Notes from the road

Brownsville to Amarillo

We decided we were done sheltering in place, and left Brownsville this past Sunday.  Our plan was to drive about seven hours to Kerrville, Texas.  Kerrville is about 25 miles SW of Fredericksburg, for those of you in the know, and about 33 miles SW of Luckenback, Texas, where you may or may not find Waylon, Willie, and The Boys.

The land around Kerrville, central Texas hill country, is absolutely jaw-dropping.  The temperatures, perfect.  As we rounded the last stretch of highway into Kerrville, we saw a river off to our right with people on rafts and innertubes.  We decided that after we parked the trailer and got our boondock camp set up in the local Walmart parking lot, we'd come back for a closer look.

Allow me to digress a moment (and I apologize for not having a visual).  On the drive to Kerrville we passed through the town of Pleasanton.  There on the main road through the

 town was a drive-thru margarita bar.  I kid you not.  Just like any other drive-thru -- place your order, pick up at the window, and drive off with your mixed drink.  Down the road we passed another drive-thru bar, The Shot Glass.  The town's name, Pleasanton, becomes obvious.

We arrived at the Walmart parking lot, found a spot to park next to another camper, and set up camp.  To set up boondock camping really just entails leveling the trailer and hooking up the generator.  While consort took care of these chores, I googled "dog park near me."  The puppies are always up for a run after a long day in the truck.

We left the AC running in the trailer to cool the place off, then headed off for the dog park.

A piece of advice from me to you:  Always let the dogs run at the park before you want them to walk nicely in public -- especially if they've been cooped up in a truck for seven hours.

The dog park in Kerrville was nice.  They had some large flat boulders for dogs to climb on.  There were dog forts and other interesting things to arouse the playful nature of dogs.  There was water.  There were human benches in the shade.

As luck would have it, the dog park is right next door to the Guadalupe River where we had seen people floating.  After a long play session at the

park, we leashed the dogs up and headed for the river.  

These pictures to the left are a few views of the river.  It runs right through the middle of Kerrville.  One section of the river was very shallow; another abutted a dam and was pretty deep.

As we approached a cemented bank area of the river, I could tell Bella was itching to explore and  probably go for a swim.  I had her on a retractable leash as the two of us walked to the edge of the riverbank.  The next thing I know, Bella jumped into the river.

Sidenote.  I am never concerned with my dogs jumping in open water for two reasons.  They are always on a retractable leash, at a minimum; also, they are good swimmers.  We had a pool at our stationary house, and the dogs have been through swimming lessons.

So there's Bella, in the river.  I don't think she anticipated the river being so deep; she was not able to touch the bottom.  She went under, bobbed back to the top, then shook the water from her eyes and ears while starting to paddle.  She looked at me with just such an expression -- Don't worry about me, I meant to do that.  Excuse me now, I must go swim.  And with that, she started paddling for the opposing shore. I let her

swim out about 20 feet from the shoreline before reeling her back in.                                                                                                                                In the meantime, Annie decided she, also, needed to go for a swim.  The problem is, Annie doesn't really like to swim; she likes to lay down in the cool shallow water.  Annie also jumped into the river, realized she couldn't lay on the bottom, and immediately wanted out.  Swimming is definitely too much effort for her.                                                                                                                                                                                              We left Kerrville after spending only one night.  It was a pretty little town and worth revisiting.                                                                                                                                                                  We drove from Kerrville to Amarillo and are currently parked at Big Texan RV Ranch.  Earlier this week, we made a daytrip to Colorado to meet up with some friends we met months ago.  The drive to Colorado was a bit long, but worth every minute.  We saw snow-capped mountains, enjoyed the cooler temps, and thoroughly enjoyed catching up with old friends.

On the drive from Kerrville to Amarillo, we stopped in Sweetwater, Texas, to have some lunch and walk the dogs.  I found a city park where we would have plenty of room to park the trailer, picnic tables where we could eat our lunch in the shade, and lots of room for the dogs to run.

We parked the trailer, leashed up the dogs and headed out for a walk around the perimeter of the park.  About a third of the way around, D.O.G. sat down and refused to go any further.  He does this sometimes when he gets a burr stuck in his paw pad.  We all stopped so I could remove what bothered him.

Forget about the feet, all four legs were solidly covered with cockaburs from the knees down!  A quick check of Bella and Annie confirmed that they, too, were covered with the burrs.

We got the dogs out into the street, then walked them to

some covered bleachers so consort and I could begin to pick out burrs.  Half an hour later, neither he nor I had finished pulling all the burrs from two of the 12 covered legs.  I don't know who first suggested it was time to cut the fur off, but the suggestion was carried by majority vote.  Off with their fur!

After their makeshift grooming session, none of the dogs looked very good.  They had very skinny legs with hardly any fur from the knees down.  The rest of their bodies were overgrown with cords, thick fur, and the puppy dog version of the Coronavirus 15.

Consort and I had been debating giving all three dogs really short summer cuts.  Had, in fact, been debating cutting the cords off the Pulik.  Maintaining the Pulik in the trailer, not to mention the Westiepoo, is not an easy task.  Both of D.O.G.'s parents have had their cords clipped and are much happier without.

Yesterday was the first sheering of the dogs.  I would say first annual, but the jury is still out on that one.  It's going to take some time to get used to their new looks.  Annie looks the most normal.  I cut her cords down so that they're only about two inches long.  I really clipped a lot from her face and neck.  She's the top picture.

Bella got a basic haircut, though much shorter than usual.  I really trimmed her leg fur to hopefully deter the amount of burrs collected.

D.O.G., sadly, looks the worst.  I have cut off all his cords except for the top of his head and along the ridge of his spine.  Basically, he got a Mohawk.  I've got the long cords along his spine pulled back in a ponytail like you would see on a guy that has dreads, but I'm not sure he can pull off this look.  Oh well.  As my sister used to say, It's just hair; it will grow back.  For the time being, he's much happier and cooler -- even though he does look like a dork.

We leave here tomorrow and head back to Broken Arrow.  There were appointments we could do nowhere else.  Called the Performing Arts Center on Main Street, downtown Broken Arrow, and got permission to boondock in their parking lot.  Looking forward to it.  It's one of the areas the dogs and I used to frequent on our walks.

We have now driven three days, a total of 21 hours, and we're still in Texas.  If all goes according to plans tomorrow, we'll finally leave the state of Texas only to find ourselves in Oklahoma.