Abbey - The Best Dog Ever

Abbey in Florida for the winter of 2007-08

On Tuesday morning, May 27th, the unthinkable happened. Abbey, our Yorkie and constant companion since 2004, passed away suddenly. She had been in excellent health, had seen her vet in April when we were in Colorado, and had no known health issues.

The previous Friday night, she had trouble sleeping. Every 15 seconds or so, she would jump up, turn a half circle, then lie down again. No yelping or whining - she was just fidgety. As she had never displayed this type of behavior before, we took her to a local vet in Newport, WA, on Saturday. After a thorough examination, he could find nothing wrong. He gave us some medication for her in case she displayed further symptoms, and we went home. We had a dinner social at the clubhouse that evening. Donna went back to the rig early, as she didn't want to leave Abbey alone. Abbey lied on her, and her breathing seemed labored. About 11:00pm, we headed off to bed, and she seemed to be feeling better.

On Sunday and Monday, Abbey was back to her old self. No breathing problems, and her activity level was normal. The three of us went for a few walks, and she even went for a bike ride with me. Monday, during the night, she became restless again. She was not fidgety like the previous Friday night, but she just couldn't seem to get comfortable.

At about 7:45am, I took her out to the living room, and closed the bedroom door, so that Donna could sleep in a bit. She seemed OK, and lied in my lap resting. Suddenly, at 8:30am, she sat up, and wanted to be put down. I set her on the floor, she walked around for a few seconds, then yelped and collapsed. Donna rushed in as I picked her up - and then she was gone.

Over the next two days, we called our vet in Colorado, and Donna carefully went over all of the symptoms and behavior that Abbey had been displaying. Doctor Kathy then consulted references, and spoke to her husband, who used to be an EMT. The breathing problems, coupled with the discomfort, and the sudden seizure are consistent with a blood clot - first in the lungs, then moving to the brain. Rare in dogs, there is no way for a vet to diagnose this with any certainty, and no treatment could be prescribed even if a clot had been diagnosed.

Abbey was destined to be with us. After our Shih-Tzu, Sasha, passed in 2004, we began looking for another dog. I was traveling a lot with work, and Donna wanted a companion to keep her company while I was away. We had decided on a Yorkie, and began looking at breeders. In Colorado, the waiting list from a breeder was at least a year out. We found a website, http://www.ytca.org/ (Yorkshire Terrier Club of America), and began looking a breeders in other states. We had acquired our first 5th wheel, and had planned a month-long vacation that would take us through many of the western states and Canada. Donna began talking to a breeder in Livermore, CA, who also took in rescues. Donna had already decided that our new dog's name would be Abbey. The breeder mentioned that she had a young female, who had been brought to her by a family with 4 kids under the age of seven. She had renamed her Abbey. Donna knew at that instant that this was to be our dog. A few weeks later we visited the breeder, and saw this 11 month old, 3-1/2 pound puppy, running happily around in the breeders back yard. It was instant love!

Is that Tillamook cheese you're cutting?

Cuddling with Mom in Atlanta

Cuddling with me in Colorado

Donna often referred to Abbey as a person in a dog-suit. Although she couldn't talk, she could communicate to us very clearly what she wanted. Abbey was a cuddler - and a lap dog (unless it was hot!). She was also very social, and got along well with all people, all dogs, and even some cats. If you met her you knew - she had a personality that was better than many people! Abbey just couldn't figure out squirrels - those were on her list of things to bark at. She loved walks and bike rides with me.

Getting ready for a bike ride

It has been very difficult for us to accept Abbey's passing. She would have been 5 years old on August 1, and Yorkies typically live until around 15 years. She was with us before we made the decision to full-time RV, and was a big part of the reason we committed to this lifestyle. We celebrate her life every day, and relive the joy she brought to us. Rest well, our Abbey.

Service with a Smile

We arrived at Country Coach in Junction City, quickly claiming spot #3 in their RV park (OK, it's a parking lot with hookups). Typically they are at a premium, but I had called ahead, and they reserved me a spot. We had forgotten how close they are to the local RR tracks. Because of the congested nature of the city, and the proximity of the tracks to the center of town, the engineers will blow their horns all the way through town. And it seems most of the trains travel through from late afternoon to about 7:00 am the next morning!

Country Coach worked through our list, leaving one big ticket item, the cracked windshield, until the second week. They sent us down to A-1 Glass in Eugene for the replacement. When the installers put the new glass in, they shook their heads and said there was a problem - the opening was not square. That, in turn, caused the glass to hit in 2 spots, which is why the glass got the stress cracks. We spent the night at A-1 (they had hookups), then A-1 drove the rig back to Country Coach with the new windshield temporarily glued in. After several meetings, CC discovered that there was a cross member in the front cap, which is fiberglass, that was about 1-1/2" too long. It protruded to the side of the end cap, pushing the whole assembly out of square. A hacksaw took care of it, and the cap squared up. Hopefully that is the end of that problem! Three windshields in 7 months is about 2 too many! All of our major items were resolved, including the windshield, the AquaHot electric heating element, awning problems, and the transfer switch buzzing. The transfer switch had been having problems for some time, causing the inverter to trip, or just buzzing so loudly that it was terribly annoying.

We spent 2 weeks at Country Coach, and most of our list was resolved. We have our 1 year appointment already set up for September, so whatever is left will be resolved at that time. During our stay, we met a lot of nice CC owners. Some we will see again at the Homecoming Rally in August, some hopefully on the road somewhere! Little Abbey met lots of dogs, including 2 Shih-Tzu's named Max and Jessie.

We needed to have Cummins check the settings on the engine, as it still didn't sound quite right, so on Monday, May 19, we headed over to Coburg. A tech had been lined up for us by CC, so we didn't have to wait long until work started. Of course, things happened, and the rig's computer ended up having to be completely reprogrammed. After that, we were off to Usk, WA, for the summer.

Of course, with all services now "complete", things immediately started happening again - a new list was born. The temperature gauge went wacky, reading hotter than normal. I called the tech at Cummins, who checked with Country Coach. Supposedly there is a recall on the gauges, and his updating the engine settings caused it to give erroneous data. Also, we heard audible beeping noises emanating from the dash area. Sounded like our turn indicator beeping like it was on steroids. Quite annoying, but we discovered that if we turned our heads just the right way, the sound would almost go away...

We arrived at Usk the following day, and settled in for what we thought would be a nice, quiet, relaxing summer.

Trials and Tribulations

We left Colorado, and headed through windy Wyoming. The winds typically blow west to east, so I-80 was one big headwind. After a night stop in Rawlins (no water, still freezing up at night), we ended up at another park we had visited, Village of the Trees, in Declo, ID. Due to weather earlier in the week, our 2nd night's place in Utah was not open, so two short days were combined. Our third night was to be in the Boise area, before heading over into Bend, Oregon, to see some friends.

We stopped at a Flying J to fuel up before we got to our campground. Upon trying to leave, however, the rig would not start. It would turn over, but no workee! I called tech support, and they contacted Cummins in Boise. Several hours later, a mechanic showed up, hooked up the diagnostic computer, and said: "We'll have this figured out in a few minutes, and will get you back on the road in a few hours...uh, oh...!" I hated to hear that last comment. They put the rig on a lowboy truck, and hauled us 2 miles down the road. We noticed that a large wire was dangling down from the engine area. It was a 1/0 insulated wire that goes from the alternator to the batteries. A fastener had come loose, the wire dropped to the pavement, and after the insulation wore off, shorted out the engine control module (i.e. computer). Two days later we left Boise - and found out that they had programmed the new ECM incorrectly. The engine sounded terrible, we lost 2.5mpg in fuel economy, and the Jake brake and cruise control no longer worked. Not the best situation for traveling through mountains!

Uh, get out the blocks, we're bottoming out!

I was in the cab steering!

Flying J was happy to see us get out of the way!

Country Coach told us to get to their facility ASAP, so we passed on seeing our friends in Bend. Dave and Jeanie designed, market, and sell the RV game Rally-Ho. It's a fun game that combines RV knowledge with trivial pursuit. We're sorry we missed them, but will hook up sometime in the future.

We got to Junction City on Friday, and have settled into our spot, 500 feet from the railroad tracks. Ah, we forgot about that part! We've met several couples, and are enjoying the social hours after the rigs come back in from service. Tonight we're all going out for Cinco de Mayo. One of the ladies in the campground is a quilter, and she and Donna are at the local quilt shop having a quilt day today.

Happy Anniversary Jenna and Josh!!!

Happy Birthday Cheryl!!!

What? A Power Run?

We left Paducah, KY, bright and early on Tuesday. Our plan was to be in Denver by Friday, so I had mapped out our route with stops at about 250 miles per day. We arrived at our first planned stop at 11:30am, decided it was way too early to stop, and kept going. The beauty of no reservations. We did some quick calculations, and decided that we could make Kansas City, MO, by about 2:30pm, which was more to our liking. Donna did a quick check of our membership campgrounds, and found that there was a new resort opening in the Spring of 2008. Perfect! I gave them a call, and got a reservation "up on the hill". Donna re-programmed the Garmin, and off we went. Arriving on the east side of KC, we got off and followed the GPS through some side streets, then up and down some hills, and ended up at the trashiest mobile home place we had ever seen. This was not matching up to the description in our park book. I called the park again, and after talking with the lady for a while, discovered that the phone number in the book was actually for a park in Indio, CA! We all had a good laugh, and I headed the rig as quickly as possible from where we were. No way would we stay at this place. Hey, it was only 2:30pm, plenty of time to find another place.

Donna consulted all of our campground books, and there just wasn't anything in the area ahead of us. What the heck, we thought, Topeka KS is only 80 more miles! Let's go for it! As we crossed over into Kansas City, KS, on I-70, signs began telling us that it turned into a toll road, and Mr. Garmin was telling me to get off - I have it programmed to keep us on alternate routes if tolls are involved. So we headed a little north, then paralleled I-70 all the way into Topeka. These by-ways were beautiful, peaceful, and a lot less-traveled than the interstate. We rejoined I-70 on the west side of Topeka. Ah, a campground ahead 20 more miles...

Because the hour was getting later, Donna called ahead and secured a reservation at the Mill Creek Campground in Paxico, KS. This is the kind of place we like: small, family-owned, full hookups, but quaint. We arrived at 6:30pm, the owner checked us in, and we wandered around a bit before relaxing for the evening. There was definitely some interesting stuff here! By the way, we traveled 512 miles on Tuesday...yikes.




Hillbilly RV


The ambiance of a family owned, small RV park!


Hubcap alley

Looking at our maps, we estimated that we were half-way to Denver. Traveling west through Kansas, we would hit the Mountain Time Zone, so we could definitely get back to Monument by mid-afternoon if we wanted to do another 500 miles. As we watched the weather on TV, we saw storms and tornadoes in Kansas, so we decided not to stick around. Bright and early, we headed west. When we hit the Colorado border, we both smiled. Back in our home-base state again. Arriving in Monument, we found one of the available "winter sites", and quickly got settled in. Most of the park is closed down, as they turn off the water to keep the pipes from freezing up. In a few weeks, the park will be bustling with activity, but for now, things are quiet.

Doctors, dentists, vets, etc. were in the picture for the next few days. We managed to sneak up to our favorite Italian place, Pasta Bella (www.pastabellaonline.com), in the Park Meadows area. The owners, John and Barbara, were there, and we had a nice visit while eating lunch. If you are in the area, try PB for lunch or dinner - it's on Chester, just north of County Line. We met John and Barb many years ago when we lived in Parker - they are from Lake Forest, CA, our old home town!

The next week or so, if it ever stops snowing, will involve us working at our storage location. We are going to downsize. Goodwill and the Task Force are getting lots of stuff. The major items we are posting on Craigslist. We'll get there, but it's a lot of work!! Every time we come through Colorado, this is our focus, but the longer we are on the road, the more we realize we don't need most of what we kept. We'll give you a deal on two sets of bedroom furniture...

Quilt City, USA

Welcome to Quilt City

When we left Nashville, the entire area had been getting rain - lots and lots of it. Rivers were rising, and more rain was been predicted. We hadn't really noticed anything in Nashville, but once we got north on Interstate 24, high water was evident everywhere. Flood waters abounded, evidenced by trees submerged far from river banks. Luckily, the roads were all in good shape, and we arrived in Paducah, a mere 139 miles northwest, with no problem (except for rain!). We stayed at a Passport America park, which gave us 1/2 off their normal rate. While the park was no frills, they had a group of long, pull-through sites for over-nighters. The owner was very friendly, and invited us to come to a music jam that evening. He had a very interesting stringed instrument (I can't remember what it was called), that had strings like an auto-harp, but was played using a bow. We gave him a definite "maybe", but at the allotted time, it was raining cats and dogs, with high winds and thunder, so we passed.

Riverfront Wall

I'm not sure about this panel!


This panel looked 3-D in person

Attack of the Fords!

3-panel paddle wheel panorama

My personal favorite

We got into the RV park at lunch time, so after Donna made us great salads, we headed into town to see quilt stores and other interesting places. Donna had been to Paducah a few years back with some quilting friends, so she kinda knew the layout. Paducah was preparing for their annual quilt festival, and all the shops were busy stocking for the onslaught that would begin in late April. After visiting a few shops, we ended up at the National Quilt Museum. We were inside walking around in the gift shop, when a "lady-in-charge" pointed at me and said "NO PETS allowed...ah, can I pet your dog?" I smiled and told her "NO" as Abbey and I exited. After wandering around town for a while, we had a BBQ dinner at a small cafe, followed by some very, very good, homemade pie, then headed over to view the Ohio River and the painted wall. The river was definitely experiencing high water. A local told us that it wasn't expected to crest for another few days.

The paddle boat won't be leaving today!

The waiting area for the paddle boat

This was our last big stop before beginning the trek back to Colorado. What could possibly happen - we're only 1000 miles from Denver...stay tuned.

Music City, USA

About a year ago, we went through the Nashville area, but stayed out of town at a quaint (think "trailer trash") RV park. It was a long drive into the city, so we really didn't get to do what we had hoped for. This time, we stayed in town, about 2 miles from Orpyland. When I made the reservation, they asked if we needed a site that would get satellite, so I told them we did. Of course, when we got there, our site was in the middle of some large trees, so no satellite. That's OK, we weren't here to watch TV!

We managed to get tickets to a taping of the Crook and Chase Show. We used to watch this show many years ago, and thought it wasn't around anymore. Turns out CMT dropped the show, but it was picked up by RFDTV. It was quite interesting to watch a taping, so if you get this channel, which is only on Direct or Dish satellite, watch for the show that originally aired on 3/27/08, and you might see us.

As we did in Savannah, we elected to take a guided tour of Nashville and the surrounding area. The campground recommended that we take a "Tommy Tour". Tommy is the only independent tour operator in the city. He is also a stand up comic...so we had a very fun time on this tour. If you ever are in Nashville, we highly recommend his 3 hour tour.

Martina McBride's estate

Alan Jackson's spread

Entrance to the Union Station Hotel

The hotel

Inside the Union Station

The ceiling in the lobby

The other big thing we wanted to do, was to attend the Grand Ole Opry. We went on a Saturday night, for the 6:30pm performance. The show is done in 3 segments. The middle segment is broadcast on TV. On this night, the headliners were Neil McCoy, Kelly Pixler (of American Idol fame), Vince Gill, and the Charlie Daniels Band. The show ended at 9:00pm sharp, and we were back at the RV park in about 15 minutes.

Right across from the Grand Ole Opry is the Opry Mills mall, which has a Gibson guitar store. It's the store where they make some acoustic guitars, as well as mandolins. I took my old L-50 acoustic in to show them, and they told me my investment in 1965 had appreciated by about 3000%! Whoo-hoo! I bought a restoration kit to clean up the metal parts, condition the fretboard, and polish the body. I also bought a new case, to replace the one that was falling apart. Needless to say, that guitar is looking real fine!! Now all I have to do is remember how to play it!

We came, we saw, we listened! Mission accomplished. Next stop, Paducah, KY.

Tornado-ville

Wow, while we were at the Rally, Atlanta got hit with a tornado! They showed some pictures on local TV of windows blown out of hotels in the downtown area. Estimates for repairs were in the millions. Typically on the news you see rural towns flattened, but usually not big urban areas.

Today (Thursday I think) we left our campground on the south side of Atlanta, appropriately named Atlanta South RV Park, and headed into Atlanta to tour CNN. After parking, we headed across the street, only to find that CNN was not open for tours, due to tornado damage! OK, we thought, scrap that idea and head over to Coca Cola for a tour. The Garmin was put to the test, as street after street was barricaded off. The damage in the downtown area is extensive. Unfortunately, I left the camera back in the rig, so we couldn't record what we saw. After winding our way through the maze, and getting over to the Coca Cola Experience and the Aquarium, we decided not to go in. We are definitely not city-goers anymore - the traffic and volume of people was too much for us! We decided to head slightly north and check out a quilt shop on Donna's must-see list, and ended up in Murietta. It was worth the visit, and after a quick lunch, we headed over to see the Gone with the Wind Museum. Another money pit...we passed, and headed back to camp for a little R&R.

Tomorrow (Friday?) we will have dinner with some friends from my working days. This weekend, Donna's sister and hubby fly in to visit his mother, brother and his wife. We'll all meet up on Easter for a mini-reunion.