finally, two weeks later, i'm not sick anymore!
sheesh.
saturday i came home from work and jumped right back in the travco for an adventure to the river. i'd been talking about taking the dogs swimming and andrew was game. i wanted to see if dottie was a swimmer, since she's been mostly wading in water before.
as a joke about everyone needing a bathing suit, i put dotties old bloomer style pants on from when she was a puppy and went into heat before i got her fixed.
clearly she loves them.

after all that tumbling and rolling around, she took off into the bathroom and out of total craziness, pooped the pants. i called her to see where she'd run off to (honestly to take the pants off so we could go) and as she came running out of the bathroom, a little turd tumbled out of the pants and onto the floor. they were falling out of the hole that would be occupied by her tail if she had more than a tiny nub. andrew took off, a couple more logs hit the floor, and i was so grossed out but laughing so hard. so nasty! she's ridiculous.
got her and the floor cleaned up, pitched the pants in the trash, and we left after she got a butt wash.
we drove around for a good while, trying to come up with a good spot to take the dogs that was both quiet but where the water was deep but not too quickly moving, but also not stagnant.

egon swims like a little beaver, he wades right in and just starts swimming. dottie tends to let the reflective surface of the water freak her out, but she's so determined to come to you in the water that she'll just LEAP to you, splash, and swim your way.

it was a nice trip, all dogs got to do some swimmin, and they were BEAT afterward. so tired, they were like little zombies on the ride home. just sitting next to each other, eyes all squinty and slow-blinking, and just swaying as the RV chugged down the road.

the travco is so awesome. it has little floor vent windows that crank open and channel wind inside...makes for a great dog window! Mr Egon found it to be his favorite spot to sit.

once home, we showered and went out to the backyard to prep a good campfire. it was perfect weather outside, and we both just wanted to sit and relax.


i made a fine foods run and got chips and treats, we cooked hotdogs and ate em in the shed. i don't know why hanging out in the garage is so fun but it is. it was much cooler outside. after a lot of running around and being crazy, dottie was ready to simmer down and sleep.

we sat out for a long time, burning off bits of tree stump we're still working on getting out of the ground. roots, chunks of trunk, and other random sticks and branches all get burned.
hatched a plan to pour a big slab around the firepit area...easiest way to keep grass away from it!

heard some rustling in the trees and watched our owl friend fly to another tree, lurking us all night. he sat in a close by tree, we could hear him rustling around in the branches. creep!

sure enough, there was evidence the next morning. a nice big flight feather!
worked in the garden area until it was too hot to be in the sun any longer. andrew tilled around our stump and after much digging, we finally got the old clothesline pole anchor out of the ground. seriously, they really didn't want that thing to go anywhere. three feet of concrete, held in place by wet clay. what a pain.

andrew tilled up a stag beetle, unfortunately half of it. it was super creepy, lurching all around, half of it intact. eeep!

after all that work, we were both feeling pretty beat. i went over to pats for some hydrotherapy, Vi bought a couple bushels of crabs and everyone was hanging out.

relaxed poolside, caught up with some friends, and headed homeward. again the late afternoon was so cool, it was hard to be inside. the guys had gone saturday morning and done a ton of work on the brownway, and andrew wanted to show it off.
took the MTBs out for a nice spin.

rode to the new skills course that is in the process of being built under the belle isle bridge. we scooted across the belvidere bridge to avoid the xterra crowd, then hit buttermilk. rode to reedy creek then took the fire road back to belle isle and came in from the southside.

the skills course is awesome! all levels of rock gardens, drops, a couple pump tracks, and lots more to come. really rad.
headed back into the city through the trainyard, then rode the floodwall homeward.

a really nice sunset, one of my favorite spots in richmond. you can see most of the urban bridges, the whole cityscape, and most of the train lines that come into the area. i love it!

took the brownway back home a bit, then up and up into the heights and home!

we tried to go get mexican food, but our favorite nearby spot was closed. a little waffle house action was due, so we stopped for breakfast for dinner. nearly killed me.

monday was super busy, worked in the garden, knocked out a sewing commission for a resturant in philly, and hung with the dogs. idle's been a little sick and needed a watchful eye for the day, so i cleaned house and laid low. got myself ready for the work week, and here i am, back at the desk!
counting down the days til the weekend...dotties birthday is in two days and i think i'll have a cookout chiller for her. dawg party, yall!

Well after five days on the road, lots of tears, stress, tons of small mechanical failures, three hitchhikers/travelers, and a little robbery, Estelle called us last night, in Richmond, ready to meet us and give us her baby.

Met her at a shopping center right off the interstate, she was super emotional to let go of her long time home and adventure mobile. Lots of hugs and tears later, she was grabbing andrews beard and hair, calling him a hippy, and the smiles started from there. She'd picked up a traveling companion back in Texas that turned out to be a mechanic...he wasn't even hitch hiking necessarily, he was just walking down the road. She pulled over and hollered at him, taken aback by her upfrontness, he took her up on the offer to go to Virginia. Good thing he did, cause he helped her replace the points, tune the carb roadside, install a new muffler and more, but his biggest contribution came in the form of emotional support and company for the long drive.

We took em the house to drop off the RV and meet the dogs. Regrouped, then we took em out for a good meal of their choice...pizza! Estelle had been livin hard and lean, for the trip they bought a loaf of bread and deli meats for their meals, they kept it in a little styrofoam cooler that didn't do a good job keeping anything cold. as the ice melted, it soaked the bread and meat, and they kept eating it on the trip because it was all they could afford. soggy sandwiches, a joke that kept coming up all night. we got em some good beers and bellytimber pizza, filled em up. i've never dined with anyone that salted AND peppered their beers...the waiter at bellytimber was clearly put off by their appearance, but whatever. the traveling friend had a huge weed leaf tattooed on his hand, and hardly any other visible tattoos, i can understand being taken a little aback. haha. put em up in a hotel so they could shower and sleep in a real bed before they embarked on their journey back home. Estelle wanted to travel home with her new friend, so they decided to bus it together. We hung out long into the night before we said our goodbyes. Definitely sending her some postcards in the future, this was a week I'll never forget and the same can be said for her and her friend. Sometimes things just work out, we looked at a lot of travcos here on the east cost and they all kind of sucked. Rotten, hacked up with years of poorly done repairs, damaged shells...you name it, we saw it. The right one came along, in the exact size we really wanted, and it worked out. I really wasn't believing it, I refused to even hardly talk about it until it was in the driveway. Well, here she is, she made it nearly cross country safe and sound. A testament to her condition.

This morning I found the original owners manual in it, a very awesome suprise.

Three ring binder/history book. Feels like striking gold.