This park is stunning, but with a bit of bad luck while we were there mixed with some pouting by me, this wasn’t my favorite park. We had been in Colorado for about a week before getting to this park. We had some delightful visits with friends first. In Fort Collins, we stopped at our friend Harris’s house so Mike could work on the van (of course), drink lots of beers, and get fed too much. Then near Salida, we…
Dear Diary, I am LOVING Colorado! I have been able to do so much here. We went to a friends house in Fort Collins where I had a whole house to run around and went to breweries. Then we went camping near Salida and listened to blue grass and I reunited with my frenemy, Frieda. Then we went to the Great Sand Dunes. That was pretty awesome except that Mom had me on the running leash – and I’m pretty…
Dear Diary, I think I’m supposed to like this place. Something about all the fields call to me, but I’m not sure why. The only thing I do know is that I don’t like staying in the car while Mom and Dad go do things without me. But you know what’s worse than that? When they went to Carlsbad Caverns, they put me in a KENNEL. It reminded me of where Mom and Dad adopted me from and it was…
Hot Springs National Park is extremely unique. It was the smallest National Park at 5,500 acres, until the St Louis Arch was upgraded to Gateway Arch National Park a couple months ago. These two are pretty similar in their qualities that make them unique from other Parks; small, nestled in the middle of an urban area, and not what comes to mind when you think “National Park.” Normally I love parks for having lots of great hiking and…
Dear Diary, Now that we’ve left Florida, I get so much more outdoor time again! Yippee! We visited Mom’s friend Kitty in Baton Rouge and she has lots of room to play… and little lobsters for me to eat. Then we made it to Arkansas Hot Springs National Park. I was allowed everywhere except in the bathhouses. But who cares about those?! It gets the good smells of mud and dirt off you. Mom was especially in love with the…
Dear Diary, This week hasn’t been my favorite. Florida is just way too hot for me. I want to go outside with my parents, but all these big dinosaur lizards look like they want to eat me. I was mad that my parents left me again, so I found their rotisserie chicken dinner and ate it – bones and all. It hurt to poop a little the next few days. My parents have a lot of bug bites and are…
What a hidden gem! Congaree National Park in South Carolina was recently established in 2003, but had been protected still as a national monument the past few decades. It is one of the least visited parks in the country with approximately 110,000 visitors a year (Smoky Mountains is most visited with 9 million annual visitors). I read somewhere that this park boasts one of the biggest varieties of mosquitoes and poison ivy! How exciting, right? I don’t know if that’s…
Dear Diary, Anytime I’m stuck in Big Red for too long, I’ll think of these James Taylor lyrics… In my mind, I’m gone to Carolina Can’t you see the sunshine? Can’t you just feel the moonshine? After that horrible Smoky Mountains park, we went to North Carolina to visit Dad’s uncle, Russ. He had a great big home for me to explore… plus two cats to terrorize befriend. Mom and Dad complained because the weather wasn’t great (humans are such…
Dear Diary, We are in the “Great” Smoky Mountains. Pssh, someone should change the name to LAME Smoky Mountains. I never get to leave the van! Apppppparently these rangers said I couldn’t play outside or go on the trails because I could make some other animals upset. I get that most animals don’t like me when they first meet me, but they usually warm up to me. I’m so offended. The only good thing is that now I can get…
Dear Diary, Well, this was fun! Mom and Dad were able to take me alllll over this Mammoth Cave Park – not sure why it’s called that because I didn’t see any caves. I think Mom and Dad saw some, but I was napping HARD during that time. The first day here, after we went over a scary ferry to the North side of the park, I got to run 4 miles with Dad, then “ran” with Mom for 5…