I had another busy two weeks!

Me and mommy and daddy went to the Philadelphia Folk Festival.  I got to meet a few new people, they all loved me, of course.  Mommy and daddy went to watch a lot of people play live music, but I stayed back in the house on wheels in the air conditioning most of the time, but that was alright with me.  It was really hot outside!

I still got to listen to a lot of good music too.  Mommy and daddy always put music on for me when they leave me in the house on wheels alone.  They say it relaxes me.  I guess they’re right because I usually do take a nice nap when I’m listening to music.  I guess music soothes me.  I like music just like my mommy and daddy do.

I also got to meet daddy’s friend, Manas.  He plays drums for Michael Franti and Spearhead.  They’re daddy’s favorite band.  That’s why we went to the Folk Festival in the first place, because they were going to be playing on Saturday night. Manas came all the way back to the house on wheels just to meet me.  He told daddy that he wanted to see the house on wheels because he has a house on wheels too, but we all know that he just wanted to come see me.  Manas doesn’t live in house on wheels, he just uses it for vacations, which is neat too.

He did another podcast with daddy while he was visiting me.  He also did a podcast with daddy back in March too.  They talked a lot about his song, “Be Yourself” during the first podcast that they did.  For this podcast, they talked about his newest song, which is called, “Show Your Love.”  I like both of the songs.  Manas and daddy were both petting me during the podcast and you can hear me breathing heavy in the background if you listen close enough.  I liked when Manas came to visit me.  He even wanted to get his picture taken with me because he knows how awesome I am.  After he was done playing his show on Saturday night, he walked all the way back to our house on wheels just to say good-bye to me.  How cool is that?  One day we’re going to go camping with Manas and I can’t wait.  That’s going to be a lot of fun.

I also got to meet some of the guys from the band, The Naked Sun.  They were camping a few spots away from us, so every time that I would go potty, I would walk over and say hi to them.  One of them was a Red Sox fan, so daddy didn’t have to explain to him how I got my name.  He wanted a picture with me to show to his father-in-law.  Sometimes it’s tough for me to accommodate all of my fans, but I somehow seem to manage to pull it off.  Everyone just thinks that I am so cool, and they’re not wrong.

Everyone who was camping around us just thought that I was the most awesome dog ever, and again, they weren’t wrong.

Mommy and daddy keep telling me that I should be humbler, but I still don’t think that it’s bragging when it’s true.

It rained a little bit the morning that we left the Folk Festival, but not as much as the weatherman said it would, so that made daddy happy that he didn’t get all wet when he was getting the house on wheels ready to move again.  Daddy gets a little grumpy if he gets wet while getting the house on wheels ready to move.

We had a nice drive back to Matthew and Rebecca’s house.  After we got back and got the house on wheels all set up again, mommy and daddy went to visit Aunt Joan.  I took a nap.

Daddy had a bunch of podcasts to record during the week, but I made sure that we went for some nice walks too.  I have to keep daddy moving, so I make sure that I pest him just enough to get him to take me for a walk.  I love walks, especially long walks.

On Friday, daddy’s buddy Keith came over and we were going to go for a really long hike.  I was so excited!  Then, when I found out that Duane was coming with us too, I was even more happy!  Keith and Duane are cool guys, they have known daddy for almost forty years!

We started out on a trail that me and daddy and Keith have hiked on before, but this time we were going to go even further.  The trees kept it cool for us, which was nice.  I worried for a little bit that Keith and Duane and daddy were going to slow me down because they’re all pretty old now.  Duane still runs a lot, so I wasn’t too worried about him, but Keith serves ice cream all day, so I wasn’t sure how he would do.  I thought that daddy would be ok because I walk him almost every day, but then we hit the first big hill and daddy was huffing and puffing like I hadn’t heard him huff and puff like in a long time!  I was like, “Let’s go daddy, you can do this!  One foot in front of the other.”

I was also thinking to myself, “If daddy goes down, I hope Keith and Duane can carry him back to the truck because I sure can’t.”  But he made it, he looked a little rough when we got to the top, but we made it.  I was proud of him.

The next couple of miles of the hike were pretty easy and then daddy said, “After that first big incline, this hasn’t been too bad.”  Well guess what?  Daddy was eating his words.  I mean you talk about an incline, this next one was really steep and had pretty loose footing.  I kept saying, “Next time, keep your mouth shut daddy!”

But we made it.  I mean I did better than the three old guys, but it was a little rough even for me.

Our hike was a little over ten miles and when we were done, I was ready to hike another ten, but daddy and Keith and Duane didn’t want any parts of it.  I was training for our Mammoth March in New Jersey in October, so I was ready to keep going.  I love hikes in the woods, they’re the best.  Daddy told me that when he saw Keith on Sunday, he was whining about how much his legs hurt.  I try to keep these old guys in shape, I mean I walked Keith with daddy several times this summer, but he was still whipped after the first hike with a couple little hills on it.

On Friday night, we had a full house!  Rebecca and Julian came down from Staten Island and Aunt Kathy and Uncle Donnie and Daniel all came down to visit me too.  Mommy and daddy made a big dinner for everyone.  Mommy did most of the work, daddy just grilled the chicken on the grill.

Uncle Donnie petted me a lot.  Not when he was eating though.  He doesn’t like when I breathe on him while he’s eating.  I don’t know why, but he seems to get a little grumpy if I start breathing heavy on him while he’s eating.  It must still have something to do with that time my brother, Buddy grabbed a hamburger off of his plate and ate it.  I just think like, “Dude, get over it already, that was like 20 years ago and I wasn’t even born yet.”  Some people just need to let things go.  I personally would never think of taking food off of someone’s plate.  Well, I do think about it, I just don’t actually do it.  I’ve found that if I just stare into their eyes with my sad, starving, puppy dog eyes, they’ll just give me some food anyway.

I can’t even count the times that mommy and daddy have told me that they weren’t going to share with me and I just kept staring into their eyes and sure enough, I got some food.  It works every time!

The next morning, me and daddy did a shorter four mile walk through the neighborhood.  It was fun, but not nearly as fun as our 10 mile hike the day before.

On Tuesday, I got a bath and a haircut.  I didn’t want to go, but mommy and daddy made me.  It wasn’t terrible, but I’d be totally fine of we just skipped the whole process to be honest.  I’m cute whether I’m clean or dirty.

On Wednesday, me and daddy and Rebecca did another really long hike.  It wasn’t as long as Friday, but pretty close.  We started on the same trail that we did on Friday, but then went back a different way through a cemetery.  We ended up hiking about 7-1/2 miles.  It was awesome!  I really have to keep after my humans to make sure that they stay in shape.

It can be a rough job sometimes, but somebody has to do it.