Friday, June 24, 2011

The Beginning of EWO - The Eastman Westward Odyssey

Well, we are off on our grand adventure.  I must admit I have been a nervous wreck getting to this day.  Kirsten and Dave have been packing the car for the last two days and made the mistake of putting my crate in the back of the car too early.  I was both excited to go and nervous they might leave without me.  I decided that camping out in my crate in the car was the best strategy to keep me calm and make sure I got to come too.  I would wile away the hours taking naps as the whole family scurried about trying to cram 2 months worth of stuff into the car and the camper.  Somehow they got it all in and I fit too.  Anika summed up our start the best.  She wrote in her diary this morning, a prologue to our trip:

“First we went to Nana and Pop-Pop’s on June 22nd.  We could not call this the beginning of our journey yet. We had a very good dinner and then went to bed.  We had to get up at .  Surprisingly, I was not tired.  After we set off we could call this the beginning of our trip."

You will notice as we left from Nana and Pop-Pop's house, pulling our Pop-Up Camper - that Nana and Pop-Pop are noticeably absent from the balcony porch waving to us a Bon Chance and Bon Voyage.  OK, it was 5:00 AM - I guess we will cut them a little slack as they did house us and feed us on our first night of our adventure.

Along the way we were reminded that as our family gets to vacation – there still is a war being waged in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya, (yes I am a worldly and well advised Bloggin’ Dog).  However, I was bit concerned to look out my crate and see this tank which appeared to be aiming for me and my family. 

By the way, here I am relegated to this rear facing position in this traveling vehicle.  Ah well, I suppose  this gives me a better vantage point to reflect on the places we have been…

Dave had told me that our plan was to stay our first night in a Walmart parking lot somewhere in Tennessee for our first evening.  For those of you that don’t know, Walmart allows you to camp in their parking lots across the country for free. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the designated 24 hour Walmart, it was quite obvious that the patrons might in fact keep us up a full 24 hours.  Between the partyin’ gold ol’ boys and the drag racers struttin’ their stuff around the parking lot, Dave decided that we might just be a little safer on the road.  So, Kirsten and Dave packed up me and the kids again and off we headed for what would turn out to be a 25 hour driving adventure.

The benefit of this exhausting endeavor was that we arrived at Faye and Murray’s house early so that we could enjoy the ocean at Santa Rosa Beach that much earlier.  Pictured here you will find Caleb and Anika frolicking in the surf at just an hour after their arrival.  I can assure you they rarely are even awake at this time at home let alone active.  Perhaps they are resetting their clocks.  
I even saw Dave up at this hour – a rare sight indeed.  Here he is fly fishing for sharks as he gets battered by the surf.  He almost got one of the 4 foot sharks to bite.  I was wondering what he would do with it once he reeled it in…

We would all need a significant mid-afternoon nap this first day in Florida.  But, I am sure this has all been worth it.  I will let you know more when I am allowed to explore what dead ocean creatures the ocean has washed up for me to eat off that white sand!

Big Wet Kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog

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