Day 1: What Have We Done?

We said we were leaving at 8:00 AM and we did (pretty much). We packed last minute toiletries, made coffee, had breakfast, fired up Kevin and pulled out of the driveway at 8:03! We had hitched up the Jeep (the toad) complete with bike rack and literally just had to start the camper and leave.

Preparing for an early morning departure.

I may have failed to mention that we decided to take, not one, but BOTH dogs on this trip. So the complete passenger roster for this adventure is: Jenn, Rob, Kai, Alyssa, Marlie, Finn and Lemmy. Amaya has April break from work, but has college classes, so she’s staying behind. She says she’s bummed to miss the trip (wink, wink).

One of the reasons we bought into RV-life was to be able to take our pets on vacation with us. In theory, this is a wonderfully inclusive idea where your tail-wagging pup looks out the window, just happy to be alive. In reality, one of your dogs spends the entire trip like this because he gets carsick:

Finn loves riding in the camper. My red bag is blocking him from crawling underneath the driver’s feet.

Moments before this photo was taken, Finn tried to crawl under Rob’s feet and cram himself under the brakes, in Final Destination fashion, causing the both of us to lose our minds as we headed down the hill from our house. After dragging him out to safety on his back, he promptly shot his anal glands, filling the entire camper with that aroma. It was 8:06.

Lemmy, “the goodest camping dog ever,” is the complete opposite of Finn on these rides. He loves a car ride and is an amazing dog to take camping. He loves to swim, hike, run, and drive. He knew we were leaving and he was ready for it. In fact, Lemmy was so excited as we prepared the camper last night that he refused to come into the house at bedtime. He wanted to ensure he was going and had to be coaxed back into the house with a biscuit. He was the first one on board this morning.

Lemmy is relaxing during the ride. Normally, he rides between the seats between the driver and the passenger, but Finn has crammed himself so he can position his head under the driver’s seat.

Eventually Lemmy moved to the couch. He is so salty.

At this point, I’d love to tell you about what the kids were doing on this trip, but it wouldn’t add much to the story. It was a very quiet ride with a lot of sleeping. In typical pre-teen/teen fashion, bodies emerged from their bunks at the the first sign of food. The dogs and I had a couple of good opportunities to stretch our legs and explore the finest rest areas between Connecticut and Pittsburgh.

Getting or steps in while the humans get some DQ.

Tonight we relax! We arrived at the KOA Journey in Ruffs Dale, PA around 5:30. After everyone had a stretch and a couple of tacos, we are ready to relax!