looking, seeing and becoming real

Mutt and i look at each other alot, but he looks at me the most. i can't tell you how many times i look over from the drivers seat, and see him gazing at me. nothing makes me "present" much more than this. it's like a little electric shock goes through me. there is nothing like opening my eyes in the morning, and seeing his dark brown eyes staring patiently down at me. 


i have vague recollections of reading somewhere about pack, and dominance, and staring.  i don't remember exactly, but i think it said that a dog staring you down is trying to dominate. that you should stare back at them till they look away. i don't know about this, maybe some of the more dog-savvy can weigh in. all i know, is that Mutt and i spend an awful lot of time looking at each other, and i don't have any sense of "winning" or even of competition.  all i know is that we see each other.


i wrote a blog about one of my experiences, about seeing someone and being seen by them. take a moment today, not just to look at someone, but to see them:


http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com/2009/02/out-of-sorts.html

my best friend. ever.

 he seriously sleeps like this sometimes. there is a story about plucky duck. it's sad though. another time, maybe.

 halloween. cleopatra, if you didn't guess. no matter, the humiliation is the same.

 he loves the van. it is his real home. sometimes when i don't know where he is, i will find him sitting next to it, just waiting.

Mutt is so patient, so zen. he asks for so little, and gives everything. i posted once before about him, just waiting:


http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com/2009/02/waiting-for-mike.html


and here:


http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com/2009/02/waiting-for-brakes_27.html

and for those who missed it, here is how i lucked into the best dog in the whole wide world:


http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com/2008/03/snownose.html

vandwelling, heat and dogs

http://thereluctantpaladin.blogspot.com/2010/06/summer-heat-danger.html

i just saw this on a blog i read when i actually get around to reading blogs. it is a reminder of the challenges of living in a van with a pet and keeping them safe. the temps inside the vehicle were a sobering reminder of what happens inside a vehicle in the sun, and how quickly it can happen.

one advantage of vandwelling is that i can follow seasons and climate according to our comfort and safety. i absolutely hate the heat, so avoid it if at all possible. if i can't relocate to a cooler region, then gaining elevation is an option, and will be experimenting with that in the future, after i relocate to the southwest.

even here in the northeast in the summer, i do most of my shopping at night, thanks to walmart and other 24 hour businesses. if i do have to go somewhere in the daytime i leave the engine running using my spare key, and leave the air on. i still keep my business short, because i worry about an AC malfunction or the engine stalling (never has, but there's always a first time)  i set a timer on my phone to beep me after 10 minutes, in case i lose track of the time, and i wear a neck lanyard with info and photos about my vehicle and my dog, so if i should become incapacitated, someone will know to get to Mutt. it also contains vet and emergency contacts who are instructed on how to recover Mutt and get him home safely.

this issue has had a lot to do with the types of things i do on the road. i don't go anywhere dogs aren't welcome, which would be most tourist attractions, some national parks or campgrounds, theaters and malls, restaurants...that sort of stuff.  but that's cool, because none of that holds a candle to the pleasure i get from hanging out with Mutt. he is just the best thing that happened to me since my kids, and dogs lives are too freakin' short. i don't want to miss a minute :-)

Ahoy maties!

We are on the PA/Ohio border....almost at the farm, where we will stay a couple months, then out to the sierras for a bit, then down to taos. Am not going to turn on the phone or 'net at the farmhouse, so will have to see how my connection through my cellphone will work.

It has been quite the trip, and the desert is firmly entrenched in my heart....it remains to be seen if I can pass muster as a true desert rat. We'll see!

An announcement from mutt

She's testing out the NEW phone yet again, and I am just testy. There has been a flurry of activity, mostly centered around loading the rondyvan. I smell a roadtrip, so stalk up on those biskies, cause homer here I come!

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

go play outside

i've been busy. not being able to do much on the computer, and not being able to read much has been good for me actually. i have to go out and play to keep myself out of trouble :-)

i like playing in my boat. i just visited a place i really like, and got to visit lewis and clark cove, which was overrun with fisherman the last time i was there. i don't know if it is really called that, but Ann and Lexi say it is. but i am skeptical, because they also tell me that the other end of this lake is called "deepest darkest africa", which makes me think they are full of it.

i also like to hang out with Mutt. he likes to hang out with me, too, unless i am in the mood to make him wear silly things like hats and babushkas. then he just tolerates me. if i put something on him and say "leave it!" he usually does. after i took this picture he was possesed with the urgent need to snuggle up against sarah's leg, therefore dislodging my REI river cap from his head. how would you describe the look on his face????

i went picking strawberries with cathy and marge. that is marge below, with strawberries. i think she is saying "don't you DARE" when i took her picture here. but she did give reluctant permission for me to put it on my blog. she's a good sport. especially on the night that a bunch of us were helping GJ make hay. marge and cathy and i were tossing bales on the wagon while marge's daughter drove the truck. except jenna drove pell mell down the field while Marge (her mom) was still attached to the bale she had just tossed on the wagon. GJ seemed to think it took longer to make hay with us "helping", but i think he never had as much fun making hay without us.

















this is a picture of some boats taken at an outfitters down near john and rosie and bobby nomads' place. one of my favorite places to paddle is on secret creek here. the outfitter is called Shank's Mare, and i mention it because i stole their logo for my blogpost title. if you click on the title, it will take you to their website. their logo has become my mantra. "go play outside"


below is my screen saver. a reminder of where i oughta be if i am idle more than a few minutes :-)

Porcupine misadventures

a couple weeks ago mutt came to the door with a face-full of quills. i was astounded. this is the dog that is afraid of birds and rabbits up close....i can't imagine what possessed him to bite a porcupine. i spent several hours pulling the big quills out of his face, only to discover when i could finally open his mouth that it was full of tiny and broken off quills. bazillions of 'em. so off to the animal emergency hospital we go....he never EVER needs medical attention when his vet is open....to have them taken out under anesthesia.

an hour and several hundred dollars later they delivered him back to me with a bandage where his IV had been, and prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medication. they told me that 2 quills remained, and would have to work themselves out. i was a little annoyed that for all that money, they coudn't get them all.

i am even more annoyed 2 weeks later when i have pulled about 18 of them out of different parts of his nose and face, even near his eye, as they work forward from the inside out. he has been pawing at his face today, so i'm not sure we're down with them yet.

the pics above are him pre hospital, and immediately post-op with his little bandage on his leg. what i didn't get a picture of was when he lifted his leg to pee, and toppled over like a drunken sailor. i had to laugh, rotten mother that i am!

"my barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon" masahide

http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com/

Taylor Reed

a few weeks ago, i got an email from someone through vandwellers asking me permission to do a painting, from a photo i had on my blog, of mutt beneath the golden gate bridge. i said sure, and was touched that not only had he liked the photo (or my sweet dog!) well enough to paint it, but that he had asked permission first. i didn't know how good of an artist he was, but i knew he was a class-act person!

well, now i also know he is a first-rate artist, and after several emails back and forth, count him as a friend as well. taylor, you rock, my friend, and i am so honored you chose mutt's photo!

these are some photos of the work in progress. at one point, he stopped working to go on a camping trip. he emailed me to let me know there would be a delay in the completion, but i say no camping trip is ever a delay :-)

this is taylor. he's from brazil, and he's awesome. if i knew where brazil was, i'd have to go there and have him paint the rondyvan. i have a feeling this won't be the last we hear about this guy. when he's famous, i can say i knew him first :-)

thank-you, taylor!

addendum: i stand corrected. taylor is from bolivia, and vacationed in brazil :-)
http://twokniveskatie.blogspot.com/

Waiting for brakes

on monday one of the extended family had an accident, and I drove them to san diego to see a specialist. On that trip I discovered I needed a brake job.

Here is mutt at the Pep Boys in El Centro.....you guessed it.....waiting.

Mutt needs a day off from the sometimes stressful job of being a loyal companion, and is going to the slabs for a day of being a carefree dog with his buddy Homer, and maybe trade some sniffing with Squirrel, Bus Dingo, and Sheriff Victoria.

Waiting for mike

I haven't blogged for awhile. We are all in Brawley, Ca, south of slab city where we have been camping in the desert. I met up with mike and heidi (of "love is blind") and several other vandwellers at the slabs and will have several posts about slab city and our adventures.

last friday, though, sweet mike was admitted to the hospital in brawley with a serious case of pneumonia. We very nearly lost him, and he is still in ICU as of this morning. We are hoping for a transfer to a regular room on a med-surg floor in the near future.

Needless to say, it has been a stressful week.there has been fear, and a lot of tears. But there has also been a lot of laughter and courage, and the reminder that love thrives, even in the darkest places.

sometimes in our human dramas, we can forget our silent companions, who wait faithfully in the wings......a lesson in acceptance and living in the moment. Mutt understands the least of where we are and why we are here, but accepts implicitly that we are not waiting for life to begin again, after this is over.......but that this is our life, our moment here and now.....the waiting.

and if biscuits and fetch and walks are fewer and farther between he is absolutely okay with that because life is what it is, regardless of what it gives you, and that alone is enough.

san antonio

i made it to san antonio on the 24th of january, and spent a week visiting my friend ron. it was during this week that mutt had his petsmart adventure, which would make for a lousy association with the city. fortunately, mutt adores ron, so it will not bother him to go back at all. ron has the trailer you see above in a really nice trailer park outside of san antonio. lots of driveway space for the rondyvan, as you can see from the picture above. i was plugged into electric, and had use of his wifi. the shower house/ laundry was right across the street, so it was a really nice break from the road and the truckstops. not to mention all the time ron and i spent yakking and staring at our respective computer screens.....
we did get out on some adventures. i got to see the alamo.......if not the movie, this time :-)
ron took me to see the yarn shops of san antonio, and i was dizzy to see all the yarn and fiber....
and issue #1 of the first ever knitting comic book, Handknit heroes! what a hoot! sweet mike will love it! he can now have his comics, and knit it, too!

one significant little adventure we had on this sightseeing roadtrip was that as we were tootling down the interstate at about 65 mph, the doors to ron's wheelchair lift in his sportsmobile flew open! ron was able to get to the side of the road safely, where we determined that mutt had jumped up on the sofa bed in the back of the van, smack dab on the remote that activates the lift! poor mutt, we had just gotten him to the point of not being afraid of the lift, and actually riding on it. how do you explain remotes to a dog? he remains suspicious to this day....
finally, on friday, my first texas barbeque. we caravanned to lanno, texas where ron spoiled me with the best barbeque in texas. i could believe it.
all sorts of brisket and ribs and super chops and sausage. they were out of goat when we were there. oh, darn, we'll have to go back :-)
the pits are amazing, and the smell is heavenly.
i got to watch the guys carrying hot coals with the shovels. i had a pile of ribs, and ron shared his hunk of beef with me. we didn't bother with sides or salads. that is a waste of gastronomic space. we took the leftovers with us. mutt was pleased. i don't think i ate again until 24 hrs. later.....

from lanno, ron returned to san antonio, while i continued on to dallas, in search of stevie ray.....

mutt's petsmart adventure

i am not the only one who has adventures on the road. mutt has adventures, also, and not just by default of being with me.

since we hit the warmer weather of the south, he has been blowing coat all over the inside of the van. i hate dog hair when it isn't attached to a dog, or part of a sock, so within 24 hours of hitting texas, i was looking to get our boy groomed..... as in shaved. i tried to find a small grooming place, hoping to get a cheaper deal than petsmart, but it was monday and all the non-chain shops were closed. when i called petsmart, they could take him in a half-hour, so off we went, led to our destination by ron.

now, mutt loves petsmart, when it doesn't involve the groomer, so he was very crestfallen to see that we were headed for the chamber of grooming horrors. little did we know.....

i gave the usual instructions and contact info to the staff, provided them with his rabies and vaccination records, and left to go do some food shopping and to go to a car wash to vacuum the van. they said he would be ready in about 3 hours, at approximately 3:30.

around 3 o'clock, i received a call from petsmart, informing me that there had been a power failure partway through the grooming process. they hoped to have power back up soon, and they would finish mutt's shave, and call me. that's what is cool about living in your van, you are always home and can find stuff to do, even if it's just taking a nap.

just before 5 o'clock i drove to petsmart because i was starting to worry. my cell phone rang immediately after i parked out front (the orange kayak being a dead giveaway) and the groomer informed me that the power had not come back on yet, and they had made arrangements for mutt's grooming to be completed at another petsmart 7 miles north. they drew me a map, and brought out my dog. this is what he looked like.........

oi, eh? this was taken in the parking lot outside of the first petsmart.
but mutt is oblivious to the fact that he looks hideous. i mean, look at that smile! all he knows is that he's survived another trip to the groomers and won't have to go back for many months.....but little does he know......

the look on his face a few minutes later when i led him in, yet again, to another petsmart, to be led by another groomer to yet another chamber of grooming horrors...... he looked back at me with a look of such betrayal......i didn't know whether to laugh or cry. so i giggled. which clinched in the minds of all the bystanders that the woman with the weird dog was..... well, weird. remember, they have no idea about the aborted grooming due to the power failure. they probably assumed that my dog looked like that on purpose. it never occurred to me to explain.

two hours later, after a record 7 awful hours, mutt was brought to me again. they gave me a discount and a free leash, and offered mutt a free pigs ear, but he wanted to go home, and didn't stay to collect. he looked naked, but normal, and nary a loose hair fell from his coat.

mission accomplished? nah. twenty-four hours later, san antonio experienced an unusual cold snap, and mutt and i both were freezing. i was able to layer on the fleece and the longjohns, but mutt was quick to remind me with accusing looks that he USED to have a warm coat.
this is mutt naked. i can't tell if that is a look of abject suffering or he's blinded by the flash.
but just in case, i stuffed him in my sleeping bag. snug as a bug now! tomorrow, after some jerky and the temperatures climb, i think i will be forgiven.......

heading for warm

well, the first week of the trip has passed in a flash. i was determined to get to warm as quickly as possible, but did take some time to meet up with a few vandwellers on the way. i got to meet judith in north carolina, and she is sweeter and gentler in person than she is online. her place is tucked into a quiet piece of woods, and mutt was delighted with a little off-leash time there. i got to see bernie and mar again....i had met them at the mini vandweller convention in early november at john nomads place during my first kayaking adventure with michael. while at judith's we spent time touring and comparing our different rigs.....it is always such a learning experience and very inspirational to see how everybody is set up. judith seemed to like the astro rondyvan for it's compactness and good gas mileage. it sure was cluttered at the time from my frenzied pack job the day before.....

the next day i met possum in south carolina for breakfast at perkins. it is amazing how comfortable i feel with people i have never met in person before, having only established on-line friendships, but possum and i were yakking like the old friends that we were, chowing down and surfing the fastest wifi i had ever seen. it was so good to finally meet up, possum!

now the trip gets a little fuzzy here. i drove straight through the day and evening. it turned out that by altering my trip south to I-10, i would be able to meet up with phoenix near baton rouge. i know i passed through atlanta that night.....the skyline of the city was breathtaking. what i can't remember is if i made baton rouge that night, or if i had a stop in between. either way, i finally met up with phoenix at the tiger truck stop, where i had my first cajun food. it was good, except the part where he told me that the crayfish etoufe had frogs in it! ewwww. our visit was, as always, too short!
something about gas pumps makes people spit out their gum. look at this gum universe. i never see that anywhere else. this truck stop is called the tiger truck stop for a reason. there is a tiger there. things in cages really grieve me, and i had to be convinced by phoenix not to set the tiger free. the next morning, i was excited to see a sign that said "save the tiger" but when i got closer
it was nothing about saving the tiger, it was about saving the profits they made by having an exotic animal in their truck stop :-(
tony has never known anything but captivity in a tiny cage. he has no tiger family, no companions, no purpose. while i was there, he simply paced, around and around, in an endless circle to nowhere. it was a stark reminder of the gorilla in "ishmael" who banged his head slowly and endlessly on the bars of the cage, not knowing what freedom was, but instinctively knowing there was something else beyond this existence.....
i hate cages of any sort, but a zoo would be a blessing for tony, with more room to move and other animals around. i hope they lose their bid to keep the tiger in grosse tete.
okay, on to happier stuff. i was having a hard time keeping the kayak from shifting to the right and off the siderail of the roof rack. a little duct tape, and a hammer, and that baby hasn't moved in over 2,000 miles :-)
the "islands" in truck stops are mutt's oasis. we always park with the sliding door next to one, so we can look out at something besides asphalt. this one was in mississippi, and one of the prettier ones i've seen.
and finally, texas! in a truckstop outside of houston, i traded out my mukluks for my teva sandals! one of my first "vandweller" dreams actually involved a horse and saddlebags, where i would roam the west with what i could pack on the back of my horse. of course, i was in grade school, and mad to meet johnny yuma, but the same essential theme repeated itself throughout my life, trading the horse for a bicycle and panniers, or a stick and a bandanna, a backpack, or a van....it took a few decades, but i'm living my dream, and it makes every day kinda breathtaking.....

stay tuned, because on my way to austin, i stumble across my first cowboy and the coolest house of worship i have ever seen......

mendocino and points north

mutt at camp outside crescent city ca.
the rondyvan in the redwoods
camp in the mountains of southern oregon. what a treat to spread out and have running water and a hot meal. i am going to try to do this more often.
i emptied out the van and gave it a good scrubbing. note the lazy dog napping on the furthest right side of the photo. he was off-leash for two days and never left camp.
camped in the redwood forest for 2 nights. this was my view out the van window from the cot when i woke up one morning.......first thing you see.......
mutt's new friend at the fort bragg dog park.the funny part of the shot i missed was when mutt looked upwards to try to make eye contact. then he just did the sniffing thing.
mutt on the pomo bluffs. i love it there, and do alot of knitting there.
mutt running from a wave at noyo beach in fort bragg.
mutt hiding from the waves at pt. reyes national seashore. he has since actually let a wave touch him.
sunset on the trinidad bay.
couldn't decide which i liked best, so you got both. i tend to travel rather impulsively. trinidad is where i landed one evening after pushing up the coast til it "felt right". ended up sleeping at a casino parking lot. i miss the more vandweller friendly mendocino coast.
elk....... bruce and keith and mike z......eat your hearts out!
this past week we have been moving north up the california coast headed towards the 10kways gathering in southern oregon. the redwood forests are just amazing. here is mutt inside a tree.
my dear sweet jonna wanted to see redwoods. well, here ya go sweety!
a path through the forest. it is so silent and peaceful here. didn't hike far because dogs aren't allowed on the trail.
this is mutt with his new hairdo on the humbolt co. coast. his whole life is about sniffing.
i love this sign. haven't seen any horses anywhere in the city limits. but on my next trip out here i am doing the horseback thing on the beach north of fort bragg. way up on the list!