-- Outlet Stores & a Target? I Could Live There

We woke up to a beautiful day.  It seems my anti-rain dance finally worked, even though it took hours to kick in.  My mom and dad had the audacity to sleep in this morning...  Incredible--  with all of those squirrels out there, I'm stuck inside my Supervan with no way out.  I licked my mom's foot and it was enough for her to come around.

I waited impatiently while she got dressed-- all the while, scoping out the target area.

Morning walks are usually with my mom-- even when we are at home in San Diego.  My dad gets the night shift.  When my mom opened the door of the Supervan, I tried to bolt passed her and almost knocked her down.  I know, I know, patience...  But I just can't help it.  I've been smelling those squirrels all morning and I know they are up to no good.

My mom tried like heck to keep me calm, and I commend her, but it was to no avail.  She must have said "Heel!" about 217 times (yeah, that's right, 217).  I pulled her left, right, forward, and back and she was sliding all over the place. 

Note to reader:  Let's be clear-- I wasn't the one who packed the flip-flops for a camping trip... 

Anyway, I had to pee something awful, but I couldn't focus because of those dang squirrels.  They were darting across the road and up trees and in holes in the ground.  I ended up peeing like a girl dog, with all four paws firmly planted on the ground, ready to pounce if necessary. 

We walked on.  My mom kept telling me "Poo-poo-doo-doo," and even though I didn't want to stop for the task, just hearing those words was working on me like a milk-chocolate laxative.  I pooped while on the move. 
It was a difficult manuever, but I just couldn't keep still.  My mom held my leash with all her might while she removed the poop bag from her pants pocket and picked up pieces of my morning poop in a 3-foot long line.  Just as she knotted the poop bag, I saw a squirrel and lunged.  My mom slipped and almost fell in the muddy road.  I don't think she was too pleased with me at that moment, but hey-- she didn't fall in the mud, so what's all the whining about, huh?

Then we passed a playground on the way back to the Supervan... 
Oh for Pete's sake--

Who is Pete, anyway?

Meanwhile, my dad was trying to empty the Supervan porta-potty in the men's bathroom.  I think he must have waited too long to empty it, because it was really full and it some of it spilled on his foot when he emptied it.  Oops.  He was pretty ticked off when he got back to the Supervan and my mom kept quiet while she hosed off his shoe. 

Today, we are going for a 2-mile walk to a lake.  Besides Lake Powell, it will be the only other real exercise I've had since we left on our Superadventure.  We are all eating less due to the lack of exercise (not that I want to eat less-- I eat whatever they give me), and my mom won't even go outside if we are in a bear-active area.  When we get home, people are probably going to think we've been on a cruiseship. 

My dad actually has a scale here in the Supervan.  Every time he weighs himself though, his face gets all contorted and he gets in a bad mood and looks over at my mom.  Sometimes I get the impression that my dad thinks his weight gain is my mom's fault.  And speaking of my mom, she won't even go near that scale. 

Our walk was fun.  We walked to Turquoise Lake...

My dad threw a stick for me to fetch.  I brought it back to him but I found another stick-- it was pretty big... I couldn't decide which stick I liked better... so I took them both.

Ain't I a greedy son-of-a-gun?

Then my dad tossed me the big stick for a game of fetch:

Yeah, I like the big stick better!  Unfortunately, my mom said I couldn't take the stick home with us... Dang.

I definitely had a skip in my step-- especially being off-leash.  As we walked down the trail I had to keep turning around to make sure my mom and dad were keeping up.

Well?  Are you coming?

Then something caught my eye.  Up a tree it went...

Don't make me come up there...

As we headed back to camp, I saw something in the middle of the road and I pulled my dad over to investigate.  I sniffed it and it chirped at me-- it was a baby bird.  My dad said it was probably too little to fly yet.  My mom and dad didn't want to leave it in danger of getting run over by a car, so my mom moved it to the side of the road while I stood guard. 

After we got back to the Supervan, my mom left for the showers.  When she came back, she was in such a good mood-- she seemed transformed.  It's incredible how a hot shower can change a person...  She thinks just because she has clean-shaven legs and armpits, she is invincible... Whatever.  I can roll with it.  I'm just glad she's not mad at me for almost pulling her down into the mud earlier... 

We packed up the Supervan and I checked for squirrels one last time...

And then we left my 'squirrel heaven' at the Sugar Loafin' RV Park...

Ha ha...  I like that name.  It's funny!

It was now one of my favorite parts of the day-- lunchtime.  We stopped at this Mexican restaurant in Leadville named Casa Blanca (now that's original) and as luck would have it, there was no outdoor seating. 

Sadly, I watched my mom and dad disappear through the front door.  I took a power nap and woke up to a napkin-wrapped tortilla from my mom.  Yay! 

We need to have our mail forwarded while we are on the road.  It's not a big deal to me, but my dad says we have to pay our bills.  Whatever.  So it's back to Vail to the UPS Store.  My mom took advantage of the opportunity to take more photos:


We arrived back in Vail to pick up our mail (hey, that rhymes... hah!) and I also decided to send out a birthday card and a picture postcard while I had the chance.  

We drove north on Highway 9 and passed through a city named Silverthorne.  There was an outlet mall and a Target.  My mom said she could live there... 

Everything was SO green. 

On Highway 40, my mom kicked me out of my shotgun seat so she could go crazy taking more photos:



Whew... my mom went a little overboard this time with the photos, huh? 

We finally arrived at our destination, State Forest State Park, east of Walden, Colorado.  So many trees were gone-- just stumps on the ground throughout the campgrounds.  After my mom researched the Internet, she read that many dead trees were cut down due to pine beetles...  that stinks. 

My mom was all excited when she received a phone call from my brother, Robert.  I was invisible for about 30 minutes until she handed the phone to my dad in the Supervan.  Sometimes I have to share, I guess.

Rob's a cool guy... he was the one who named me Tank!