, but I couldn’t dip mine in, that was the only bummer for me.

After dinner, we stopped at another park to catch the tail end of the sunset, it was really pretty and I was able to walk around again with mommy and daddy.

That night we drove all the way into Michigan and stayed at, you guessed it, another Cracker Barrel!  I think that we should get some type of award for all of the Cracker Barrels that we stay at.

On Friday morning, we went to a state park just down the road from that Cracker Barrel called, William C. Sterling State Park.  This was top notch in my book!  Mommy and daddy and me walked this awesome trail.  We walked for 5-1/2 miles.  I could have walked another 5-1/2 miles, but mommy and daddy didn’t want to because they were getting hot and sweaty.  After our walk, mommy and daddy showered and we drove to Riverside Spiritual Retreat.  This was a very special place.  You could feel the spirit of God everywhere that we went there.  Daddy walked me around the grounds and he was praying as we were walking around.  He was walking barefoot, that’s daddy’s inner hippy taking over when he does that.  He calls it earthing and says it helps him to stay grounded.  When he first told me that, I was like, “Duh daddy…do you ever see me wear shoes?  Why do you think that I’m so grounded?”  Humans, you have to love them, but sometimes you also have to feel sorry for them because they make things more difficult than they have to be.

Saturday was another awesome day, we took a really nice drive from Michigan down to Elkhart, Indiana.  When we got to Elkhart we stopped at the RV and Mobile Home Hall of Fame and Museum.  It was a place where you could see all kinds of old houses on wheels.

The best thing about that was that we just happened to be in the same area as the Croft’s when we got there.  We had a nice short visit with them in the parking lot.  Alex couldn’t leave without giving me a big kiss.  They were coming home east and we were going west!  What are the chances of that?

Cracker Barrel that night – shocker, I know.

On Sunday, we went to Chicago Portage Park and ate lunch before mommy and daddy went to see their friend Ali Krieger play soccer.  Ali used to be on the US Women’s National team and she won two World Cup championships.  Daddy ran some soccer camps with her when he was with the foundation.  Her team in the NWSL is the Orlando Pride and they just happened to be playing in Chicago against the Chicago Red Stars the day that we were passing by.  Daddy got to chat with Ali after her team beat the Red Stars 2-0, that made him happy.

Sunday night after the game – Cracker Barrel in Rockford, Illinois.

On Monday, we checked in at Rock Cut State Park and will stayed until Wednesday.  I love these trails.  We hiked four miles on Tuesday morning and three miles on Wednesday morning before we left.  We didn’t do the trails on Wednesday because of all of the rain we had Tuesday night.  We just stayed on the pavement, which was fine with me as long as my mommy and daddy are with me.

We went to the Rockford Peaches old stadium after we left the state park and then did some laundry.

Now we’re off to Wisconsin to volunteer and hopefully get some cheese.  I love cheese!

The westward adventure has been awesome so far, I can’t wait to see what else is in store for me.

I guess it was worth the wait.