Woof, woof!
Our new calendars have gone to press! Once again PrintingCenterUSA will be producing our high quality full-color calendars. Check their site out at:
http://www.printingcenterusa.com/printing/calendar-printing
Here are the front and back covers of our calendars and this is the first year for mine so I will have mine first and my human’s second, woof!
Woof, I will show the insides soon!
Woof, woof, what fun we had on our last two days of our trip! We drove for a long time. It was so hot my human said we were going to head for the mountains in a state I have been in some, Virginia. We drove from a place call Binghamton, I wonder if they have ham there and what kind ham is Bing? Woof, maybe Bing is the name of the man that has the ham and there is a ton of it? Woof, I think I may be onto something. Well we drove all the way from Bings place to a place in Virginia called Shiny Doe National Park. I like going to national parks even though at most of those I am only allowed in certain places.
Ruff, one bad thing along the way was we got stuck on the big road that has so many cars and big trucks zooming by, but they were not zooming at all for a long, long time that afternoon. All we could see were stopped cars ahead and behind us. On the other side there was not any cars, the road was empty. Woof, I have not ever seen anything like it. Cars with flashing lights and sirens passed by us on the part of the road you are not supposed to drive on. Finally we started moving again, but we got to our campsite later than we wanted. Instead of afternoon, we got there in the evening but before the sun went down.
Woof, I can almost see why the park is called Shiny Doe because we saw plenty of does all around our campground and all over the place. There were big deer and baby deer eating all that good tasting green grass there. I just wonder when they are shiny? They did not look very shiny to me! We were camped at a place called Big Meadows and they were big. Not as big at that Gray Sun Park in Virginia, but it was big, woof! We got there in time to take some sunset photos, well Matt did. I am having some problems with my harness my human is going to have to work on so I only took videos on this trip. Though Matt does have some tricks where he pulls out a frame of the video to make a photograph, ruff!
On our last day we went to a place called Dismal Falls. Woof, I do not know why it was dismal, it was fun and I got to swim and swim and swim! I was fun and I think it should be called Fun Falls because there is a big swimming pool right below it!
Well we are back home now so my human needs to work on my videos, look for them soon, woof! He says we have some plans for our next trip, but I am not telling yet. I really enjoyed this trip and look forward to sharing photos and videos of it, woof, woof!
Matt here again to explain a couple of the place names:
– Shiny Doe Park is Shenandoah National Park
– Grey Sun Park is Grayson Highlands State Park
and of course the Scooty is a reference to Nova Scotia
Woof! We made it back to the USA after our trip to that big country above us. We had fun in that Scooty place, we drove all over and I got to hike and swim at many different places. We saw places I could not swim, where the water was not clear at all. The water was red just like the earth is at home, that was strange. My human said that was because this thing called tide came in and out so fast it stirred things up. We saw one place where the rivers ran backwards sometimes, woof that was really strange. Now we are in places that look more like our mountains. The water is clear, but right now there is not much water in the streams. Matt said it is because there has not been much rain.
We drove a lot when we left Canada (that is what my human called the place where Scooty is.) We drove through that Maine place because it was so busy and hot. Then we came to a state called New Hamster. It was much busier with humans, cars, and dogs than the Nova Scooty place was. When we got to the New Hamster Matt was getting a little discouraged but he said we were going to make the best of it so we stopped and he took pictures even when it was crowded. Then we started looking for a campground to spend the night and it looked like we were going to be out of luck, ruff. Then at one of the campgrounds we stopped and a nice human told Matt there was a place with plenty of places to camp. We drove through some busy towns along the way, but the all of a sudden it was like everyone left. Well not everyone, but it was more like normal when we go camping, woof! We found a nice place with big tall trees surrounded by big tall mountains. There were trails and clear streams and just a few humans and dogs, just enough to make it nice. One thing that I am puzzled about is where are all the hamsters? Is not this place called New Hamster? Are they new? I saw plenty of chipmunks, maybe they are mistaken and calling them hamsters, woof!
Then we set up our campsite and ate dinner. Then my human started a fire and put my pad next to it along with his chair. It was so nice and comfy. I just love camping; I listen to the voices of the other humans and dogs, woof, woof. Those sounds are almost mystical (I bet you did not think I knew that word or what it means.) Everything sounds muted and pleasant. Then the owls started hooting like they did at the house we used to live in. I like hearing them. One was hooting on one side of the campground, then another answering on the other side of the campground.
Well we are off again and not sure where the road will lead us. We will find out when we get there, woof!
Matt here again to interpret some of Jackson’s place names:
Of course the Scooty place is Nova Scotia and New Hamster is New Hampshire!
Woof, woof! What a great time we have had so far. We have been in Canada four days now and have been to so many places. After camping near the place where the water runs backwards and has big whirlpools we finally made it to the Scooty place. My human calls it Nova Scotia, I think that sounds funny and guess what? We have been traveling by Funny Bay and it is funny! The water gets real high and real low. My human would not let me swim there because he said a thing called tide (is that not a detergent?) comes in and out so fast I would be taken away by it. I would not like to lose my human so I decided he was right so I just looked at the water. It was not clear most of the time. It was so red that even I could see the color! Woof! We were at Funny Bay for two days camping by the water, it was very pretty there. We went by a lighthouse at a place called burnt coat. I kept looking for that coat to see if it was burnt, ruff, but I did not see one!
Then it started raining so we went to a big city, but it was so busy and crowded we left there and found a neat place close to a famous lighthouse named Peggy Cove. She must have been special to have a cove and a lighthouse named after her., ruff. Woof, woof, I did get an ice cream cone when we were driving there that day and it was good, they even put a doggy treat on top!
It cleared off that night and we got up early the next morning so my human and I could take pictures. He said there would be a lot of people there and the best time would be very early in the morning. Besides, having been an art director for my human I know morning light makes good photographs. We spent a lot of time photographing the lighthouse, the village where the humans live there, and along the rocky coast. It was very pretty. After taking the photos we packed up and went to a place called Picktoo or something like that. I really liked the campsite we got in the park near the Picky place it is called Cariboo something, boo who? After we set up camp we went into town to see the boats and village. I liked it; there were friendly people and not at all busy like that big Halley city. Now we are at some place that has a cape, I have been busy looking for and when I find it, I will let you know.
Woof, that is all for now, I think Matt has something to say so here he is!
Matt here I think need to decode a few names here for everyone. Jackson has a hard enough time with our local place names, but when we headed north he just doesn’t quite understand them. Here are a few interpretations:
Funny Bay – Bay of Fundy
Picktoo – Pictou
Halley City – Halifax
Burnt coat – Burntcoat Head lighthouse
Cariboo – Caribou Provincial Park
Woof, woof, what a trip we have had so far. My human and I have been in the truck for days it seems like. Well I guess it has been days, we have gone through many states and a big rain storm. The first night we did not go real far and stayed at a place names after otters, you know those animals that swim a lot? I like them; they swim better than I do. Well Matt said we stayed at Peaks of Otter Campground, it is great those otters have some mountains; I think that is neat, ruff! The next day is when we ran into the big bad storms.
I know he was worried about the storm because we could not see the road when he was driving and he had to pull over to the side while the big trucks went past us and splashed more water on us. He finally gave up and went to one of those big places where humans (and dogs) stay. I was not like the one we stayed in when it snowed so bad on our last trip, everything was inside. We had only camped one night before the big storms. The next day we drove and drove and drove a long time. I got bored with all that and was glad when we finally stopped to find a campsite. We almost did not get to the campground in time but the nice female human let us in. I liked that place were weird sounding birds and very interesting smells. As usual it has a strange sounding name Bomoseen, I wonder who Bomo was and was it named that because he was seen there? Woof, I just do not know!
The next day Matt said we were going to slow down and look at some of the sights and we did. I wish we had before, I do not know why he was in such a hurry. He said we were in a state called Vermont. We stopped at a lot of places. I even got to swim at a river that has a bridge with a roof. Can you imagine that? A roof over a bridge outside, I wonder why it has one? Does it rain harder over the river? I do not know why, I am going to have to think about that. Then we took a hike to a big valley called a gorge, at least that is what my human said it was. Now the gorge has an even stranger name Quechee (I had to get Matt to spell that for me.) I did get to swim there also. I like the paces when have been visiting because Matt will let me get in the water. He said it was much cleaner that the water where we live. I believe him. You can actually see the bottom of the rivers and lakes here. It is not like that at home.
Well I am tired and ready to take a nap while my human fixes his dinner. I have already eaten. Matt is always nice to feed me first. I will write another blog post as soon as I can, woof!
Oh before I go, I also celebrated my 8th birthday on August 16! WOOF! I had a good one!
Woof, woof a lot has happened since my last entry. I have moved to a new place, I miss my old window, I saw a lot going on with the humans, but now out of my new window I see all kinds of birds, ones that buzz like bees, big ones that swoop down at the other birds and critters, and black ones that are loud. I see a lot of rabbits I go over to play with them, but they usually run off so I go back to play with my human. I have him trained pretty well. I still need to work on him some; he could do a little better. Our move took a long time because we downsized, well that is what Matt said. He said we had too much to take care of and keep up with. Now we are living with Frodo, Matt is renting a room from his human.
My new window.
We have been busy, well my human has, I have been watching. Since we came back from our last big adventure he has been busy moving us to the new place, but that is over and now we are leaving today for another big adventure. I know we are going far away again. Matt said it would be different than our last trip. There will be a lot of trees and water this time! Woof, I like that, maybe I will get to go swimming this time, woof! We are going to a different country, oh this makes my head hurt sometimes, my human had to explain countries to me. On our last trip he had to explain what a state was because we went to so many. He said now I am going to be an international dog, whatever that is!
Well this time we are going to a place call Canada, did I spell that right? That name seems pretty easy. The place in Canada he said we were going is call Nova Scootia I think, do you scoot there, I wonder? Woof, well we will find out, we are leaving this afternoon and I am packed and ready. Woof, I wonder if Matt will ever finish packing. Humans always take so long to pack. It just takes the patience of a dog just to watch…
A note from Matt:
Sometimes Jackson has problems with place names; he gets a little confused due to his excitement when on a trek. We were camping at Grayson Highlands State Park in southwest Virginia.
Woof, woof, we just got back from a short camping trip to one of my human’s favorite places. He said it was called Gray Sun Hi Hound or Mr. Rogers. Funny names I know but I like to go there it is a great place. Each time we go we get to visit with those big critters Matt, my human, calls ponies. They look and smell different than dogs and they eat grass all the time. If fact they eat so much they usually do not even pay much attention to you, unless you get behind them. Now my human gets upset with me when I eat grass but he did not say a word to those ponies. He explained to me that was about the only thing they eat. Woof, he did say the eat apples and some other things, but the apples were about the only good thing I heard. They do not know what they are missing!
We camped at the park campground for two nights. During our stay I made some videos and photographs of the campground and a trail. Woof, I even got to go swimming! We got up early our first morning, well not really early for us, and met our friend Bonita (She is a human) so she and Matt could do some sunrise photographs. We hiked up a big hill, but it took us awhile. Humans are so slow; I had to keep checking on them to see if they were still coming. We finally got up that hill and as they were fussing over their cameras I saw the ponies and baby ponies long before they did. I was a bit upset Matt did not bring my camera. He promised he would do better next time.
Back at our campground Matt took a four hour nap, he said he had been working hard and decided just to rest. I did not mind that at all and slept with him. We stayed at the campground the rest of the day and I played in the fields. Some humans camping close by brought Matt a nice warm dinner and we enjoyed a fire before some thunderstorms made us get in the truck for the night.
The next morning we were almost packed and ready to go so we had some breakfast and went on a short hike to a creek. I really liked that hike because I went swimming and the water was nice and cold. Thinking about it the whole time we were there it was nice, Matt wore long sleeve shirts and of course I have my coat on all the time! Woof, woof, some dog humor there. I was sad we left so soon, I really like it there, Matt said we would be back soon. I hope so, woof!
Then we drove home and it was hot again, ruff!
Be sure to check my video page to see the video of the campground and soon I will have my video of the hike posted.
For those that have just joined us on Jackson’s blog you may notice my name on here a bit. When his Facebook fans donated money for a GoPro camera I bought his domain name and promised him a website. Well he got a little impatient and just took over mine so his domain just points to this site.
– Matt
Woof! I thought I was in the truck traveling with my human where the land looks totally different. It was wonderful, all the strange and different smells were back and the wind from the window was blowing my ears back. The next think I knew my human was telling me I was dreaming. I thought I was back walking and running in that place where there were not many trees. My human and I were hiking on trails all over the place. I had my boots on because of those sticky plants, I am so glad Matt got those for me. I was visiting with other dogs and humans, it was fun. There were big rivers, but this time they were gentle and I went swimming, woof! In my dream I did not have to wait in the truck when my human went on some hikes, I got to go on every hike everywhere.
That was a wonderful dream about a strange and different place we just visited. Most of the places we went to did not have any trees, though there were a few around some places. I did get to go on a lot of hikes but Matt told me I was not allowed to go on some he wanted to go on. He did make sure I got to go on plenty; I just wish I could have gone on all of them. Ruff I wonder who I can complain to about that? We lived in the truck a lot so we were outdoors more than usual though we did stay in places Matt called hotels. We even stayed at a big one and I got in a room that moved and took you places!
Recently we have been on a few hikes in some of my favorite places, a mountain called Morrow and a forest with small mountains called Uwharrie. YouWharriee, Ruff, you try to say that! It is tough for a dog to say, how do you humans get that sound out? My human says we have a big trip planned sometime in a few months. I forget how long a month is, it seems a long ways off. I know he will keep reminding me, he did last time!
Ruff, I am getting sleepy again. Maybe I will dream about the desert place again. I hope so, I really liked it there! Well that is all I have to say for this evening. I had my supper and my bed is calling me to hike on another trail, woof!
For those that have just joined us on Jackson’s blog (he took over my blog here months ago) I am adding this note. We are back from a month-long road trip visiting the desert canyons in the American west. I enjoy traveling, but I always regret my best buddy can’t go on a lot of my adventures. This was one of two we have planned this year centered around Jackson joining in on the grand adventure. Jackson is going to be doing all of the blog posts. We will be posting our photographs on our Facebook pages (and a few here also!)
– Matt
Woof, woof, I meant the title to be a pun, no it is not my last leg! We got back a week ago my human tells me, I have a hard time figuring out how long a week is and I just rely on my human keeping track of non-important stuff like that. I guess it is time for my account of the last part of our trip. Ruff, of course I will write more about what we did, but Matt told me to do a chronological account when I started this. Woof, I had to say stop right there and tell me what “chronolococal” was. That is a new word for me and I didn’t understand. He told me it meant to write the story in the order it happened, or that is what I understood from his explanation.
Ruff, back to my story. In Nebraska we watched some birds he called Sandhill cranes, there were so many I could not even think about trying to count them. Later that morning my human met some friends. After seeing my friends Bob and Paulette Matt said we needed to go because the weather was going to get colder and we might as well start the trip home. We only drove four hours that day so we did not get far. I think Matt said we were in Springsomething Missouri. The next day we were supposed to get up early and leave because my human said we were going to drive for a long time. Well that did not happen, when that thing my human calls a phone (you know that thing you humans look at and talk to all the time) made and irritating sound when it was still dark, he turned it off. We left later then we were supposed to and then drove, and drove, and drove and kept on driving. I think we drove through three states. We went over big rivers and saw mountains again late that evening. Finally we drove up to a house made of logs where a cat lives and I got to meet my Facebook friend Aunt Marlene, my human said we were in southeastern Tennessee. She was real nice to me and gave me fried chicken (without bones) and other good treats. Hobo, the cat, was not too happy with me at first, but he got better before I left.
After the long drive we stayed at Aunt Marlene’s place. It was in a quiet valley on a farm near a river called Ocoee. Once again I did not get to swim, ruff! It is a lot smaller than the other rivers, but my human said it was a dangerous one because it flowed so fast. After resting (and getting treats) for a day we got back in the truck after my human packed it back up. We made one more long drive, I got excited because it started smelling like places I knew and had been before. Then I started smelling places close to home and finally we got home in the afternoon so we had time to unpack. Well my human had time to unpack, I watched, woof!
Now that I have I finished my account of our trip I am still going to have more to say about what we did. I tried to let you know what we were doing as we did it. Maybe that is what that “choro” word means, ruff! I still have photographs and videos we have not looked at or edited, so I haven’t had the last word yet, ruff!
For those that have just joined us on Jackson’s blog I am adding this note. We are on our way back from a month-long road trip visiting the desert canyons in the American west. I enjoy traveling, but I always regret my best buddy can’t go on a lot of my adventures. This is one of two we have planned this year centered around Jackson joining in on the grand adventure. Jackson is going to be doing all of the blog posts. We will be posting our photographs on our Facebook pages (and a few here also!)
– Matt
Woof! My human changed his mind and we went one more in Colorado. Ruff, if you remember, our Colorado part… I think that is a state. My human keeps telling me we are in a new state. Most of these things he calls states he has been in before he says. But he did say he did go to a new one on this trip. Woof, back to Colorado: My human was upset because the big snow storm messed up his plans for us. We were going to camp near some waterfalls, but that is where we tried to get away from that storm my human friend Nancy called a blizzard. That place was called Rifle Waterfall State park. When we got there it was snowing so we did not do anything there. Then we tried to beat the big snow storm, ruff, I mean blizzard, but it beat us. Then the next day driving over the high places on the road my human called passes was slow and my human was tense the whole time. I could tell he was worried and really concentrating. When we got away from the snow he kept driving, he said he did not want to worry about the road closing again.
When we found a place to stay out of the bad wind, wind like I am not used to, wind blowing all the time hard, I was glad. I could not smell things like I am used to and I didn’t like that. After resting my human said he felt we were cheated out of enjoying Colorado and the last part of out west. He said I did not get to hike much in Colorado also, so he went to a place called the Garden of the Gods. My human said we were going to backtrack some, but it would be worth it, and woof, it was! We went all over looking at the big rocks and big views. I even shot video and still photos. I liked the humans and other dogs there, it was a dog friendly place to go, woof!
Then the next morning we got up early while it was still cold. The water inside the camper had frozen. Matt packed up and started the truck up and said we were going to Nebraska. We drove and drove, late that afternoon we came to a place with a lot of big strange birds. They were flying all over the place, sometimes there were so many they looked like a dark cloud, ruff. We found a nice campground at Ft. Kearney State Park, ruff, I think that is what Matt called it. The next morning we watched the birds land a field land and fly, there were a lot of them. My human said the were Sandhill cranes and were flying to their summer homes. Ruff, can you imagine that?
Well, we will probably be in Tennessee soon, so I will try to write from there, woof, woof!
